French Ribbons and Jean-Michel Papillon

October 21, 2024 2 Comments

Long ago, wallpaper as we now know it didn’t really exist. However, in 1675, a man named Jean-Michel Papillon invented repeating pattern wallpapers, or as it was known then, “wall hangings” or “tapestry papers”. Papillon was a member of the Guild of Dominotiers, who made decorated domino papers, decorated playing cards, prints, and other engravings and illustrations. Papillon’s designs were different than before, however. His were intended to be placed in a tiled fashion on the wall, so that it would create a repeating pattern for covering a larger sized surface.

Wallpaper by Jean-Michel Papillon, c. 1710.

When we started Papillon Press in 2017, we did not know about the existence of Jean-Michel Papillon. Our name came to Vernon in a dream, after he saw a lovely endpaper with a butterfly in it, found in a German book from 1880. Imagine my surprise when doing research for this blog post, and finding out how aptly named we really are!

Endpaper, Leipzig, c. 1880

We started Papillon Press with the intention of reviving historical patterns, mostly endpapers, as Vernon came from the bookbinding world, but many of those designs would have doubled as wallpapers or other items, like coverings for boxes. Alongside our revivals, we have also created our own original designs, with thoughts along the line of “What would have someone maybe created in 1890s France, but never got around to?”. That is how our French Ribbons design came to be. I’d been doing some research on historical domino papers, and found one in the collection of Olga Hirsch, a bookbinder and collector of decorated papers. This print was originally made in Paris, in approx. 1790. In 1968, she gave her whole collection to the British Museum.

Domino Paper from Les Associés, Paris c. 1790.

I really liked the format of the design, the stripes made it unique to anything we currently had in our collection. However, I was less enthusiastic about many of the floral elements. I found them strange, but not whimsical enough, so I decided to rework the design. I would keep the format of vines and stripes, but then recreate the floral elements with my acquired knowledge of design conventions of the time.

French Ribbons Drawing (& cat), Papillon Press, 2023

After I was content with the reimagined design, I scanned the drawing, and Vernon printed it out on a piece of mylar. We then glued the mylar to the cherry woodblock, and once dry, peeled it away. This process results in the black ink from the printer staying on the woodblock making it much easier to see where to carve, without the need to re-draw the entire piece.

Woodblock with design printed on it, Papillon Press, 2023.

Carving this woodblock took me about 50 hours. The symmetry was very important to me, and I wanted to make sure that that was reflected in the final result. After carving, we printed them on our Potter Proof Press, made in 1910. We printed on 100% cotton rag paper, handmade in India by Khadi Papers using offcuts from the garment industry.

French Ribbons Woodblock, Papillon Press, 2023.

After printing, we paint! We’ve painted French Ribbons in three different colorways. Blue, as an homage to the original, a bright and saturated colorway to match our Oiseau et Rose, and Sunset, a more muted and subtle colorway.