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Request to view at the Prints & Drawings Study Room, level C , Case DW, Shelf 5 (1)

Wallpaper

ca. 1760 (printed)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

This paper was designed to imitate a 'print room'. This was a room decorated with prints that had been pasted on to the walls, with the addition of printed paper frames and borders. It was intended to give the impression of a room hung with framed pictures. Designing and installing a print room was a fashionable hobby for the wealthy in the 1760s and 1770s. Using a wallpaper with a 'print room' design was a cheaper way of achieving the same effect. This is one of several print room papers from Doddington Hall, Lincolnshire; it was hung as part of the major redecoration of the house undertaken by Sir John Hussey Delaval around 1760.

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Object details

Categories
Object type
Materials and techniques
Colour woodblock print, on paper
Brief description
Portion of wallpaper with a design of framed prints and medallions interspersed with sprays of flowers, printed in black, brown, pale blue, grey, white and pink on a bright blue ground; Colour woodblock print, on paper; Stamped on the back with the Georgian Excise duty stamp; From Doddington Hall, Lincolnshire; English, ca. 1760.
Physical description
Portion of wallpaper with a design of framed prints and medallions interspersed with sprays of flowers, printed in black, brown, pale blue, grey, white and pink on a bright blue ground; Colour woodblock print, on paper; Stamped on the back with the Georgian Excise duty stamp.
Dimensions
  • Portion height: 81.6cm
  • Portion width: 54.3cm
Dimensions from: 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.
Style
Credit line
Given by Mr G. E. Jarvis
Object history
Given by Mr G. E. Jarvis.

Provenance: Doddington Hall, Lincolnshire.
Doddington Hall was ‘Georgianized’ by Sir John Hussey Delaval, circa 1760. This paper and E.472-1914, E,473-1914 and E.475-1914 were formerly attributed to John Baptist Jackson.
Historical context
One of the medallions shows a pair of lovers seated on a garden bench, a design which relates to one by C. N. Cochin the Younger, of circa 1745, and to designs engraved by Robert Hancock for use on Battersea enamels, Worcester and Bow porcelain (see Cyril Cook, The Life and Work of Robert Hancock, London, 1948, item 2, fig 3 and pp 29 and 59). Examples of an enamel and of porcelain showing variants of this design are in the Department of Ceramics (VAM): a Bow plate, printed in red (no 2908-1901), Worcester cups and saucers (Schreiber Collection, vol I, p 651) and a Staffordshire enamel snuff-box (Schreiber Collection, vol III, p 344). See SE, pl 3; Greysmith, pl 36.
Production
Doddington Hall was ‘Georgianized’ by Sir John Hussey Delaval, circa 1760. This paper and E.472-1914, E,473-1914 and E.475-1914 were formerly attributed to John Baptist Jackson.
Subjects depicted
Summary
This paper was designed to imitate a 'print room'. This was a room decorated with prints that had been pasted on to the walls, with the addition of printed paper frames and borders. It was intended to give the impression of a room hung with framed pictures. Designing and installing a print room was a fashionable hobby for the wealthy in the 1760s and 1770s. Using a wallpaper with a 'print room' design was a cheaper way of achieving the same effect. This is one of several print room papers from Doddington Hall, Lincolnshire; it was hung as part of the major redecoration of the house undertaken by Sir John Hussey Delaval around 1760.
Bibliographic references
  • 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.
  • Saunders, Gill. Wallpaper in Interior Decoration. V&A Publications. London. 2002. pp. 86-87. pl 72.
Collection
Accession number
E.474-1914

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Record createdDecember 3, 2002
Record URL
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