Wall Paper Wholesaling

Abstract

WT ALL PAPER may be classified as part of the home furnishings industry, although exceptions set it apart. Consumer distribution is specialized through wholesalers' showrooms, independent retail stores, paint and wall paper chains, and paperhanger direct sales. While department stores carry wall paper, the product more frequently is handled through leased departments than by department stores' own merchandising as in the case of other home furnishings. Differences may be noted also in the historical development of wall paper distribution and in the handling of the product because of the influence of the paperhanger who both sells and applies wall paper. The oldest extant piece of wall paper was removed from Christ's College, Cambridge, England. It dates back to 1509, but a still earlier usage was movable hangings in the fashion of tapestries ordered by Louis XI in France as painted scrolls for his palaces. From the fifteenth century to date, wall paper design followed fashions or periods of decoration. In colonial days, wall papers were imported from France, England and China as general articles of American merchandise in the early eighteenth century. In I730, however, wall paper was first offered in rolls. Judging by contemporary advertisements, Plunkett Fleeson of Philadelphia was one of the original American suppliers. In 1790 the John Howell & Son factory was founded in Albany but it was not until 1844 that this mill imported a multiple colorprinting machine in its Philadelphia factory. Today machine-made paper is