But it would almost seem as if these paintings, with all their gold and silver, which sparkled with the play of light on the gaufferings, were found insufficient for the luxury of the seventeenth century. At least it was about the beginning of this century that the idea was introduced of ornamenting leather with stamped reliefs, often very full, obtained by means of a wooden matrix or mould pressed firmly on the leather while softened by heat. These reliefs, consisting of arabesques, foliage, branches, flowers, birds, etc, followed the changes of style peculiar to each epoch, and at times supplied hangings of a very grand character, the reliefs heightening the effect of the colours and metals employed in their ornamentation.

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 this description of hanging. Henry IV., like others, held this industry in great esteem, and endeavoured to encourage it by establishing workshops in the Faubourgs Saint Jacques and Saint Honore. It would, doubtless, be very difficult at present to distinguish the productions of the various ateliers one from the other, but 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 was continued. Attempts were early made to replace them by 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 alone could afford to hang the walls of their apartments with figured and printed velvets, with silk damasks of the "crown" 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, whence arose the idea of imitating the silk hangings by a process of printing upon paper, producing the appearance and effect of those fabrics. The path in this new direction was first practically opened in England. We say practically, because even so early as the time of Francis I., France had made some more or less successful essays in the same direction. The first English paperhangings were found fault with especially for their lack of solidity and of power to resist moisture. Towards the close of the seventeenth century the French make showed a decided improvement, and in 1688 it received an impulse from Jean Papillon, which was destined to prove of a permanent nature. Jacques Chauveau brought the paper "a rentrees de plusieurs planches" to perfection, while Jean-Gabriel Huguier imitated the English makes.

Chair decorated with gauffered leather; beginning of the seventeenth century. (Baron des Valliere's Collection).

In 1756, Aubert, a tradesman and engraver in the Rue Saint Jacques, near the Fontaine Saint Severin, at the sign of the Butterfly, announced that he had discovered the true method of manufacturing the flock or English papers, in imitation of damask and Utrecht velvet, in one or more colours, and suited for tapestries, fire-screens, and altar frontals. There is no occasion here to say what this description has become in the hands of the present manufacturers.

Another make, described by Papillon in his "Traite de la gravure en bois," was produced in Frankfort, 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 champleve en plates of yellow copper, which was printed off by the copperplate printer in mezzotint, after having been sufficiently heated to make the sheet or leaf of metal adhere to the paper.

These papers, we repeat, were scarcely at all used except by the middle classes, and not before the middle of the eighteenth 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 M. Courajod, is always to the Indian and Chinese papers, and not to the still defective painted papers produced by the French manufacturers.

This rapid sketch, introduced in order to leave no gap in the history of furniture, may here be concluded with a few words on the subject of leather, as applied more especially 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 sixteenth century, in which a back band made fast to the two arms by means of fancy nails, bore in embossed relief some elegantly designed armorial bearings. In France and the neighbouring states the use of gauffered leather became very general in the seventeenth century. In the Musee de Cluny may be seen a pretty chair of Spanish workmanship decorated by means of ornamental punches or dies. There are also some arm-chairs and 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. that 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.

Further on, however, we shall find leather worked up into sundry artistic objects, such as caskets, boxes, flasks, etc.