Blocks about two inches thick, formed of three separate boards glued
together, of which two are made of poplar, and one (that which is
engraved) of pear-tree or sycamore, are used for printing
paper-hangings, as for calicoes. The grain of the upper layer of wood
should be laid across that of the layer below. As many blocks are
required as there are colours and shades of colour. To make the figure
of a rose, for example, three several reds must be applied in
succession, the one deeper than the other, a white for the clear spaces,
two and sometimes three greens for the leaves, and two wood colours for
the stems; altogether from 9 to 12 for a rose. Each block carries small
pin points fixed at its corners to guide the workman in the insertion of
the figure exactly in its place. An expert hand places these guide pins
so that their marks are covered and concealed by the impression of the
next block; and the finished piece shows merely those belonging to the
first and last blocks.
In printing, the workman employs the same _swimming-tub_ apparatus which
has been described under block printing (see CALICO-PRINTING), takes off
the colour upon his blocks, and impresses them on the paper extended
upon a table in the very same way. The tub in which the drum or frame
covered with calf-skin is inverted, contains simply water thickened with
parings of paper from the bookbinder, instead of the pasty mixture
employed by the calico-printers. In impressing the colour by the block
upon the paper, he employs a lever of the second kind, to increase the
power of his arm, making it act upon the block through the intervention
of a piece of wood, shaped like the bridge of a violin. This tool is
called _tasseau_ by the French. A child is constantly occupied in
spreading colour with a brush upon the calf-skin head of the drum or
sieve, and in sliding off the paper upon a wooden trestle or horse, in
proportion as it is finished. When the piece has received one set of
coloured impressions, the workman, assisted by his little aid called a
_tireur_ (drawer), hooks it upon the drying-poles under the ceiling. A
sufficient number of pieces should be provided to keep the printer
occupied during the whole at least of one day, so that they will be
dried and ready to receive another set of coloured impressions by the
following morning.
All the colours are applied in the same manner, every shade being formed
by means of the blocks, which determine all the beauty and regularity of
the design. A pattern drawer of taste may produce a very beautiful
effect. The history of Psyche and Cupid, by M. Dufour, has been
considered a masterpiece in this art, rivalling the productions of the
pencil in the gradation, softness, and brilliancy of the tints.
When the piece is completely printed, the workman looks it all over, and
if there be any defects, he corrects them by the brush or pencil,
applying first the correction of one colour, and afterwards of the rest.
A final satining, after the colours are dried, is communicated by the
friction of a finely polished brass roller, attached by its end gudgeons
to the lower extremity of a long swing-frame; and acting along the
cylindrical surface of a smooth table, upon which the paper is spread.
[Illustration: 784]
The _fondu_ or rainbow style of paper-hangings, which I have referred to
this place in the article CALICO-PRINTING, is produced by means of an
assortment of oblong narrow tin pans, fixed in a frame, close side to
side, each being about one inch wide, two inches deep, and eight inches
long; the colours of the prismatic spectrum, red, orange, yellow, green,
&c., are put, in a liquid state, successively in these pans; so that
when the oblong brush A, B, with guide ledges _a_, _b_, _c_, is dipped
into them across the whole of the parallel row at once, it comes out
impressed with the different colours at successive points _e_, _e_, _e_,
_e_, of its length, and is then drawn by the paper-stainer over the face
of the woollen drumhead, or sieve of the swimming tub, upon which it
leaves a corresponding series of stripes in colours, graduating into one
another like those of the prismatic spectrum. By applying his block to
the _tear_, the workman takes up the colour in rainbow hues, and
transfers these to the paper. _f_, _f_, _f_, _f_ show the separate
brushes in tin sheaths, set in one frame.
At M. Zuber’s magnificent establishment in the antient château of
Rixheim, near Mulhouse, where the most beautiful French _papiers peints_
are produced, and where I was informed that no less than 3000 blocks are
required for one pattern, I saw a two-colour calico machine employed
with great advantage, both as to taste and expedition. Steam-charged
cylinders were used to dry the paper immediately after it was printed,
as the colours, not being so rapidly absorbed as they are by calico,
would be very apt to spread.
The operations employed for common paper-hangings, are also used for
making flock paper, only a stronger size is necessary for the ground.
The flocks are obtained from the woollen cloth manufacturers, being cut
off by their shearing machines, called _lewises_ by the English workmen,
and are preferred in a white state by the French paper-hanging makers,
who scour them well, and dye them of the proper colours themselves. When
they are thoroughly stove-dried, they are put into a conical fluted
mill, like that for making snuff, and are properly ground. The powder
thus obtained is afterwards sifted by a bolting-machine, like that of a
flour mill, whereby flocks of different degrees of fineness are
produced. These are applied to the paper after it has undergone all the
usual printing operations. Upon the workman’s left hand, and in a line
with his printing table, a large chest is placed for receiving the flock
powders: it is seven or eight feet long, two feet wide at the bottom,
three feet and a half at top, and from 15 to 18 inches deep. It has a
hinged lid. Its bottom is made of tense calf-skin. This chest is called
the _drum_; it rests upon four strong feet, so as to stand from 24 to 28
inches above the floor.
The block which serves to apply the adhesive basis of the
velvet-powders, bears in relief only the pattern corresponding to that
basis, which is formed with linseed oil, rendered drying by being boiled
with litharge, and afterwards ground up with white lead. The French
workmen call this mordant the _encaustic_. It is put upon the cloth
which covers the inverted swimming tub, in the same way as the common
colours are, and is spread with a brush by the _tireur_ (corruptly
styled _tearer_ by some English writers). The workman daubs the blocks
upon the mordant, spreads the pigment even with a kind of brush, and
then applies it by impression to the paper. Whenever a sufficient
surface of the paper has been thus covered, the child draws it along
into the great chest, sprinkling the flock powder over it with his
hands; and when a length of 7 feet is printed, he covers it up within
the drum, and beats upon the calf-skin bottom with a couple of rods to
raise a cloud of flock inside, and to make it cover the prepared portion
of the paper uniformly. He now lifts the lid of the chest, inverts the
paper, and beats its back lightly, in order to detach all the loose
particles of the woolly powder.
By the operation just described, the velvet-down being applied every
where of the same colour, would not be agreeable to the eye, if shades
could not be introduced to relieve the pattern. To give the effect of
drapery, for example, the appearance of folds must be introduced. For
this purpose, when the piece is perfectly dry, the workman stretches it
upon his table, and by the guidance of the pins in his blocks, he
applies to the flock surface a colour in distemper, of a deep tint,
suited to the intended shades, so that he dyes the wool in its place.
Light shades are produced by applying some of his lighter water-colours.
Gold leaf is applied upon the above mordant, when nearly dry; which then
forms a proper gold size; and the same method of application is resorted
to, as for the ordinary gilding of wood. When the size has become
perfectly hard, the superfluous gold leaf is brushed off with a dossil
of cotton wool or fine linen.