ABSTRACT
Henry Clay is credited with producing papier mache goods, including furniture, on a commercial scale in England. The ornamenting of papier mache was an integral part of the process and was the subject of several further patent applications. George Wallis, discussing the displays at the New York Exhibition of 1854, noted that the papier-mache furniture designs were ‘all mediocrity, being chiefly imitations of the worst style of pearl inlaying and japan work executed in England. George Dodd was an English journalist and writer, who wrote articles on industrial art in the Penny Cyclopaedia, the English Cyclopaedia and supplements. The cuttings of paper, produced by the principal applications of that material, form a very large portion of the supply whence papier mache is made. The papier-mache contributions to the Great Exhibition from the Messrs. The black polished surface of ordinary papier-mache trays is produced by black japan varnish, applied by women with a brush.
