which could hardly have come from the presses of
Jackson or Pasquali.

[Footnote 35: Gallo, 1941, pp. 23-23. Jackson's blocks are not
listed in the Remondini catalog of 1817.]

_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