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Discover Mid-America - March 2004

Old wallpaper can make for smart decorative art

“Old wallpapers aren’t as fragile as you might think,” wallpaper specialty dealer, Carolle Thibaut-Pomerantz, told me. Some rare 18th and 19th century examples were recently on display in her booth at the Palm Beach International Fine Art & Antique Fair. Among the 20 pieces offered was an example of one of the first scenic wallpapers designed by Dufour, c.1815, “Incas”, a wood–blocked print. Never hung, “It had never been unrolled,” Thibaut-Pomerantz said. The panel measured 7’4” x 15’5” and had a price tag of $125,000.

Clues

As Pomerantz points out, “there are still discoveries to be made. Even the reproductions made at the end of the 19th century are collectible.”

Illustration detail of a wallpaper panel from the scenic “Incas” by DuFour. c. 1815. (Photo courtesy Carolle Thibaut-Pomerantz)

You can usually tell age of old wallpaper by the subject and style of decoration. Papers were the fashionable forerunners of new fashions and trends. Earliest would be Chinese or European dating from the 17th century. Small boxes and linings of chests and drawer are still around as examples.

Americans didn’t use wallpapers to decorate their homes until around 1750. Before that the walls simply were painted, sometimes with a border across the top or bottom.

Important examples had scenes or murals joined with a trailing vine design. Talented amateurs often touched them up with geometric designs or flowers.

By the late 18th century papers were arriving in Philadelphia from London on a regular basis. At that time there were manufacturers as well in New York and Boston. By 1800 the manufacture of wallpaper was an important American enterprise.
Among the most popular of the early 19th century papers in America were elaborate florals that combined flowers, fruit, monkeys and peacocks.

Advertisement in Boston papers of that era also show a great variety of patterns dealing with rural scenes, Quaker figures, music, love, peace and war.

Beautiful papers were brought from China to America by sea captains engaged in the China trade. They were presented to the Captain by the “hong (factory) merchants.”

However, the wealthy still preferred to say they had English or French imports. Even in those days a fine paper for a single room could cost as much as $100, plus $40 for the paperhangers’ labor.

Since the average American in those days seldom traveled further than the next town, and books were scarce, pictorial wallpaper served more than a utilitarian and decorative purpose. Holland’s canals, Roman ruins as well as French and Spanish court scenes on wallpaper, were the picture postcards of their day. Many of these patterns have been found in homes in Northeastern states especially in the New York and New England areas.

When early Southern homes used wallpapers they generally selected architectural or textile patterns. Pictorial papers were made in both large and small scale. Two-foot figures could fill an entire wall, as well as did the small, repeating patterns.
There were also the revival styles; classical, medieval, gothic, Renaissance and roccoco. They were popular in the Victorian era along with the design trends of the time, such as Chinese, Japanese, Moorish and Indian.

By the end of the 19th century, the Art Nouveau influence with its swirling floral motifs and female forms, ushered in the new look in furniture and the other decorative arts.

When you consider that “extra” rolls of wallpaper ended up in attics and closets, and still do, possibilities still exist. Learn not to pass up a small wallpaper “sample.” It can be framed just as textile fragments are.

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