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
One of the oldest houses in Windsor, Vermont, still has a charming
parlor paper, with landscape and water, boats, castles, ruins and
picturesque figures, which was imported and hung about 1810. This house
was built by the Honorable Edward R. Campbell, a prominent Vermonter in
his day, and here were entertained President Monroe and other notable
visitors. Later the Campbell house was occupied for some years by Salmon
P. Chase. It is now the home of the Sabin family.
A Boston antique dealer wrote me: "In an article of yours in _The House
Beautiful_, you have a photograph of the paper of the old Perry House,
Keene, N. H. We want to say that we have in our possession here at this
store, strung up temporarily, a paper with the same subject. It forms a
complete scene, there being thirty pieces in attractive old shades of
brown. We bought this from a family in Boston some little time ago, and
it is said to have been made in France for a planter in New Orleans in
or before 1800. We feel we would be excused in saying that this is the
most interesting lot of any such thing in existence. It has been handed
down from family to family, and they, apparently, have shown it, because
the bottom ends of some of the sheets are considerably worn from
handling. You understand this paper was never hung on the wall and it is
just as it was originally made." He fairly raves over the beautiful rich
browns and cream and "O! such trees!"
To my inquiry whether his price for this paper was really two thousand
dollars, as I had heard, he replied, "We would be very sorry to sell the
paper for two thousand dollars, for it is worth five thousand."
An artist who called to examine the paper is equally enthusiastic. He
writes: "I was greatly impressed by the remarkably fine execution of the
entire work. Doubtless it was printed by hand with engraved blocks. A
large per cent of the shading, especially the faces of the charming
figures, was surely done by hand, and all is the production of a
superior artist. There are several sections, each perhaps three feet
square, of such fine design, grouping, finish and execution of light and
shade, as to make them easily samples of such exquisite nicety and
comprehensive artistic work as to warrant their being framed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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