Lincrusta
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Lincrusta is an embossed fabric used for covering walls, similar in style to anaglypta. It was invented by Frederick Walton in 1877 and is also called Lincrusta-Walton or Lincrusta Walton. It was designed to emulate more expensive materials and hence be more oriented to a mass market. These materials were used to enrich the interiors of late Victorian architecture and now used for historic restoration projects.
The primary ingredients of lincrusta, linseed oil and wood pulp, are the same as those of linoleum, which was also invented by Walton. The fabric is embossed and colored to resemble tooled leather or pressed metal, and then applied to the wall. It was chiefly used for friezes and dados. Specialized techniques were used to apply this finish material, and it is not often seen outside historical reproductions.
When composer William Walton was living with the Sitwell family, they punningly referred to him as Lincrusta Walton, possibly because they saw him as adhering tightly to the family.
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This article incorporates text from the public domain 1907 edition of The Nuttall Encyclopædia.
"Linoleum, another material introduced in the latter half of the nineteenth century, was invented by an Englishman. Legend has it that one day the young Frederick Walton noticed a skin of oxidized linseed oil coating a jar of paint. He peeled it off and began playing with the rubber-like substance, thinking of ways to use it. Eventually in 1860, after many trials, he patented his formula, compounding the name from two Latin words: linum (flax--from which linseed oil is made) and oleum (oil). In 1864, Walton set up a factory in England to produce his mixture of oxidized linseed oil, ground cork dust, and assorted gums and pigments which were pressed together by heavy rollers onto a canvas backing. By 1866, the Linoleum Manufacturing Company was reporting steady sales, and by 1869, it was exporting to the United States and the Continent"
http://www.nhc.rtp.nc.us/ideasv51/simpson.htm
As a Walton family member, this is the accurate version of how Frederick Walton founded his company and eventually ended up with a factory on Staten Island in America.
