Old Time Wall Papers: An Account of the Pictorial Papers on Our Forefathers' Walls with a Study of the Historical Development of Wall Paper Making and DecorationSanborn, Kate
History
Old Time Wall Papers: An Account of the Pictorial Papers on Our Forefathers' Walls with a Study of the Historical Development of Wall Paper Making and Decoration
Sanborn, Kate
Interior decoration -- History; Wallpaper
The great development of the home manufacture of wall-papers, at the
beginning of the nineteenth century, put an end to the importation from
China. The English were probably the first importers of these highly
decorative Chinese papers, and quickly imitated them by printing the
papers. These "_papiers Anglais_" soon became known on the Continent,
and the French were also at work as rivals in their manufacture and use.
Of a book published in 1847, called _The Laws of Harmonious Colouring_,
the author, one David R. Hay, was house painter and decorator to the
Queen. I find that he was employed as a decorator and paper-hanger by
Sir Walter Scott, and he says that Sir Walter directed everything
personally. Mr. Hay speaks of a certain Indian paper, of crimson color,
with a small gilded pattern upon it. "This paper Sir Walter did not
quite approve of for a dining-room, but as he got it as a present,
expressly for that purpose, and as he believed it to be rare, he would
have it put up in that room rather than hurt the feelings of the donor.
I observed to Sir Walter that there would be scarcely enough to cover
the wall; he replied in that case I might paint the recess for the
side-board in imitation of oak." Mr. Hay found afterwards that there was
quite enough paper, but Sir Walter, when he saw the paper on the recess,
heartily wished that the paper had fallen short, as he liked the recess
much better unpapered. So in the night Mr. Hay took off the paper and
painted the recess to look like paneled oak. This was in 1822.
Sir Walter, in a letter to a friend, speaks of "the most splendid
Chinese paper, twelve feet high by four wide; enough to finish the
drawing-room and two bed-rooms, the color being green, with rich Chinese
figures." Scott's own poem, _The Lady of the Lake_, has been a favorite
theme for wall-paper.
Professor W. E. D. Scott, the Curator of Ornithology at Princeton
College, in his recent book, _The Story of a Bird Lover_, alludes, in a
chapter about his childhood, to the papers on the walls of his
grandfather's home: "As a boy, the halls interested me enormously; they
have been papered with such wall-paper as I have never seen elsewhere.
The entrance hall portrayed a vista of Paris, apparently arranged along
the Seine, with ladies and gentlemen promenading the banks, and all the
notable buildings, the Pantheon, Notre Dame, and many more distributed
in the scene, the river running in front.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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