Christy & Constant

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Christy, Constant & Co. factory building on West 23rd Street, circa 1865
Wallpaper production in the same factory, shown on the title page of Scientific American of July 24, 1880

Christy and Constant was one of the largest producers of wallpaper in the United States during the second half of the 19th century . The company's seat and production site was New York .

The Boston entrepreneur Thomas Christy began importing and / or manufacturing paper wallpapers as early as 1836. In 1842 his brother-in-law Samuel S. Constant became a partner. The factory was initially located in Maiden Lane. Around 1850, industrial production began in a new five-story factory building on West 23rd Street , which at the time was one of the largest industrial facilities in the United States. According to a description from 1868, there were four large rotary presses with 12 cylinders each, each of which could print up to 24,000 yards of wallpaper with up to eight colors at the same time, on the ground floor of the building . In addition to other presses for borders and finer wallpapers (e.g. for gold printing or satin wallpapers), there were paint mortars and mixing devices on the upper floors. The company's offices were at 48 Murray Street.

According to the 1860 census , the company employed 150 people and had annual sales of $ 250,000. Christy and Constant hardly advertised in contemporary newspapers and magazines and, unlike many of their competitors, did not open a representative exhibition space on Broadway, which suggests that they primarily acted as wholesalers. With changing partners, the company changed its name repeatedly after 1872 (1872–73: Christy, Constant & Shepherd ; 1874–84 Christy, Shepherd & Garrett ; 1884–87 Christy, Shepherd & Walcott ); Production was stopped in 1887.

The company appears to have sourced its samples from France; there is no evidence of having its own design department. Hardly any statements can be made about the samples themselves, as only one wallpaper has survived to date that can be assigned to the manufacturer with some certainty.

literature

  • J. Leander Bishop: A History of American Manufactures from 1608-1860 . Volume III. Edward Young & Co., Philadelphia 1868. pp. 179ff.
  • Amelia Peck: The Products of Empire: Shopping for Home Decorations in New York City . In: Catherine Hoover Voorsanger, John K Howat (eds.): Art and the Empire City. New York, 1825-61. Yale University Press, New Haven and London 2000. pp. 259-285.