Wallpaper

Physical description

Reconstruction of a piece of wallpaper with a conventional pomegranate design; incorporated within the design, the letter H and a goose (a rebus of Hugo Goes); Machine print on paper.

Place of Origin

England, Great Britain (manufactured)

Date

ca. 1509 (made)

Artist/maker

Goes, Hugo (Maker, Designer)

Materials and Techniques

Machine print on paper

Dimensions

Height: 76.4 cm, Width: 53.3 cm

Object history note

Given by Sir Charles Allom.
Provenance: The Master's Lodge, Christ's College, Cambridge

The pattern was printed on the back of sheets of paper with letterpress and contains certain references to the first year of Henry VIII's reign (1509). This was the year in which The Master's Lodge, Christ's Church College, is known to have been built.
The reconstruction was the work of Horace Warner of Jeffrey & Co.

Descriptive line

Reconstruction of a piece of wallpaper with a conventional pomegranate design; incorporated within the design, the letter 'H' and a goose (a rebus of Hugo Goes); Machine print on paper; Provenance: The Master's Lodge, Christ's College, Cambridge; Reconstruction by Horace Warner of Jeffrey & Co.; English; ca. 1509.

Bibliographic References (Citation, Note/Abstract, NAL no)

Oman, Charles C., and Hamilton, Jean. Wallpapers: a history and illustrated catalogue of the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum. London: Sotheby Publications, in association with the Victoria and Albert Museum, 1982.
The full text of the entry is as follows:

'1
Reconstruction of a piece of a conventional pomegranate design; incorporated within the design, the letter H and a goose (a rebus of Hugo Goes)
Circa 1509
Machine print
76.4 x 53.3 cm
PROVENANCE The Master's Lodge, Christ's College, Cambridge
Given by Sir Charles Allom
E.1783-1914 neg 49088

See SE pls 1-3; Greysmith, pl 10. A lithographed facsimile was given by Professor W. R. Lethaby (E.539-1912). The pattern relates to Italian textile designs imported into this country in the 15th century; it also bears comparison with a leather hanging, possibly Spanish, on the walls of a house, which is now part of the Plantin-Moretus Museum, Antwerp (J. W. Waterer, Spanish Leather (1971), pl 8).
Hugo Goes was a maker of woodcuts and a printer who, after leaving Beverley, settled at York, where he was in 1509. He may subsequently have come to London.
The pattern was printed on the back of sheets of paper with letterpress and contains certain references to the first year of Henry VIII's reign (1509). This was the year in which the Lodge is known to have been built. The reconstruction was the work of Horace Warner (q.v.) of Jeffrey & Co. See C. Sayle, 'Cambridge Fragments', The Library (1911-12), 3rd series, vol II, p 340; A. E. Shipley, 'The Master's Lodgings, Christ's College, Cambridge', Country Life (1916), vol 40, 406-12.'

NB: 'SE' refers to; Sugden, A. V., and Edmondson, J. L. A History of English Wallpaper. 1509-1914. London, 1926.
'Greysmith' refers to; Greysmith, Brenda. Wallpaper. London, 1976.

Production Note

Provenance: The Master's Lodge, Christ's College, Cambridge.

Materials

Paper

Techniques

Machine print

Subjects depicted

Goose; Pomegranate (design)

Categories

Prints; Wall coverings

Collection code

PDP