This lovely nineteenth-century panel is a testament to the Hewitt sisters’ affinity for fine French wallpapers, and perfect for those who wish everyday was St. Valentine’s Day. It was block printed on handmade paper c.1810, just a few decades before continuous roles of machine-made paper became the industry standard. The top edge of the paper...

Framed rectangular vignettes are vertically stacked like ashlar blocks on this French wallpaper ca. 1855-75. The frames are printed in yellow and brown and depict bead-and-reel molding. Two square scenes in the center of the page show men both leading horses to water and making them drink, but it’s the identical vignettes that span the...

This screen-printed sidewall is meant to look like cement that has been impressed with a woodgrain pattern, because why not? The vertically-aligned board “impressions” are printed in light and dark grey with a granular texture that effectively imitates the rough surface of cement. The artists responsible for this industrially-inspired wallpaper are German furniture designers Klaus-Achim...

In the spirit of the day, we present a French wallcovering that’s good enough to eat. A plump rooster stands atop a loaf of bread observing a jug of wine, a jar of cheese, a salt cellar and a bunch of turnip-looking root vegetables. The loaf of bread is stuck with a knife – perhaps...

A rather severe group of peonies, roses and other flowers grow with grape vines in a tangled mass on this wallpaper frieze of the late-nineteenth century. Dark outlines and blocky coloring causes the blossoms to appear stylized and two-dimensional. Instead of subtle shading, the illusion of depth is created by overlapping the floral elements. The...

Faux statues and architectural elements were standard production for French wallpaper manufacturers of the mid to late nineteenth century. In this ornamental paper panel commemorating a monument that commemorates a man, designers Dufour et Leroy have created a remarkably thorough copy of the Column of the Grande Armeé at the Place Vendôme in Paris. Work...

Non-representational wallpaper was a major trend in the 1950s. A large portion of consumers were looking to distance themselves from the overly-fussy, representational wallpapers of the pre-war era, and instead looked to geometry, modernist design and abstract art for inspiration. Because of newly available low-cost screen printing methods, wallpaper manufactures were able to introduce a...

This seemingly seasonal sidewall was conceived by American designer Janet Hart White for Basset & Vollum, Inc. in 1953. Polygonal shapes of various sizes are outlined in black and scattered across a cream colored ground. Hexagonal medallions in bright blue and green highlight the intricate radial patterns contained within the polygons. For most of us,...

This novel paper, cheekily denoted as a ‘closet paper’ by its designer, William Justema, was produced in the 1940s for innovative New York wallpaper merchants Katzenbach & Warren. On these pages from a 1948 sample book, bleached bones are printed on a foggy bluish gray ground. The skeletons appear to be having a grand old...

A pleasant Chinoiserie paper from the turn of the twentieth century. Machine-printed in two shades of blue, the focal point of the design features two chinoiserie figures under a fruit tree. One figure holds a net and a curved stick – presumably tools used to gather the tree’s bounty – and the other rests under...

In the foreground of this elegant French dado two armless caryatid figures, looking as though they escaped from the Erechtheion, are realistically rendered as carved gray stone. The industrious ladies are placed between green capitals, and appear to hold up the weight of the wall above them. The repeated duos are placed in front of...

Since Queen Elizabeth II has just superseded her great-great-grandmother as Britain’s longest reigning monarch, it seems an appropriate time to take a look at another longstanding UK institution: the wallpapers of Osborne & Little. While not quite as longstanding as Her Majesty, Osborne and Little has been providing thoughtful and vibrant wallcoverings to the upper...

“Crane’s facile handling of gorgeous birds…has never been excelled,” gushed A.V. Sugden and J.L. Edmondson in their “History of English Wallpaper,” written in 1926. Almost a century later, their compliment still rings true. “Macaw,” designed by Walter Crane for Jeffrey & Company, was originally created as a display piece for the manufacturer’s exhibit at the...

Though understated in character, this faux-marble sidewall required an impressive amount of attention to detail on behalf of the manufacturers. The larger background patterns are block-printed in subtle tones of light grey, blue and pink, and the top layer of whitish veins is painstakingly hand painted. Kept for reference in the archives of American wallpaper...

Dating c. 1900, this feminine French sidewall belongs to a class referred to as “bathroom” or “sanitary” wallpapers. This designation is based on a water-resistant varnish that coats the panel, making it safe to hang the paper near the tub, and possible to wash it with less risk of damage or bleeding colors. For the...