
- Wallpaper
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Wallpaper
- Place of origin:
England (made)
Ord House (paper hung) - Date:
ca. 1700 (made)
- Artist/Maker:
Unknown
- Materials and Techniques:
Woodblock print with colour stencilling, on paper, varnished
- Museum number:
E.5311-1958
- Gallery location:
British Galleries, Room 56c, case WW
Object Type
By the 1720s Chinese hand-painted wallpapers were arriving in Britain in sufficient quantities to become fashionable as part of interior design schemes in the oriental style. The London paper-stainers (wallpaper makers) soon began to exploit this fashion by producing printed wallpapers which imitated the style of the Chinese imports.
Materials & Making
The outlines of the motifs and the cross-hatching on this wallpaper have been printed and all the colours added using stencils, except for the black ground colour, which appears to have been painted in free-hand. After printing and stencilling, this wallpaper was varnished, possibly to give a rich sheen to the surface so that it resembled Japanese lacquer, which was also fashionable in British interiors at this time.
Subjects Depicted
The Chinese wallpapers were decorated with flowering trees, birds and animals, or figures, in a non-repeating design. The maker of this wallpaper has included similar motifs - flowers, squirrels, peacocks, parakeets and a Chinese figure - but the design lacks the sophistication and the elegance of the Chinese originals. It is also crudely drawn, and has a repeating pattern.