Casket, end of the 14th century. Repoussé, chiselled,

painted, and gilt copper, wood core, brass metal bands,

12 x 26 x 18 cm. Musée de Cluny, Paris.

 

 

The most ancient leathers, as already stated, were those of Cordova, which were soon imitated by Venice and Flanders. Later on, Paris, Lyons, Carpentras, and Avignon began to manufacture hangings of this description. Henry IV, like others, held this industry in great esteem and endeavoured to encourage it by establishing workshops in the suburbs of Saint-Jacques and Saint-Honoré. It would undoubtedly be very difficult at present to distinguish the productions of the various rivals from another. However, some were unquestionably manufactured elsewhere than in France at a period of decadence, sufficient proof of which is afforded by the abundance of specimens from Holland, distinguished neither by good taste nor by technical perfection.

It is no easy matter to say how long the fashion for these somewhat costly and sumptuous stamped leathers continued. Early attempts were made to replace them with hangings of a more modest description, and consequently more within the reach of the ordinary citizen and the middle classes, now rising to importance. Princes could afford to hang the walls of their apartments with figured and printed velvets, silk damasks of the royal pattern, or enriched with effective arabesques, which, as may be seen in many Renaissance paintings, began gradually to usurp the place of tapestries.

Leather was still too costly a luxury for the bulk of the people, when the idea of printing paper which imitated the silk hangings arose. England was practically the first to follow the path in this new direction. We say practically because even so early as the time of Francis I, France had made some more or less successful efforts in the same direction. The first English wallpapers were found faulty especially for their lack of solidity and ability to resist moisture. Towards the close of the 17th century the French model showed a decided improvement, and in 1688, Jean Papillion gave an impulse which was destined to prove of a permanent nature. Jacques Chauveau brought the paper à rentrées de plusieurs planches to perfection, while Jean-Gabriel Huguier imitated the English species.

In 1756, Aubert, a tradesman and engraver in the Rue Saint-Jacques, near the Fontaine Saint-Severin, announced that he had discovered the true method of manufacturing the English wallpaper, at the sign of Papillion. Such was possible in multiple colours in the imitation of damask and Utrecht velvet; it was well-suited for tapestries, fire-screens, and altar frontals. It is unnecessary to say how this description has morphed in the hands of the present manufacturers.

Another type, described by Papillon in his Traite de la gravure en hois, was produced in Frankfurt, Worms, and other German towns, aiming more especially at imitating and replacing the leather hangings. This was a paper gilded or silvered with flowers and ornaments. It was engraved in champlevé on yellow copper plates after having been sufficiently heated to adhere the sheet metal to paper. These papers, we repeat, were scarcely used except by the middle classes, and not before the middle of the 18th century. Whenever mention is made of frames hung with paper for the nobles, and for the king himself, the allusion, as shown by the Livre-Journal de Duvaux, published by Courajod, is always to the Indian and Chinese papers, and not to the still defective wallpapers produced by the French manufacturers.

This rapid sketch, introduced in order to leave no gap in the history of furniture, may be concluded with a few words on the subject of leather, particularly as applied to furniture. This fashion must be very old, especially as regards folding-chairs. We have seen one of Italian origin, dating from the first years of the 16th century, in which a back band attached to the two arms with fancy nails, bore elegantly designed armorial bearings in embossed relief. In France and the neighbouring states, the use of embossed leather became very general in the 17th century. In the Musée de Cluny, one may see a pretty chair of Spanish workmanship decorated with ornamental dyes. There are also some chairs from the Verhelst Collection, Ghent, on which are to be seen rich ornamental work and the monogram of Christ. One of these chairs is dated 1672. In the specimens, as well as in many others of the epochs of Louis XIII and Louis XIV, which we have observed in the various collections, the decorative work is limited to the reliefs without any setting off in gold or colours. From this it may be concluded that the Cordova leathers were used exclusively for hangings.