Chapter IX

THE INTERIOR--PLASTERING AND PAPER-HANGING.

As men rise above the rude condition of uncivilized nations, they are not satisfied with the mere _necessaries_ of life. Their standard of comfort becomes elevated. Those things which are luxuries to the lowest class are comforts to the next higher class, and necessaries to the class which is higher still in the social scale; so that the interpretation given to the words, “luxuries,” “comforts,” and “necessaries,” becomes a sort of index whereby to mark the grade which an individual occupies. A roof to cover the dwelling, a glass window which may exclude the wind and the rain, while it admits light,--a fire-place, with appliances for carrying off smoke and the products of combustion--however far above the standard of the uncivilized man--are not sufficient for the Englishman of middle station. He must have his rooms nicely squared and neatly fitted; the roof must be concealed from view by a smooth white ceiling; the rough brick walls must be covered not only with plaster, but with an ornamental covering of paper or paint. Hence arises occupation for many artisans whose sole business is to make the dwelling agreeable to the eye, after the more necessary and indispensable parts of the structure have been finished.

Plastering Walls and Ceilings.

The occupation of the plasterer is generally united with that of the bricklayer. The business of the plasterer, as such, is to cover over the rough walls and ceilings of a building with _plaster_, which is the name given to a better kind of mortar, made of lime only. When this plaster is of the coarser kind for the under or first coating, cow-hair is mixed with it to make it bind better. When a plain brick wall is to be plastered, the surface is at once covered with the plaster, this adhering readily to the rough brick-work: but for ceilings or partitions, a groundwork of laths is required to receive the first coating.

Laths are of different sizes and qualities, according to the various work for which they are intended. Those used by the plasterer are termed _single_, and are about from two to three feet long, an inch broad, and a quarter of an inch thick. They are split out of a coarse kind of deal. _Double_ laths are considerably longer and thicker, and are sawn out: they are therefore regular in their size. They are used for better work in plastering, but chiefly by tilers or slaters.

The single laths are nailed up to the joists of the ceiling, or to the _quartering_ of partitions, with but a small interval between each, so as entirely to cover the surface. The workmen then proceed to cover the lathing with coarse plaster, a labourer supplying them with a small quantity at a time on a square board, held in the plasterer’s left hand by means of a short thick handle stuck upright into the back of the board. The man uses a rectangular flat wooden trowel, with a bridge-shaped handle, to transfer the _stuff_ from the board to the wall, and to spread it evenly over the surface. When the room of which the walls are being plastered is of a better description, the work is _floated_, that is, a regular surface is obtained by drawing a long straight-edge over the wet plaster, so as to scrape off the inequalities and reduce the whole to a plane surface.

A thinner coating of finer plaster is spread over the first to finish the plastering, and this is again floated in drawing-rooms, and so on.

Plaster and Papier-Maché Ornaments for Rooms.

The mouldings of cornices in rooms are formed by a wooden mould drawn along a straight-edge to guide the mould, acting like the carpenter’s plane, when forming analogous mouldings in wood. When such cornices are of sufficient size and depth to require it, wooden brackets, shaped something like the profile of the cornice, are fixed up against the wall, and laths are nailed on these brackets, to serve as a foundation for the mouldings. By this means the necessity for a heavy mass of plaster, to get the requisite projection in the cornice is avoided; which mass would be unwieldly to manage, and liable to fall down by its weight.

Foliage and ornamental work in plaster is made by _modelling_ the ornaments by hand, in a proper kind of clay, worked by steel or wooden tools, resembling small spatulas in form. To do this requires a taste and skill in drawing or designing in the workman, which raises him to the rank of an artist. When the model is finished and dry, the surface of it is covered with a thin coat of oil, and a mould of fine plaster is taken from it in separate pieces. To allow of the plaster mould being taken off the model, the edges of these separate pieces of the mould are made smooth so as to fit accurately together. From this mould any number of _casts_ may be taken by pouring fluid plaster into the mould when it is put together; and as soon as each cast has _set_, or become hard, the mould is taken off it, to be put together again for a new cast. There has been recently an improvement introduced, which leads to a diminution of the use of plaster for ornaments; this is by the substitution of _papier-maché_. The material so named is formed chiefly of paper, brought to the state of a paste, and then compressed in moulds. There is to every ornament so made a counter-mould, following the general contour of the ornament, so that the piece is made about equally thick in every part. The resulting ornament is very much less ponderous than those made of plaster, and much less liable to fracture. The interior decorations of many buildings are now made of this material.

Whitewashing and Stuccoing.

