PLATE XLI1.

PAPER-HANGING,

BY HINCHLIFFE OF CHELSEA.

It is always gratifying to recognise in the productions of old-established firms the retention and ener-getic exercise of those powers by means of which their original reputation was obtained; and it is, therefore,in the present instance eminently satisfactory to be enabled to observe, that the credit of the well-knownfactory at Whitelands has been worthily sustained by the various specimens contributed from it to the GreatExhibition . Among those specimens there were few which displayed more quiet and excellent taste, alike incolour and in form, than the graceful design which forms the subject of our illustration, and, in the wholeExhibition, there were few pieces of paper, as specimens of execution, more neatly and carefully printed.

As in the course of the present work w r e hope to be enabled to give several other notices of the artof paper-staining, we shall confine our remarks, in the present instance, to a few observations on the muraldecorations of a simply textile nature, which have at various periods taken the place of paper-hangings inthis country, and which have now r been almost entirely superseded by them. We shall see hereafter howmany of these, paper-hangings are frequently made to imitate, and how many suggestions for varied patterns,textures, &c., they have afforded.

In spite of the thick walls built by our ancestors, we can scarcely doubt that draughts were abundant intheir unplastered buildings. To protect themselves from these piercing chills, hangings were introduced, whichcovered the face of the wall, and which served at the same time for use and for ornament. While the weaver’sart was a simple craft, these cloths were quite plain, and it was to relieve that too great simplicity that theladies of the olden times, of the days of the Henrys and the Edwards, whiled away the long evenings inembroidering the “gestes” and exploits of their lords in the field or in the chase, and the ghostly incidentsof the “ Aurea Legenda.” As the art of weaving improved in Flanders, and as the industrious Flemings settledin this country and gradually extended their operations, these cloths became more elaborate in style, and theskill of the embroideress was restricted to the execution of vestments and garments lay and clerical. Graduallythe weavers gained the power of enriching their stuffs with patterns, heraldic and conventional, and at last thefabrics which displayed the cognizances of the nobles’ woven “ semes,” and which served for the hangings oftheir apartments, grew into the storied tapestry in which whole histories were skilfully wrought out, with allthe pomps and vanities of the most elaborate costume and accessories.

This tapestry or arras, as it was called from being first made at the town of Arras in Flanders, was hungup by means of hooks fixed either at the ceiling or at a lower level, and servants, called “upholders,”* werespecially appointed for their care,—more particularly during the removal of the tapestries to accompanytheir owner when he journeyed from one residence to another. It is probable that heraldry was originallyemployed in their decoration, since, in 1392, we find Richard of Arundel bequeathing to his wife the hangingsof his hall, described as made in London , of a blue colour, and having red roses and the arms of his sonsfigured thereon. Wartonf mentions, that tapestries, containing a representation of Syr Guy’s famous fight

* Hence the term “upholsterer.”

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