This is an arabesque wallpaper design from the late eighteenth century, containing two alternating views. The top view shows a woman, possibly Venus, within an arbor seated on a cross frame stool, playfully bouncing a putto, perhaps Cupid, on her foot. A tall urn sits behind her. A tree grows off to the left, towering...
The origins of this unique sample of wallpaper are unknown although it was most likely produced in France or Austria in the 1920s. Paul Frankl, prominent early modernist designer in the United States, gifted the wallpaper sample to Sarah and Eleanor Hewitt in 1930. The wallpaper is remarkable for being Cubist in style. The use...
During the 17th century, France and England, both major producers and exporters of wallpapers, were printing inexpensive decorative patterns on single sheets of paper. These were multi-use papers and were used for lining trunks and chests, as well as decorating walls. Outlines were printed by crude wood blocks and color was added by applying thin...
There is ALOT going on in this arabesque panel attributed to eighteenth-century wallpaper powerhouse, Jean Baptiste Réveillon. The pattern was executed in shades of pink, green, orange and brown on a light-colored ground. As was standard for the time, the design is block printed, and the panel is composed of several smaller sheets of handmade...
Yet another fabulous and festive antique French wallpaper to highlight the missed opportunities inherent in the plain, white walls of our own time. Exuberant bouquets of stylized poppies and peacock feathers are held together by cornflower blue ribbons and festoons of coral colored blossoms. Dainty sparrows in rainbow plumage dart to and fro, adding a...
Pretty and pleasant, this unassuming wallpaper plays an important role in the scholarship of early American design. In 1821 Adrian Janes and Edwin Bolles opened a wallpaper business (creatively named Janes & Bolles) in the bustling industry town of Hartford Connecticut. In the American Mercury, June 1st 1824, they advertised they had an “extensive assortment...
