Paper hangings may be divided into three separate branches, the flock, the metal, and the coloured; and each of these seems to have been invented at a different time, as an imitation of a distinct material--the flock to imitate the tapestries and figured velvets, the metal in imitation of the gilt leather, and the coloured as a cheap substitute for painted decorations. Professor Beckman says that the former of these, the flock, was first manufactured in England, and invented by Jerome Langer, who carried on the art in London in the reign of Charles the First, and obtained a patent for his discovery, dated May 1st, 1634. Various French and German authors give us the credit of this invention, yet it is disputed by a Frenchman, M. Tierce, who in the Journal Æconomique says, that a man named Francois carried on this art at Rouen so early as the years 1620 and 1630, and affirms that the wooden blocks employed are still preserved with the before-mentioned dates inscribed on them. Francois was succeeded by his son, who followed the business with success for fifty years, and died at Rouen in 1748. M. Savary, in his Dictionnaire de Commerce, thus describes the manner in which the French manufactured their tonture de lane, or flock hangings:--The artist having prepared his design, drew on the cloth, with a fat oil or varnish, the subject intended to be represented; and then the flocker, from a tray containing the different tints of flocks, arranged in divisions, took the colours he required, and sprinkled them in a peculiar manner with his finger and thumb, so that the various shadows and colours were properly blended, and an imitation of the woven tapestry produced. Of the second branch, the metal papers, I do not find much mentioned by the older writers; and of the coloured papers I almost despaired of finding any early account, till, in an old French dictionary of commerce, printed in 1723, under the head of Dominoterie, I discovered an account which seems to give the origin of the present system of paper-staining. Dominoterie is an ancient French name for marble paper, such as used by bookbinders; and the early French paper-stainers were associated with the makers of that article, as a class called dominotiers. The manufacture is thus described:--