350
NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii s. i. APR. so, 1910.
WALL -PAPERS.
(11 S. i. 268.)
ON repapering a room in Bradbourne Hall, Derbyshire, in 1882, I found, partly covered by an old oak cupboard, considerable remains of quite early eighteenth -century Wall-paper, of pale-green tint, with a flowing pattern in darker colour on it. This paper was made in squares of about twenty inches, and I was able to rescue two or more com- plete pieces. It had been printed on rather thick paper from Wood-cut blocks, and each square was nailed up with coarse iron tacks about one and a half inches apart, each tack being run through squares or washers of brown leather, so that both tack-heads and washers showed all round each square of paper. It is possible that this wall- paper was of late seventeenth -century date. Bradbourne Hall in the lower Peak is a picturesque house, almost unaltered, of the time of James I., having been then fashioned from the canonical house of the Augustins of Dunstable. It was just the place "far from the madding crowd " where curious details of domestic decorations would sur- vive. ALBERT HARTSHORNE.
An old German book states that wall- papers were introduced into England from China, where they had been in use from times immemorable ; and according to Joel MunselPs ' Chronology of Paper and Paper-Making 1 (Albany, 1870), the manu- facture of wall-paper was begun (in England?) about 1640, as a substitute for the ancient hangings of tapestry or cloth. Neither book gives any authority for the statement.
L. L. K.
In my old house, rebuilt circa 1680 by a collateral ancestor, the dining-room has a panelled dado, and the wall above was decorated with a stencilled pattern on the plaster. The same pattern was used in the hall, where we were able to save a bit large enough to show the style. A bead was placed round it, and it has been kept un- touched. In the room above the dining- room, also with a panelled dado, the plaster bears no sign of any pattern ; but some years ago, when one of the panels was taken out to be reset, we found fragments of wall- paper which had apparently slipped down from above. The largest bit, some thirty inches square, my father caused to be
framed and glazed, and hung up in the hall
near the stencilled plaster. The paper, to
which an early eighteenth or late seventeenth
century date has been assigned, is very thick,
almost like soft board, and appears to have
been printed in blocks of about two feet
square. The deep brick-red ground is
adorned with black spots between isolated
designs of an irregular ovoid shape, and
decidedly of a Chinese type. I have never
been able to get much information about
it, and, like W. P. D. S., I want to know
more about this form of mural decoration.
E. E. STREET. Winchester.
At Garrick's Villa, Hampton, is, or was quite recently, an early example of wall- paper. It was obtained from China in 1750 by Dr. Garrick, as mentioned in his published letters, and used to decorate the walls of a large room on the first floor.
A. G. V.
In 1692 the first patent for paper hang- ings was obtained by William Bayly, and it is the earliest notice I have been able to find regarding this inexpensive and con- venient form of decoration :
" William and Mary, by the grace of God, &c. ; and all to whom these presents shall come greeting.
- ' Whereas William Bayly hath by his humble
petition represented unto us, that he hath by his industry, and his great expense, found out and invented, ' A new Art or invention for printing all sorts of paper of all sorts of figures and colours whatsoever, with several engines made of brass and such other like metals, with fire, without any paint or stain, which will be useful for hanging of rooms, and such like uses,' and that the said invention hath not been hitherto known <>i- practised by any of our subjects, and hath humbly prayed us to grant him our Letters Patents for the sole use thereof. ..."
The above is taken from ' The History of Paper Hangings,' by George H. Morton (Liverpool, 1875). Also see 'An Essay on the Invention of Engraving and Printing in Chiaro-Oscuro, 1 &c., by J. B. Jackson (1754), Brit. Mus. Library, from which an extract appears in ' The Encyclopaedia Brit., J vol. xvii. p. 38d. TOM JONES.
Does my good friend W. P. D. S. know ' Old-Time Wall-Papers,' by Kate Sanbon, New York, 1905 ? It is, I believe, well-nigh the only work on the subject, and, as it con- tains a large number of reproductions of old papers, is especially interesting.
I consulted the copy in the Art Museum, South Kensington, press-mark 57a ; but unfortunately the Museum does not p(
