PRESERVATION OF WALLPAPERS AS PARTS OF INTERIORS

Methods of wallpaper production and mounting
2.1. PREPARING THE PAPER BASE
One common factor in all the earliest decorated papers is that
they were produced as small single sheets, which were prepared
of linen or cotton fibres. Patterns were printed on either separate
sheets or rolls formed after several sheets had been joined
together. Since the width of a wallpaper strip was not standardized
until the 1770s, its size was dictated by the measurements
of a pattern repeat.
By the middle of the 18th century, individual sheets of paper
started to be pasted together to form a roll. A method called rabouture
(“joining end to end”) 176 meant joining 20–24 sheets of
42 × 50–54 cm to form one “piece”, meaning a roll. The method
was used up to the second quarter of the 19th century. Therefore,
when dating a paper, one of the first things to look for are
horizontal seams, which show that a wallpaper could have been
printed before 1835. 177
After forming a roll of paper, its surface needed to be covered
with a homogeneous ground that would hide the joints and
any discolouration in the paper stock itself. 178 Before an industrial
method of grounding was developed, this was carried out
manually. Machines for rotating long cylindrical brushes that
applied an even coating of ground colour were introduced to
the trade by the early 19th century. The uniformity of vertical
streaking is sometimes apparent in grounds applied by this
mechanical process. 179 One-coloured wallpapers are also known
as plain papers.
176
Nouvel, Wallpapers of France, 20.
177
Frangiamore, Wallpapers in Historic Preservation, 3.
178
Ibid., 7.
179
Ibidem.
110