PAPIER MACHE, a term embracing numerous manufac tures in which paper pulp is employed, pressed and moulded into various shapes. The art has long been practised in the East. About the middle of the 18th century papier mache work came into prominence in Europe in the form of trays, boxes and other small domestic articles. In 1772 Henry Clay of Birmingham patented a method of preparing this material for coach-building, for door and other panels and for furniture. In 1845 the application of the material to internal architectural decoration was patented by C. F. Bielefeld of London, and for this purpose it has come into extensive use. Under the name of carton pierre a substance which is essentially papier mache is also largely employed as a substitute for plaster in the moulded ornaments of roofs and walls. Under the name of ceramic papier mache, architectural en richments are also made of a composition derived from paper pulp, resin, glue, a drying oil and acetate of lead. Masks, dolls' heads and other toys, lay figures, milliners' and clothiers' blocks, mirror and picture-frames, etc., are also made from it.
The materials for the commoner classes of work are old waste and scrap paper, repulped and mixed with a strong size of glue and paste. To this very often are added large quantities of ground chalk, clay and fine sand, so that the preparation is little more than a plaster held together by the fibrous pulp. For the finest work Clay's original method is retained. It consists of soaking several sheets of a specially made paper in a strong size of paste and glue, pasting these together, and pressing them in the mould of the article to be made. The moulded mass is dried in a stove and hardened by dipping in oil. For very delicate relief orna ments, a pulp of scrap paper is prepared, which after drying is ground to powder mixed with paste and a proportion of potash.
See L. E. Andes, Die Fabrikation der Papiermache- und Papierstoff Waaren (Vienna, 1900 ; A. Winzer, Die Bereitung und Beniitzung der Papiermache und eihnlicher Kompositionen (4th ed. Weimar, 1907) .