This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1921 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER X. THE PROGRESS OF PAPERHANGINGS IN ENGLAND. By METFORD WARNER. "Whatever you have in your rooms think first of the walls, for they are that which makes your house and home, and if you do not make some sacrifice in their favour you will find your chambers have a kind of make-shift lodging-house look about them, however rich and handsome your moveables may be."--William Morris Lecture on "The Lesser Arts of Life." From discoveries that were made in Cambridge in 1911 I think that the use of a block printed paper for interior decoration can be placed as early as 1509. The discovery of it is fully described in "Cambridge Fragments," published in 1913 at the Cambridge University Press. I am indebted to Mr. Charles Sayle of the University Library, Cambridge, for a copy of the publication. The description of this wall-paper is accompanied with an illustration under which is printed the note " Pattern used for a Beam Paper at Christ College, Cambridge, probably in or soon after 1509." The author mentions that " not only the beams of the Hall, but those of the Dining room had also been covered with this stamped paper," and adds that " the design appeared to be printed from a wood block, and on the verso was English black letter printing of the type, apparently of Wynkyn de Worde or Pynson," and that " one of the first fragments which he looked at contained a poem on the death of Henry VII., and very soon after he found that on the recto of a great mass of the paper on the side which had been affixed to the beams, was a proclamation announcing the accession of Henry VIII." The design was apparently printed from a single block 16 x n inches, and he further adds, "it is possible to claim that we have here the earliest known example of paper...