Decorative schemes in the Aesthetic style often included imitation leather wallpapers. Some arbiters of taste, such as the writer Oscar Wilde (1854-1900), preferred them to conventional wallpapers because of the rich and luxurious effect they created. He recommended their use in his series of lectures on interior decoration. He also hung a Japanese leather paper in the drawing room of his ‘house beautiful’ at 16 Tite Street, London. This paper was one of several made for Liberty & Co., the London department store. Liberty’s specialised in Aesthetic style and oriental furnishings. The paper may have been made in Japan, where there were a number of workshops specialising in the production of imitation leather papers in the later 19th century. They manufactured them for the European market.