Wallpaper ` Wallpaper was first used in China in 200B.C. As the Chinese passed this knowledge to other cultures, the uses and methods of making paper improved with each generation and as other cultures added their own touches. ` ` In 1841 Jean Bourdichon painted 50 rolls of paper with angels on a blue background for Louis XI of France. The paper was used to decorate his various residences. Other of the elite set, soon began hiring painters to create these painted paper wall coverings for them. ` `The oldest known pieces of European wallpaper still in existence are from 1509 and were found on the beams of the Lodge of Christ's College in Cambridge, England. ` ` In 1675, Jean-Michel Papillon, began making block designs in identical, repetitive patterns on rolls of paper and wallpaper as we know it today was born. ` ` Americans began using wallpaper in 1739, when it was introduced by the Philadelphia printer, Plunket Fleeson. ` In 1778, Louis XVI issued a decree that required the length of a wallpaper roll be about 34 feet. ` ` Around the turn of the 20th century wallpaper pasting machines were invented. `
` During the 1920s nearly 400 million rolls of wallpaper were sold, resulting in the decade being dubbed the Golden Age of Wallpaper. ` After WWII, wallpaper was improved with plastic resins which made it more durable, washable and stain resistant. ` The United States Guild of Professional Paperhangers began in 1974.
