[ England Again: The Wallpaper Venture]
Jackson was married in Venice—whether to an Italian we do not know—and when he left the city in 1745 to return to England he took a family along. He mentions “an impoverish’d Family” in the Essay, but beyond this we know nothing of his personal life.
As soon as he arrived in England he was invited to work in a calico establishment, where he remained about six years. But making drawings to be printed on cloth failed to give him the scope he required. At the back of his mind was the passion to work with woodblocks in color. This led him to take a bold and hazardous step—to leave his position and attempt, obviously with little capital, the manufacture of wallpaper, not to please an established taste but to educate the public to a new type of product.
Wallpaper had come into popular use in England in the late 17th century, having been obtained from China by the East India Company. These hand-painted wall hangings, imported at great cost and in small quantities, were correspondingly expensive. The subjects were gay and fanciful—birds, fans, Chinese kiosks, pagodas, and flowers. Highly desired because they offered an escape from the heavy grandeur of the Baroque style, they were subsequently imitated by assembly-line methods. They fitted naturally into the developing rocaille style (corrupted into Rococo outside of France), and it is not surprising that they were also produced extensively in Paris. In England these imitations, which formed a substitute for expensive velvet and damask hangings, completely dominated the wallpaper field.
The first notice of Jackson’s venture appeared in the Gentleman’s Magazine of February 1752.[36] A letter signed “Y. D.” praised the editor “Sylvanus Urban” for attempting to revive the art of cutting on wood. It mentioned that this art was in decline for more than a century, but noted that—
Two of our countrymen, E. Kirkall and J. B. Jackson, ought to be exempted from this general charge; the former having a few years ago introduced the Chiaro Oscuro of Hugo de Carpi into England, though he met with no extraordinary encouragement for his ingenuity; and the art had died with him had not the latter attempted to revive it, but with less encouragement than his predecessor. Mr. Jackson, however, has lately invented a new method of printing paper hangings from blocks, which is very ornamental, and exceeds the common method of paper-staining (as it is termed) by the delicacy of his drawings, the novelty of his designs, and the masterly arrangement of his principal figures.
The next notice appeared in the London Evening Post of April 30-May 2, 1752:
New invented Paper Hangings, printed in Oyl, which prevents the fading or changing of the Colours; as also Landscapes printed in Colours, by J. B. Jackson, Reviver of the Art of printing in Chiaro Oscuro, are to be had at Dunbar’s Warehouse in Aldermanbury, London; or Mr. Gibson’s, Bookseller, opposite the St. Alban’s Tavern in Charles-street near St. James’s-Square, and no where else.
Several months afterwards, in the September 1752 issue of Gentleman’s Magazine, publication of the Enquiry into the Origins of Printing in Europe was announced.