By the third quarter of the 18th century there was hardly a country house in England that did not have at least one room decorated in a similar fashion.Īn even more expensive decoration were the wallpapers made in China that first appeared in London in the late 17th century as part of a larger trade in Chinese lacquer, porcelain and silks. A particularly magnificent example, featuring a large damask design of crimson flock on a deep pink background, was hung in the Privy Council offices, Whitehall, around 1735, and in the Queen's Drawing Room in Hampton Court Palace. Flock papers also had the added advantage of repelling moths due to turpentine used in the adhesive. Their ability to accurately imitate textiles, at a time when it was customary to cover walls with fabric, was greatly admired, as was their cheaper price. They quickly became extremely fashionable. At first, flock was applied to canvas or linen, but in 1634 Jerome Lanier, a Huguenot refugee working in London, patented a method by which the coloured wools could be applied to painted paper, and by the end of the 17th century flock wallpapers, as we know them, had appeared. The powdered wool formed a rich pile that stuck to those areas covered by the design. Flock wallpapers were made with powdered wool, a waste product of the woollen industry, which was shaken over a fabric prepared with a design printed in varnish or size (a substance similar to glue). Most flock patterns were copied from textiles and imitated the appearance of cut velvets and silk damasks. Portion of lining paper with pictorial design, artist unknown, late 17th century, England, woodblock print. The process was laborious and required considerable skill.
'Pitch' pins on the corners of the blocks helped the printer to line up the design. Each colour was printed separately along the length of the roll, which was then hung up to dry before the next colour could be applied. Polychrome patterns required the use of several blocks – one for every colour. Then the block was inked with paint and placed face down on the paper for printing. In this process, the design was engraved onto the surface of a rectangular wooden block. It was not until the mid-17th century that the single sheets were joined together to form long rolls, a development that also encouraged the production of larger repeats and the introduction of block-printing, which continued to be used in the manufacture of more expensive wallpapers until the mid-20th century. They were printed in monochrome, in black ink on small sheets of paper that measured approximately 40 cm high by 50 cm wide. Many early wallpapers featured stylised floral motifs and simple pictorial scenes copied from contemporary embroideries and other textiles.