History of wood block printed wallpaper

When people think about wood block printing, the Indian textile industry comes to mind. However, the UK once had a strong tradition of wood block printing, which was the traditional method for making wallpaper in the late 18th and 19th centuries. This originated with the West's discovery of printing techniques from Asia.

Wood block printing was particularly favoured by William Morris who had his own printworks in Merton Abbey. In Morris’ time, there were machines available to print wallpaper, however, he looked down on the quality as inferior. Only wood block printing could achieve the depth of colour he wanted, but only the wealthy could afford the wallpaper as the process was labour intensive.

The design is first drawn on paper and then placed over a wood block to be chiseled out. For a multi-coloured patterned wallpaper, the process requires a different block for each colour. After the background colour is applied to a long stretch of paper, the blocks are used in a sequence to build up the pattern. There are 'registration' marks on the blocks which mean that they can be aligned in the correct position.

(This is the Indian method of carving which has largely been lost in the UK)

Today there are still a few companies which make wallpaper by hand using wood blocks. The company Adelphi has an excellent website which explains the process. Also look at Zuber and Watts 1874