The word “toile” comes from the French word for linen cloth. The word is shortened from the full name toile de Jouy, which means linen or cloth from the town of Jouy-en-Josas, in the suburbs of Paris. Toile de Jouy, (French: “fabric of Jouy”, ) also called Jouy Print, cotton or linen printed with designs of landscapes and figures for which the 18th-century factory of Jouy-en-Josas, near Versailles, Fr., was famous.
The Jouy factory was started in 1760 by a Franco-German, Christophe-Philippe Oberkampf. His designs were printed originally from woodblocks alone but from 1770 from copperplates as well, this innovation having been anticipated in England in 1757. English printed cottons of similar subjects (such as those of Old Ford, c. 1760–80) had a parallel development and achieved standards as high as Jouy; the term toile de Jouy has come to be used loosely for the Jouy type of printed cottons produced in England and at other French factories. A strong, if limited, vogue for them in upholstery and wallpaper continued.