The painted paper of the eighteenth century was sold at first in sheets, 22 by 32 inches, called elephant size. Later these were pasted together to make 12 yard lengths. In the earlier stages of manufacture the designs were colored by hand. Stencils of pasteboard were used, and in the last half of the eighteenth century blocks of pear and sycamore wood were used, as in calico printing. One who painted coats of arms and other things pertaining to heraldry, as well as one who painted or stained linen cloth, was known as a "painter stainer." So, also, those who stained colored or stamped paper for hangings were known as "paper stainers."
When Thomas Hancock built his house on Beacon Hill he desired painted paper for some of his rooms. Extracts from his letter to John Rowe, stationer, London, explain his wants:
"Sir: Inclosed you have the Dimensions of a Room for a shaded Hanging to be Done after the same Pattern I have sent per Capt. Tanner. The pattern is all that was left of a Room lately come over here, and it takes much in ye Town and will be the only paper-hanging for sale here which am of opinion may Answer well.... If they can make it more beautiful by adding more Birds flying here and there, with some Landskips at the Bottom, Should like it well. Let the Ground be the same colour of the Pattern. At the top and bottom was a narrow Border of about 2 inches wide which would have to mine....
"A hanging done much handsomer sent over three or four years previous was made by Dunbar in Aldermanbury....
"In other of these Hangings are great variety of different Sorts of Birds, Peacocks, Macoys, Squirrill, Monkys, Fruit and Flowers, etc.... I think they are handsomer and better than Painted hangings done in Oyle so I beg your particular Care in procuring this for me and that the patterns may be taken care off and Return'd with my Goods."--_Letter of Thomas Hancock to John Rowe, Stationer, in London_, Jan. 23, 1737/8.
In the eighteenth-century Boston newspapers may be found numerous items showing the use of wall paper and the fact that it frequently was imported from England. But while it is true that it could be purchased in the shops in Boston it does not follow that rooms in every house were papered. Nor is it likely that the rooms of houses in the country had papered walls save when the owner was a wealthy man. London fashions would first be found transplanted into the seaport towns and later would be adopted by the country. Undoubtedly the home of the Governor, or of some well-to-do sea captain, was the first house to be so decorated. On September 22, 1762, died Daniel Starr of Boston, "who has been for many years employed in Papering Rooms." This item appears in the news items of the _Boston News-Letter_. Eight years later the same newspaper prints the following advertisement: