Note 1142 — PAPER-HANGINGS.

I shall here insert the words of the patent: “To all those to whom these presents shall come, greeting. Whereas our trusty and well-beloved subject and servant Jerome Lanyard hath informed us, that he by his endeavours hath found out an art and mystery by affixing of wool, silk and other materials of divers colours upon linen cloth, silk, cotton, leather and other substances, with oil, size and other cements, to make them useful and serviceable for hangings and other occasions, which he calleth Londrindiana, and that the said art is of his own invention, not formerly used by any other within this realm, &c.”—Rymeri Fœdera, tom. xix. London, 1732, fol. p. 554. The following observations may serve to illustrate all works of this nature in general. Painting, according to the most common technical meaning, may be divided into three kinds. In the first the colours or pigments are mixed with a viscous or glutinous fluid to bind them, and make them adhere to the body which is to be painted. Gums, glue, varnish, &c. may be used for this purpose. Vegetable colours will not admit of such additions, because they contain gum in their natural composition. Another kind consists in previously washing over the parts that are to be painted with some viscous substance, and then laying on the colours as the figures may require. Size or cement (I use the word in the most extensive sense) is of such a nature that either in drying or glazing it becomes hard, and binds the colours. To this method belongs not only gilding, imitating bronze and making velvet-paper-hangings, but also painting on glass and in enamel. By the third method the colours are applied to the ground without any binding substance: they are therefore more liable to decay, as is the case in painting with crayons; but they will however adhere better when the pigments consist of very fine particles like ceruse, or black-lead. It would be a great acquisition if a substance could be found out to bind the colours used in this art without injuring them, or to fix the crayons. The third kind of painting is not with colours, but with different bodies ready coloured, which are joined together in pieces according to a copy, either by cement or plaster, as in mosaic, or by working them into each other, as in weaving and sewing, which is painting with the needle.... Are not the works of art almost like those of nature, each connected together as a chain? Do not the boundaries of one art approach those of another? Do they not even touch each other? Those who do not perceive this approximation are like people unacquainted with botany, who cannot remark the natural order of plants. But if a connoisseur observe a gap in the chain of artificial works, we are to suppose that some links are still wanting, the discovery of which may become a merit to more ingenious ages.