PAPIER
MACHE HAS AN EXCITING AND ANCIENT HISTORY, ORIGINATING IN CHINA
IN THE EARLY YEARS OF THE 2ND CENTURY AD. IT HAS BEEN USED SINCE
TO MAKE CHAIRS FOR ROYALTY, PANELS FOR COACHES, JEWELLERY, AND
EVEN CHINESE SPEARS AND ARMOUR. Paper was first made by Ts'
ai Lun, an official at the Chinese court of the Emperor Ho Ti,
who developed an ingenious way of breaking down plants and rags
into single fibres. The fibres were pounded to a pulp and collected
on a fabric-covered frame, where they matted
and dried as paper. The knowledge of paper-making spread to
Japan, the Middle East and India, finally reaching Europe via
Spain in the 10th century AD.
The modern-day practice of recycling waste paper into moulded
objects became well established in Persia and India, where craftsmen
made extravagantly lacquered and embellished papier mache pen
holders from around the 15th centurv. Kashmir in Northern India
was an important centre of this art; its products were exported
to Europe during the 16th and 17th centuries as trade routes developed,
and were much admired for the quality of their lacquering and
their exquisitely painted decoration. A flourishing trade in eastern
goods developed, as a mani.afor chinoiserie objects with Oriental
moti£s executed in a Western style - gripped Europe. Demand
far exceeded supply, and workshops were set up, notably in France
and England, to produce home-grown imitations of items such as
porcelain and lacquerware. French craftsmen were intrigued by
Oriental papier mache and experimented with the medium, adding
materials such as sand, glue and chalk to the pulped paper. They
developed their techniques until capable of producing convincing
moulded architectural ornaments in imitation of costly stucco
and plasterwork. This practice was also adopted in England, where
several papier mache workshops were established, primarily in
London and the Midlands. The development of a lacquering process
that compared favourably with Japanese and Chinese lacquerware
also helped to establish papier mache in Europe. Known as japanning,
this quicker, less expensive technique was used widely from the
1740s in the decoration of papier mache items such as small tables,
snuff boxes and hand mirrors. In the mid-18th century Henry Clay,
assistant to John Baskerville, a manufacturer from Birmingham,
England, took a step forward in papier machc production, which
laid the foundations of a whole industry. CI,ay's innovation was
to produce laminated panels, made from pasted paper sheets rather
than pulped paper. The panels were sealed with linseed oil and
dried slowly under a low heat, which made them extremely strong.
They were used for everyday articles, such as furniture, and the
material was ideally suited to japanning (varnishing) and painting.
Clay's panels were so strong and resilient that they were also
used to make the walls of horse-drawn coaches. Clay patented his
invention in 1772, and by the time the patents expired in 1802,
he was very wealthy. His Birmingham factory was taken over in
1816 by what was to become the most famous partnership in the
papier mache industry, Jennens and Bettridge. Jennens and Bettridge
raised papier mache design to new heights, introducing all kinds
of decorative and practical refinements. They developed a distinctive
range of japanned goods inlaid with slivers of mother-of-pearl;
later they included tortoiseshell, ivory and precious stones.
They also patented a method of steammoulding and pressing papier
mache panels into large-scale architectural features, such as
internal walls for steamships. By ]850, Jennens and Bettridge
were England's foremost exponents of papier mache. They had a
huge workforce, with ex-employees leaving to set up their own
factories. At London's Great Exhibition of 1851 in the Crystal
Palace, papier mache was hailed as an important material with
a bright future, and Jennens and Bettridge exhibited a wide range
of artefacts, including a child's cot, a chair and a piano. This
was the heyday of papier mache production in Europe. Manufacturing
methods had become extremely sophisticated, and the resulting
objects were indistinguishable from the finest lacquered wood.
A huge range of items, from buttons to headboards, was produced;
George Jackson and Son made stunningly ornate imitation plaster-
and stuccowork ceilings and walls, and Charles Bielcfield produced
a papier machc "village" of eleven houses for export
to Australia. Papier mache was also popular in North America,
and Jennens and Bettridge, and other manufacturers, were exporting
their wares there before the middle of the 19th century. In 1850,
when the United States' first papier mache factory was established
at Litchfield, Connecticut, English workers were brought over
to teach their skills. The Litchfield Manufacturing Company was
started by English-born Quaker William Allgood, and was successful
from the start. The factory initially produced small ornamental
items, such as fans and card cases, but then concentrated on making
papier mache versions of the area's main product, decorative clock
cases. These were warmly received, and commended at the World
Fair in New York in 1854. Litchfield Manufacturing merged with
a clock company in 1855, but a nearby factory, Wadhams Manufacturing
Co. continued to produce papier mache such as desks and game boards,
until the outbreak of the American Civil War. Although the western
papier mache industries had run out of steam by the end of the
19th century, cultures who had been consistently using papier
mache continued making boxes, cases, lamp-stands, trays and frames,
decorated with extremely intricate traditional designs, such as
interlocking flowers, animals and scenes from court life. The
tourist economies of Kashmir and Rajasthan benefit to this day.In
Mexico, remarkable papier mache sculptures and artefacts arc made
throughout the year to commemorate religious festivals. The best
known of these is on All Souls' Day, known as the Day of the Dead,
when Mexicans build ornate shrines and prepare meals for departed
relatives whom they believe will come to visit. Brightly coloured
skeletons going about everyday activities, devils, skulls, angels
and various other characters can be seen, all made from papier
mache. Many of the sculptors are anonymous, but a few arc well
known. The late Pedro Linares, for example, was the head of a
papier mache making family, whose highly original work was collected
by admirers including the painters Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo.
His family continues in this tradition, making amazing constructions,
many hand-modelled without using moulds, of intricate figures
of the dead or of symbolic animals, such as dragons or roosters.
Spain is another contemporary stronghold of papier mache production,
where enormous papier mache characters with huge heads join the
religious processions at Corpus Christi, and are later blown up
with fireworks. The craft of papier mache has recently undergone
a huge revival of interest in Europe and America. This could be
because of the current interest in recycling waste paper, the
relative low cost and availability of the material, the ease with
which the basic skills can be learned, or simply an appreciation
of the vitality, versatility and beauty of the medium. Whatever
the reason, this simple material - paper - has inspired ancient
and contemporary designers to produce exciting and original work
and it looks set to continue well into the 21st century.