Old plaster ceilings, walls, &c., are cleaned by being _whitewashed_. The plaster is first washed over with clean water, by means of broad flat brushes, to remove the dirt. All cracks and defects in the plaster are then _stopped_ by filling them up with new plaster, and it is frequently necessary to cut away the plaster in such places to obtain a clean new surface to enable the new plaster to adhere. When the surface is dry, the whitewash, made of whiting mixed up in water, is laid on with the same form of brushes, and two or three times gone over, so as effectually to cover all stains and marks on the surface. Instead of being whitewashed, walls are frequently coloured by mixing ochre, of the proper tint, in the water along with the whiting.

The outside of walls of houses, &c., are now frequently covered with stucco, a kind of plaster made with a lime that resists the action of water, when set, and which, if well managed, causes the wall to look as if built of stone. The mode of stuccoing walls is exactly the same as that of covering them with common plaster.

Origin of Paper-hangings.

In early times, wealthy people were accustomed to have the walls of their rooms covered with _tapestry_, which was a combination of woven cloth and needlework, somewhat mid-way between the _sampler_ work and the _carpet_ work of our own day. These specimens of tapestry frequently represented some historical events, and were often worked by the hands of the lady of the mansion and her maids; but at other times were the work of men following that line of occupation. The walls of those rooms which were not thus covered, were usually of panelled wainscot, or oak.

But when tapestry went out of fashion, and a more lively covering for a wall than oak was wished for, a custom arose of printing or stamping certain coloured devices on sheets of paper, and of pasting those sheets against the wall. We believe that it is in England more than in any other country that this covering for walls is employed; and since the removal of the duty which was formerly laid on paper-hangings, they have become so very cheap as to be almost universally employed in houses of every class; indeed, it may be regarded as a circumstance not a little conducive to the comfort and neatness of humble dwellings, that a yard of printed wall-paper can now be purchased for _one halfpenny_. From this trifling price up to five or even ten shillings per yard, paper-hangings are now manufactured; so great are the improvements gradually made in the modes of manufacture.

The Manufacture of Paper-hangings.

It will be interesting to give a brief description of the mode of making, or rather printing, paper-hangings, before we speak of the employment of the paper-hanger; for all that devolves upon him is to fix up the paper when printed.

The paper employed is a sort of cartoon or cartridge paper manufactured for the purpose,--rough, but strong. Until recently, every piece of such paper was stamped, and the excise duty paid on it, before the process of printing commenced.

In general, the paper is printed in “distemper,” that is, in colours mixed with melted size, but sometimes in varnish. The pigments or colouring substances employed, are principally these:--_Red_ or _crimson_,--lake, vermilion, rose-pink, and red ochre:--_Blue_,--Prussian blue, verditer, and indigo:--_Yellow_,--Dutch pink, yellow ochre, and chrome yellow:--_Green_,--verdigris, and various mixtures of the blues and yellows just mentioned:--_Orange_,--vermilion, or red lake, mixed with Dutch pink:--_Purple_,--a wash made of logwood, and various mixtures of lake with Prussian blue, or with indigo:--_Black_,--ivory black and lamp black:--_White_,--whiting and white lead. There are other substances occasionally used, according as improvements or discoveries are made in the manufacture of colours; but various combinations of those which we have mentioned will yield almost every tint that can be desired.

These colours are mixed with water, together with a little size or gum, by which the colours are made adhesive without being too stiff for working. If the paper is to be glossy when completed, or if any one of the colours with which it is printed is desired to be glossy, the pigment for that colour is mixed with oil of turpentine and certain gums and resins which will give a glossy surface to the paint when dry. Before the printing commences, the piece of paper (which is about twelve yards long) is coated all over with that colour which is to form the _ground_. Powdered whiting is mixed with melted size to a proper consistence, and laid on with a large brush, in the same manner as a ceiling is whitewashed: the piece of paper is then left to dry. If the ground is to be white, nothing more is required before the printing; but if it is to be coloured, a second ground is laid on, made of melted size, and of such colouring substances as will give the required tint: this, when dry, is the ground which is to receive the ornamental pattern. If the ground is to be glossy, the colouring substance is mixed with varnish, gum, resin, &c., instead of size and water.

When the ground is thoroughly dried, the device is laid upon it, and this is, in most cases, done by a process almost exactly corresponding with wood-cut printing, in the fine arts. An impression is taken from wooden blocks, which are cut in such a manner that the figure to be expressed is made to project from the surface, by cutting away all the other parts. But this raised device only represents that portion of the whole figure which is to be of _one_ colour; so that if the pattern is to be ultimately represented in four colours, as is frequently the case, there must be four differently-carved blocks or stamps to represent these, and the blocks must be so carefully carved with reference to one another, that though the sizes of them are all exactly alike, the devices occupy different parts, and do not interfere with one another: the whole beauty and correctness of the figures depend on the accuracy with which the blocks are carved.

