Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 10.djvu/117

 11 S. X. AUG. 8, 19U.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

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execution and beauty of design. In an old work entitled ' The Handmaid of the Arts,' printed for J. Nourse in 1764, there is a very minute description of the manufacture of paper-hangings, from which it is evident that the trade mi-it have flourished for a long period. In 1793 Francis F. Eckhardt took out a patent styled an

" invention and method of preparing and printing paper in different patterns, and to silver it over with fine silver leaves, so as to resemble damask lace, and various silk stuffs, to be used for hangings and other furniture of rooms."

Gold is mentioned in another patent taken out by Eckhardt in the following year. The so-called gold used for paper-hangings was the invention of John Hantsch of Nurem- berg, who died in 1670, and is a preparation of tin. Other metals treated in a similar manner produce various metallic colours. Eckhardt's establishment must have been a large concern, for artists of considerable talent Boileau, Fouglet, Joinot, and Jones were retained for finishing the designs by hand, while more than fifty young girls completed the less important parts.

The earliest specimens of paper - hangings that have attracted attention are those hung on some of the picture galleries at Hampton Court Palace. The paper-hang- ings in King William III.'s bedroom and other rooms, are all composed of long single pieces, not of small sheets fastened together. As paper of that length could not be made before the beginning of the nine- teenth century, and was not in use much before 1830, they cannot be very old. It was in 1799 that a French operative, Louis Robert, made the first attempt to produce paper in an endless length. The invention was purchased by Leger Didot, and a rela- tion of his in England, John Gamble, obtained patents for it in 1801 and 1803. In 1805 Joseph Bramah obtained a patent " for making paper in endless sheets." This great improvement was the result of the continuous efforts of Messrs. Fourdrinier of London in perfecting the paper -making machine, before which all paper was made by hand. On the repeal of the duty in 1836 paper-hangings came into general use.

A paper was read in 1839 on ' The History and Manufacture of Paper-Hangings,' by John Gregory Grace, before the Royal Institute of British Architects. It was pub- lished in The Civil Engineer and Architect's Journal for 1839; but the original MS., preserved in the library of the Institute, contains some unpublished information. The author did not succeed in tracing the

history of paper-hangings to its beginning in England ; but he was more fortunate with regard to the early use of such kinds of decoration in France. The trade in that country appears to have existed so early as the middle of the sixteenth century, though associated with the manufacture of other kinds of paper, such as marble paper used by bookbinders ; the makers were called Domi- notiers. These details J. G. Grace quotes from the ' Dictionnaire de Commerce' by Savary, printed in Paris, 1723, v. ' Domino - terie.'

It may be observed here that as plain paper was made in France before its inven- tion in England, it is probable that paper- hangings may also have been adopted earlier.

The ' Manuel du fabric ant de Papiers Peints,' by L. S6b. Le Normand, published in Paris, 1830, says :

" The art of manufacturing paper - hangings came from China, where from time immemorial this in- dustrious people painted on fine paper designs imitating painted cloth. The first specimens of this kind were imported into England ; we soon received them in France, and our artists endea- voured to imitate them."

Paper-hangings imported from China are said to have been frequently used in the reign of Queen Anne, but there is little reason to suppose that these Chinese paper-hangings originated the idea of the manufacture in England, though they may have given some additional impetus to a more extensive use of such hangings. TOM JONES.

The walls of the drawing-room at Rose Castle, the residence of the Bishop of Car- lisle, are covered with an early wall-paper said to be 150 years old of, if I remember rightly, a rich design of scrolls and birds. One at least of the rooms in Lumley Castle, co. Durham, used to be covered with an old wall-paper of simple pattern. R. B K.

HEART-BURIAL (US. viii. 289, 336, 352, 391, 432, 493 ; ix. 38, 92, 234, 275. 375, 398, 473; x. 35, 77).

Upon the Tombe of the Heart of Henry the third, late King of France, slaine by a Jacobin Fryer, 1589.

Whether thy choyce or chance, thee hither brings ; Stay Passenger, and waile the hap of Kings. This little stone a great King's heart doth hold, That rul'd the fickle French, and Polacks bold, Whom with a mighty warlike host attended With trayterous knife, a cowled monster ended. So frayle are even the highest earthly things, Goe passenger and wayle the fate of Kings. i Camden's 'Remaines concerning Britaine,' 1637, p. 400.

WM. NORMAN.