COOPER HEWITT Smithsonian Design Museum 04.10.20 — 07.19.20
wareness of the extensive use of wallpapers in American home dĂŠcor from the 18th through the middle of the 20th centuries has increased dramatically in recent decades. Styles and fashions of wallpaper and how it was used in interior decoration have varied from century to century and decade to decade, but an interest in the styles of the past has long been a factor in the design and production of walllpaper. Today, just about every wallpaper manufacturer offers traditional and even reproduction patterns, but quality and authenticity vary greatly. If you are familiar with historical variations in wallpaper patterns, production methods, popularity, and usage you will better be able to decide which paper is the most historically appropriate for your period home. Wall decoration dates back as far as the earliest cave paintings. People have used leather and fabric hung on their walls and windows to keep the drafts out -- and what little heat there was in -- for centuries. By the middle ages, the wealthy were using elaborate tapestries in their castles and palaces for this purpose.
STAMPING A PART OF HISTORY The earliest known record of wallpaper in the Western world dates to 1481, when King Louis XI of France commissioned Jean Bourdichon to paint 50 rolls of paper with angels on a blue background so that he could take his wall decorations with him as he moved from one castle to another. Unfortunately, none of that paper itself has survived. The earliest known wallpaper that still exists was discovered in 1911 on the beams at Christ’s College in Cambridge, England. It dates to 1509 and features an Italian pomegranate design printed by woodcut on the back of a proclamation issued by Henry VIII. At the same time, across the English Channel, French craftsmen were producing single sheets of decorated papers for the middle-class market. However, these served more as pictures that covered cracks in the wall than a wall treatment or major element of home décor. In the late 1500s, the first paper hangers’ guild was formed in France. Sixteenth century “wallpaper” was either a geometric pattern printed by a single carved wood block or more complicated designs of crests, urns, and flowers printed by several blocks. Outlined designs were printed in black on individual sheets of paper and color was then applied with a stencil.
CROWDS WERE FLOCKING TO EXTRAVAGANCE In the early 1600s, the French introduced flocked wallpaper. Flock is powdered wool or silk left over from the manufacture of cloth. The background color was applied first and the design was then stenciled on with a slow-drying adhesive. The flock was scattered onto the adhesive and a velvet-like pile was left on the design. Flocked wallpaper that imitated cut velvet was very popular but more expensive. English flocked papers (papiers d’Angleterre) were considered superior to French and fans of the English product included Madame de Pompadour, who used English flock papers in the interior decorating of her apartments at Versailles and in the Chateau de Champs. Though called wallpaper, the early versions were not attached directly to the wall. Instead, the individual sheets were pasted onto linen and then attached to the walls with copper tacks, with or without a wood frame. Wallpaper borders were used to hide those tacks and did not come into its own as a decorative element until some time later.
THE WHIMSICALITY OF CHINOISERIE AND INFLUENCE FROM THE EAST Prior to the 1700s, wallpaper was usually used in less important rooms, with the walls in “public” rooms hung with fabric, but with advances in printing and the commissioning of artists to design custom papers, wallpaper was no longer relegated to private quarters and the demand increased. At first, in addition to flocked papers that imitated cut velvet, trompe l’oeil papers (papers that “fooled the eye”) of architectural details, marble, and wood were most fashionable, and were often used with borders depicting swags of fabric or tassels. In the early 18th century, the most beautiful and extravagant wallpapers in European and the American colonial homes came from China. “Chinoiserie” objects were in fashion and very much
sought after. Interestingly, Chinese homes were completely devoid of patterned or painted wallpapers. Scholars believe that sets of painted wallpaper were specially created by Chinese merchants to give as gifts to their European trading partners. These hand-painted papers were much higher in quality than their European counterparts of the time and provided the impetus for improvements in the wallpaper industry, especially in France. In 1712, because the use of wallpaper had become so prevalent, the English introduced a tax on paper that was “painted, printed or stained to serve as hangings”. To outwit the taxman, wallpapers were being colored by hand after being hung on the wall. Still the industry grew and in 1773, Parliament repealed the tax, but customs duties were still levied.
WHEN THE WORLD BECAME REVOLUTIONIZED Until industrialization, the wallpapers and techniques from the mid-to-late 1700s remained popular. Grisaille (meaning they were done entirely in gray tones) murals featuring mythological scenes and landscapes were fashionable additions to neoclassical home dĂŠcor. These were intended to be monochromatic and create a sculptural illusion. Toward that end, many were strongly shaded to add a dimensional quality. The first wallpaper-printing machine was patented by the British textile printers Potters and Ross in 1839. Each color required a separate roller, and synthetic pigments like ultramarine blue and chrome yellow were used on rolls of continuous paper made from wood pulp instead of cotton-on-linen-rag fiber, greatly reducing the manufacturing costs. The scale of the design was also affected by machine printing, as the circumference of the new rollers was relatively small, so the size of each repeat was reduced. Machine printing also made the wallpaper more affordable to the new middle class of the Victorian era, which contributed to the popularity and what some may call the excessive use of wallpaper during that period.
MAKING WAY FOR THE GOLDEN AGE As grand and elaborate as wallpaper was in the Victorian Era, the 1920s remain its Golden Age, with over 400 million rolls sold during that decade. Again, technological advancements were key: wallpaper pasting machines appeared in the early 1900s and the first mechanical silk screen machine was invented in 1920. For the first time, wallpaper designers did not just borrow from the past. Futurist and Cubist designs were produced and there were both modern and traditional styles available. By the late 1920s wallpaper had become so ubiquitous that the elite turned up their noses at it and reverted to using silks and painted finishes on their walls.
After WWII, the use of plastic resins revolutionized the wallpaper industry. Vinyl wallpaper, introduced in 1947, offered increased stain resistance, washability, durability, and strength. Pre-pasted papers first appeared in the early 1950s, but by that time wallpaper was beginning to fall into disfavor. Modernism was all about spareness and embellishments, including wallpaper, were frowned upon.
THE RESURGENCE Now, in the early 21st century, we talk of wallcoverings instead of wallpapers and the field encompasses materials not even dreamed of by wallpaper manufacturers of the past. Recent advances in digital, photo, and printing technologies have allowed modern printing facilities to easily create one-of-a-kind or custom papers and to replicate historic designs. (However, it should be noted that many purists and old house restorers prefer those printed by hand the old-fashioned way, either with blocks or silk screens.) Wallpapers/coverings are once again enjoying widespread popularity in interior dĂŠcor, at least in part as a reaction to sterile work environments and cookie-cutter homes and apartments. In addition, wallpaper fits every budget (especially if you take advantage of the fabulous deals on ebay) and is an easy way to express your creativity and create an unprecedented variety of looks. Nothing effects the mood and style of a room like your choice of wallpaper.
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