Suppose, now, that the paper is properly painted with the ground colour, dried and spread out on a flat board,--the carved blocks ready for use,--and the colours mixed and melted in a warm state,--the process is then conducted as follows. A piece of leather or of oilskin is stretched over a flat block, and a boy lays a coating of one of the colours to be used--say green--on the leather, with a brush. A man then takes that one of the carved blocks which is to stamp the green part of the device, and lays it down flat on the wet colour, by which a coating is transferred to all the raised parts of the block. This is then stamped down, with a firm and steady pressure, upon the piece of paper, by which the green device is permanently impressed. As the carved block is only large enough to stamp a small portion at a time, an adjoining portion of the long piece of paper is taken,--a fresh coating of colour laid on the leather by the boy,--this coating again transferred to the carved block,--and again from thence to the paper. This continues until the whole length of the paper is printed with the green device, care being taken that the different impressions shall accurately join one another at the proper parts.

The paper is then laid aside to dry, and preparations are made for printing the second colour upon it.

Let us suppose this colour to be _pink_. The proper ingredients are mixed with size, and melted, and a coating of this laid on a block covered with leather, as in the former case. The proper carved block is then taken, and an impression stamped by its means in precisely the same manner as before, with the exception of the colour being pink instead of green. But in laying the wet stamp on the piece of paper, great care is requisite in adjusting the two colours so that they shall not interfere with each other:--for instance, if the green represents leaves and the pink represents flowers, it is important that the pink should not, by a misadjustment of the second stamp, go over a part already occupied by green, so as to give a confused mixture of green leaf and pink flower at the same spot. If we closely examine the pattern of paper-hangings on the walls of our rooms, particularly the inferior papers, we shall frequently see instances of the bad adjustment to which we here allude.

The pink stamping proceeds from end to end of the piece of paper, until the whole is done; after which it is laid aside to dry. A process precisely similar in every respect is followed with all the subsequent colours, be they few or many. The more complicated the figure is, or the greater the number of colours it contains, the greater is the degree of care required in impressing the successive colours on the papers. In order that no time should be lost, directly the workman has taken a supply of colour on to his block, the boy lays on another coating on the leather. Indeed, the whole process very much resembles the rudest kind of _printing_, with the exception of the use of different colours.

The description we have here given is such as will afford a general idea of the nature of the process. Various improvements have been from time to time introduced for facilitating the printing; but it is hardly necessary to dwell upon them.

Stencil, Washable, and Flock Paper-hangings.

In some of the cheaper papers, the preparation of the carved wooden block, and the time and attention necessary in using them, would be incompatible with the charge made for the finished article: an alteration is therefore made in the mode of proceeding. The principal outline is printed on the paper by means of a carved block in the usual way; but the remaining colours are put in by _stencilling_. A stencil, or stencil-plate, is a piece of leather, oil-cloth, or thin sheet metal, with any required device cut in it. Such a stencil is laid down flat on the paper, and is covered with the required colour by means of a brush. This colour of course passes through the holes in the stencil, and falls on the paper, while the uncut parts of the stencil prevent the colour from falling on any other part of the paper. A device is thus painted on the paper in a much easier manner than by the use of a carved block. But from the nature of the process it is found that the delicate parts of the pattern cannot be represented by this means, as it is difficult to ensure the passage of the colour through small perforations. But for the purposes to which stencilling is applied--viz., the preparation of cheap paper-hangings, this delicacy is not required. One or more carved blocks are used with the stencil plates according to circumstances, the choice between blocks and stencils depending both on the nature of the pattern, and on the value of the paper when finished.

Some of the more costly kinds of paper-hangings have gold as one of the materials forming the device. This is effected by using a wash of gold powder, instead of a pigment, on one of the carved blocks. There are also _washable_ paper-hangings, in which the surface is of a glossy or varnished nature, by which it may be washed free from dirt and grease without removing the colours with which the paper is printed. There is likewise a kind of paper-hangings called _flock_ paper, which has been much in use, and of which the following description has been given.

The flock is woollen cloth reduced to great fineness, and laid on with varnish. After the coloured portions of the paper are finished, a carved block representing the device which is to be flocked, is laid down on a flat place coated with wet varnish, and an impression of the varnish is transferred to the paper, just as if it had been a coloured pigment. A quantity of the powdered flock is then strewed over the whole paper, and pressed on it by a flat board, a roller, or some other convenient means. The paper is then left to dry, after which the dry flock is brushed off from those parts where no varnish had been applied, leaving an appearance much resembling that of coarse woollen cloth, which our readers may frequently have noticed. The flock is prepared in various ways. Sometimes pieces of woollen cloth of the proper colour are taken, and chopped up by means of a bill or knife; but this is a rude and imperfect way, now probably out of use. Another mode is, to place the pieces of cloth in a flat box, and cause a sharp knife, moved by machinery, to pass rapidly, with a chopping motion in every direction over the various pieces of cloth. In some cases, also, the cloth is reduced to flock by a kind of grinding process.

