The wire-wove frame is peculiarly adapted to this kind of paper. Paper for cards must be manufactured from a pret ty firm stuff, in order to take that degree of smoothness which makes the cards glide easily over one another in using. For this reason the card-makers reject every kind of paper which is soft and without strength. This paper requires to be very much sized, since the sizing holds the place of varnish, to which the smoothing gives a glazed and shining sur face. To answer all these purposes, the rags require to be a little rotted, and the mallets strongly armed with iron studs.
There are three methods by which pa per-hangings are painted; the first by printing on the colours ; the second by using the stencil ; and the third by laying them on with a pencil, as in other kinds of painting. When the colours are laid on by printing, the impression is made by wooden prints, which are cut in such a manner, that the figure to be expressed is made to project from the surface by cut ting away all the other part; and this, being charged with the colours tempered with their proper vehicle, by letting it gently down on the block on which the colour is previously spread, conveys it from thence to the ground of the paper, on which it is made to fall more fircibly by means of its weight, and the effeirt of the arm of the person who uses the print. It is easy to conclude, that there most be as many separate prints as there are co louts to be printed But where there are more than one, great care must be taken, after the first, to let the print fall exactly in the same part of the paper as that which went before ; otherwise the figure of the design would be brought into ir regularity and confusion. In common paper of low price, it is usual, therefbre, to print only the outlines, and lay on the rest of the colours by stencilling, which both saves the expense of cutting more prints, and can be practised by common workmen, not requiring the great care and dexterity necessary to the using se veral prints. The manner of stencilling the colours is this : the figure, which all the parts of any particular colour make in the design to be painted, is to be cut out in a piece of thin leather, or oil-cloth, which pieces of leather, or oil-cloth, are called stencils ; and being laid flat on the sheets of paper to be printed, spread on a table or floor, are to he rubbed over with the colour, properly tempered, by means of a large brush. The colour passing over the whole is consequently spread on those parts of the paper where the cloth or leather is cut away, and give the same effect as if laid on by it print. This is nevertheless only practicable in parts where there are only detached masses or spots of colours ; for where there are small continued lines, or parts that run one into another, it is difficult to preserve the connection or continuity of the parts of the cloth, or to keep the smaller corners close down to the paper ; and therefore, in such cases, prints are preferable. Stencilling is indeed a cheap er method of ridding coarse work than printing ; but without such extraordinary attention and trouble, as render it equally difficult with printing, it is far less beauti ful and exact in the effect. For the out
line of the spots of colour want that sharp ness and regularity that are given by prints, besides the frequent extra linea tions, or deviations from the just figure, which happens by the original misplac ing of the stencils, or the Shifting the place of them during the operation. Pen cilling is only used in the case of nicer work, such as the better imitations of the India paper. It is performed in the same manner as other paintings in water or varnish. It is sometimes used only to fill the outlines already formed by print ing, where the price of the colour, or the exactness of the manner in which it is required to be laid no, render the stencil. ling or printing it less proper; at other times, it is used for forming or delineat ing some parts of the design, where a spirit of freedom and variety, not to be had in printed outlines, are desired to be had in the work. The paper designed for receiving the flock is first prepared with a varnish-ground with some proper colour, or by that of the paper itself. is frequently practised to print some Mo. saic, or other small running figure in co. lours, on the ground, before the flock be laid on ; and it may be done with any pigment of the colour desired, tempered with varnish, and laid on by a print cut correspondently to that end. The me thod of laying on the flock is this : a wooden print being cut, as is above de. scribed, for laying on the colour in such manner that the part of the design which is intended for the flock may project be yond the rest of the surface, the varnish is put on a block covered with leather or oil-cloth, and the print is to be used also in the same manner, to lay the varnish on all the parts where the flock is to be fixed. The sheet thus prepared by the varnish ed impression, is then to be removed to another block or table, and to be strewed over with flock, which is afterwards to be gently compressed by a board, or some other flat body, to make the varnish take the better hold of it ; and then the sheet is to be hung on a frame till the varnish be perfectly dry, at which time the super. fiuous part of flock is to be brushed oil' by a soft camel's-hair brush, and the pro. per flock will be found to adhere in a strong manner. The method of prepar ing the flock is, by cutting woollen rags or pieces of cloth with the hand, by means of a large bill or chopping-knife ; or by means of a machine worked by a horse mill. There is a kind of counterfeit flock paper, which, when well managed, has very much the same effect to the eye as the real, though done with less expense. The manner of making this sort is, by lay ing a ground of varnish on the paper ; and having afterwards printed the de sign of the flock in varnish, in the same manner as for the true ; instead of the flock, some pigment, or dry colour, of the same hue with the flock required by the design, but somewhat of a darker shade, being well powdered, is strewed on the printed varnish, and produces nearly the same appearance.