The Irish Penny Journal, Vol. 1 No. 38, March 20, 1841Various
History
The Irish Penny Journal, Vol. 1 No. 38, March 20, 1841
Various
Ireland -- Periodicals
The design having been drawn in outline, on paper pasted together of the
size required, the paper was then divided into parts of a suitable size,
and given to the carver or wood engraver, to cut the designs on blocks
of pear-tree, much in the same manner as at present. The outline thus
cut was printed in ink with a press, resembling that then used by the
letter-press printers, on separate sheets of paper. When dry, they were
then painted and relieved with different colours in _distemper_, and
afterwards joined together, so as to form the required design. The author
then adds, that grotesques and panels in which are intermingled flowers,
fruits, animals, and small figures, have up to this time succeeded better
than imitations of landscapes, or other tapestry hangings, which are
sometimes attempted, and refers to article 61 of the French laws in 1686,
which confirms the statutes published in 1586, 1618, and 1649, in which
rules are given as to what kind of presses, &c. are to be used by the
dominotiers, and prohibiting them under heavy penalties from printing
with types.
Recurring to the subject as connected with this country: in the year
1754, a Mr Jackson, a manufacturer of paper-hangings at Battersea,
published a work on the invention of printing in chiaro oscuro, and the
application of it to the making of paper-hangings, illustrated with
prints in proper colours. This book is a sort of advertisement of the
kinds of papers made, and the mode of manufacture employed by him. He
adopted a style of paper-hangings executed with blocks in chiaro oscuro,
in imitation of the most celebrated classic subjects.
To use his words, “The persons who cannot purchase the statues
themselves, may have these prints in their places, and thus effectually
show their taste. ’Tis the choice and not the price which discovers
the true taste of the possessor; and thus the Apollo Belvedere, the
Medicean Venus, or the Dying Gladiator, may be disposed of in niches, or
surrounded with a mosaic work in imitation of frames, or with festoons
and garlands of flowers, with great taste and elegance; or, if preferred,
landscapes after the most famous masters may be introduced into the
paper. That it need not be mentioned to any person of taste how much this
way of finishing with colours, softening into one another with harmony
and repose, exceeds every other kind of paper-hanging hitherto known,
though it has none of the gay, glaring colours in patches of red, green,
yellow, and blue, &c. which are to pass for flowers and other objects in
the common papers.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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