The Process of Paper-hanging.

This, then, is an outline of the mode by which paper-hangings are prepared; and we must next speak of the method of pasting them against the walls of a room. As the long pieces or strips of paper do not average more than two feet in width, it is obvious that a great many joints must be made in covering the side of a room with paper. These joints proceed not crosswise, but perpendicularly from the ceiling downwards; and considerable care is necessary to insure the continuance of the pattern on the two sides of a joint: it is in this that the principal art of the paper-hanger consists.

A strip of printed paper twelve yards long is called technically _a piece_. This piece has ragged unfinished edges, and the edges are to be cut away in a straight even line until a proper part of the pattern is reached; for the blocks are so carved, that one edge always corresponds exactly with the opposite edge. The wall, which is generally plastered, is washed or sized, and made fit to receive the paper. The cement with which the paper is fixed up is thin paste; and when that paste is ready, the paper-hanger proceeds as follows. Supposing the height of the papered part of a room to be twelve feet, he cuts on four yards from his piece of paper, with the two ends accurately at right angles to the long edges. He then lays it down on a flat board or bench, face downwards, and coats the whole of the back of the paper with liquid paste, by means of a brush. He then slightly folds the paper over, so as to prevent it from dragging on the ground, and, mounting a ladder or a pair of steps, applies one end of the paper to the upper part of the wall, close to the cornice: then, by letting the paper unfold itself, it falls to its full length, and extends down to the bottom of the room, close to the wall. The workman has now to judge, by the eye, whether the edges of the paper are perfectly vertical, for the whole beauty of the work depends in a great measure on this circumstance. When he has ascertained that the paper hangs perpendicularly, he proceeds to press it firmly to the wall, by means of cloths; and the paste has so far softened the paper, that wrinkles of every kind disappear. This done, he cuts off another piece twelve feet, or four yards long, and pastes it against the wall in precisely the same manner. But here great precautions are necessary; for the workman has to attend to three particulars in fixing the second piece by the side of the first:--to cause it to hang vertically,--to make an accurate joining of the pattern,--and to refrain from soiling the surface of the first piece by the paste of the second. All these are precautions which can only be properly attended to after considerable practice.

When the workman is approaching an angle or corner of the room, he must cut his paper to such a width as will just reach the corner, for it is generally difficult to bring the paper round both sides of the angle. In the case which we have supposed, the height of the room is just one-third the length of the piece of paper, so that there need be no joints at any intermediate part of the height. But if the height were any other amount,--say ten feet--three pieces of that length would leave a fourth only six feet long; and as such a piece is not likely to be wasted, it follows that there must be a joint at some intermediate point between the floor and the ceiling. Such a joint requires especial care, as the pattern has to be attended to both in a vertical and a horizontal direction.

When the side of a room is broken by recesses, projections, &c., a good workman will so arrange his pieces of paper as to give a symmetrical appearance to the two sides of a projection of a recess, so that the same part of the pattern which comes to the right hand edge shall also be seen at the left hand. In papering a staircase, when the upper and lower edges are oblique and not horizontal, it is of course necessary that the ends of the paper should be cut in a corresponding manner, in order that the long joints should be vertical.

As it is difficult to bring the ends of the paper precisely to the cornice at the top and to the skirting-board at the bottom, it is usual to hide those ends by pasting a narrow strip of paper along the top and bottom of a room, which gives a neat finish to them. This strip of paper is printed in colours with some pleasing device; and as a broad piece is printed as quickly as one two or three inches wide, it is customary to carve a block with twelve or twenty repetitions of the same narrow pattern, side by side; so that the whole are printed on one sheet. The paper-hanger has therefore carefully to cut the strips one from another, and paste them round the wall at the parts which we have mentioned, and sometimes up the corners of the room likewise.

It is sometimes preferred, instead of papering the walls of a room, to _stencil_ them. In this case the plaster of the wall is prepared in a smooth manner to receive the distemper colour, and the pattern is stamped or printed on the wall in a manner almost exactly the same as that which we have described respecting stencilling paper-hangings. This mode is not susceptible of so much neatness as the use of printed or stamped paper, and is only employed for common apartments.

There is occasionally a kind of work which falls into the hands of the paper-hanger very different from those we have mentioned--viz., fixing gilt wood mouldings round the top and bottom of a room, instead of pasting a paper bordering in the same place. What little we shall have to say on this subject will be contained in the following chapter.