Portion of lining paper with repeat pictorial design showing a woman fishing in a pond, with a house and trees beyond, and an integral printed border pattern on the left-hand edge of the sheet. Printed in black on white ground; Woodblock print, on paper; Found on an early 17th-century box from the Croft Lyons Bequest; English, Late 17th century.

Portion of lining paper with pictorial design showing a woman fishing in a pond, with a house and trees beyond, and an integral printed border pattern on the left-hand edge of the sheet. Printed in black on white ground; Woodblock print, on paper.

Bequeathed by Lt. Col. G. B. Croft-Lyons FSA

Provenance: Found on an early 17th-century box from the Croft Lyons Bequest in the Department of Furniture and Woodwork, W.51-1926.

This appears to be a contemporary reworking of a lining paper found in a drawer of a chest belonging to Lord Leverhulme (SE, pl 17; Greysmith, pl 13). In the background, the palings and trees are practically identical to those shown in another scene, from Colonial Williamsburg, USA, which was a companion piece to the hunting scene from Clandon Park (no 30). This companion piece shows a chinoiserie figure walking over a hill. There is obviously a common source, perhaps a painted cloth hanging, for all 3 scenes, which may have been intended to be shown in conjunction with one another, forming an early example of a panoramic paper.

Reproduced as pl.17 in A History of English Wallpaper, 1509-1914 , by A.V. Sugden and J.L. Edmundson, 1926.

Provenance: Found on an early 17th-century box from the Croft Lyons Bequest in the Department of Furniture and Woodwork, W.51-1926.

The practice of decorating the walls of houses with printed patterned papers grew from the use of printed papers to cover books and to line chests, cupboards and deedboxes. This paper is one of several block-printed sheets with pictorial patterns, which were made in the late 17th century and were designed to imitate tapestries or printed cloth wallhangings. Examples have been found in various locations, either as lining papers or, in one instance, as a wallpaper (in a first floor front room in a house in Epsom, Surrey). This paper was found on an early 17th-century box now in the Museum's collection.

E.405-1968