PILASTER IN CARTON PIERRE.

superseding the necessity for employing flour-paste, which had been used before to unite the successive sheetsof paper. Since the days of Meziere and Hire, M. Romagnesi, an ornamental sculptor of great talent, hassucceeded in developing to its highest extent the capabilities of carton pierre. The substance manufacturedbefore his introduction to the business was so coarse in texture as to require covering with several coats offine plaster, which again had to be cleaned up and sharpened by hand with cutting and scraping-tools, beforegilding could be applied to it. M. Romagnesi, however, succeeded in reducing the pulp to so fine a state,that it became susceptible of rendering the finest lines of the moulder; and the gilder was thus enabled toapply his leaf at once. By this perfection the quality of the substance was greatly improved, and muchgreater economy was attained. The rich interior effect of many of the modern buildings of Paris is largely tobe ascribed to the employment of this material. In the Tuileries, the Louvre, the Palais Royal , the apart-ments of the principal ministers, many churches, and other edifices, a great portion of the architectural enrich-ments are executed in carton pierre. Statues, even of considerable dimensions, have been produced in thissubstance, the lightness of which is one great recommendation to its use.

In this country we have been little less assiduously at work in effecting improvements in the manufacture.In papier mache and in carton pierre, as applied to architectural decoration, it would be difficult to excel theproductions, either of Messrs. Jackson or of Messrs. Bielefeld; while in the application of the substance tominor articles of furniture and decoration, in combination with the processes of japanning and inlaying, theworks of Jennens and Bettridge, Lane, and M c Cullum and Hodgson of Birmingham, Walton of Wolverhampton ,and Clay of London , leave little to be desired.

From an early period small objects, bonbonnieres, etui cases, &c., have been made on the Continent in papiermache; but it appears probable, from the accounts given by the French themselves, that the application ofpaper to architectural decoration was, if not of earlier introduction, at least more generally employed in Englandthan in France .

In an essay “ On the Use of the improved Papier Mache in the interior Decorations of Buildings and inWorks of Art,” Mr. Bielefeld has made some interesting remarks on the decorations w T hich preceded theemployment of that material. He observes that, “with the Elizabethan style (the Renaissance of England),rich plaster ceilings were very generally brought into use; and in the more classic, or Italian styles, thatfollowed, the same material was still more extensively and more boldly employed. As the art advanced,plaster became partially substituted for carved or panelled wood-wainscoting on walls. Both in that situation,and upon ceilings, foliage of the highest relief, and of the richest character, may at the present day be foundin the more important edifices remaining of the seventeenth and beginning of the eighteenth centuries. Theseenrichments were generally worked, or rather modelled, by hand upon the stucco in its place, whilst still ina soft and plastic state.

“As this work had to be done on the spot, and with much rapidity of execution, in order to preventthe stucco from setting before it had acquired the intended form, the art was somewhat difficult. The work-man had to design almost as he worked; therefore, to do it well, it was necessary that he should have someof the acquirements and qualities of an artist. This circumstance, of course, tended very much to limit thenumber of workmen, and their pay became proportionably large.

“ It was no unnatural consequence that artisans thus circumstanced assumed a consequence that belongednot to their humble rank in life; it is said that they might have been seen coming to their work girt withswords, and having their wrists adorned with laced ruffles. Such a state of things was, as may be conceived,attended with many inconveniences to their employers ; it was scarcely possible to preserve that subordinationso essentially necessary in carrying on the business of a builder, and ultimately the workers in stucco, layingaside all restraint, combined together to extort from their employers a most inordinate rate of wages. Itwould be superfluous here to detail all the circumstances that followed; it is sufficient to state that, as mighthave been anticipated, the total ruin of their art was the final result of these delusive efforts to promote theirindividual interest.

“ Contrivances were resorted to by the masters, which soon supplanted the old mode of working in stucco.The art of moulding and casting in plaster, as previously practised in France , was generally introduced; andthe art of preparing the pulp of paper became improved and extended, so as ultimately to render practicablethe adoption of papier mache in the formation of architectural decorations. Thus, at last, was extinguishedthe original mode of producing stucco ornaments; and there, probably, has not been for many years a singleindividual in England accustomed to that business.”