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Wallpaper - Wallpaper

Wallpaper

  • Object:

    Wallpaper

  • Place of origin:

    Manchester (probably, made)

  • Date:

    ca. 1870-1880 (made)

  • Artist/Maker:

    Unknown (maker)
    Heywood, Higginbottom & Smith (manufacturers)

  • Materials and Techniques:

    Colour machine print, on paper

  • Credit Line:

    Given by the Wall Paper Manufacturers Ltd

  • Museum number:

    E.1819-1934

  • Gallery location:

    Prints & Drawings Study Room, level C, case MB2B, shelf DR58, box DW3I

In his novel Hard Times (1854), Charles Dickens parodied some of the views of those people in the early 1850s who were promoting reform in design. To illustrate the faults of popular wallpaper patterns to a class of schoolchildren, his fictional official contemptuously describes a paper with repeated naturalistic images of horses. However, it is unlikely that a paper such as this one in the V&A’s collection would have been used in an ordinary domestic context. The subject matter would have made it an appropriate decoration for a public house, a games room or a sportsmen's club.

Physical description

Portion of wallpaper with a design of medallions containing pictorial representations of horse-racing scenes; Colour machine print, on paper.

Place of Origin

Manchester (probably, made)

Date

ca. 1870-1880 (made)

Artist/maker

Unknown (maker)
Heywood, Higginbottom & Smith (manufacturers)

Materials and Techniques

Colour machine print, on paper

Dimensions

Height: 42.6 cm, Width: 56.2 cm

Object history note

Given by the Wall Paper Manufacturers Ltd.

Descriptive line

Portion of wallpaper with a design of medallions containing pictorial representations of horse-racing scenes; Colour machine print; Probably by Heywood, Higginbottom & Smith, Manchester; English; ca. 1870-80.

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.
Saunders, Gill. Wallpaper in Interior Decoration. V&A Publications. London. 2002. pp. 89. pl 106.
Victoria & Albert Museum Department of Engraving, Illustration and Design & Department of Paintings Accessions 1934 London: Published under the Authority of the Board of Education, 1935

Materials

Paper

Techniques

Colour machine print

Subjects depicted

Trophies; Horse-racing; Horses; Medallions (ornament areas); People; Jockeys

Categories

Wall coverings; Sport; Prints

Collection

Prints, Drawings & Paintings Collection

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