This post was originally published on June 1, 2016. Charles Burchfield is one of the best known American watercolorists of the twentieth century, painting urban street scenes as well as more rural landscapes in a rather sullen fashion. It is less well known that he designed wallpaper, working for the M. H. Birge and Sons...

In celebration of LGBTQ+ Pride Month, June Object of the Week posts highlight LGBTQ+ designers and design in the collection. A version of this post was originally published on June 20, 2016. May Morris will forever be in the shadow of her famous father William Morris, the chief protagonist of the English Arts and Crafts movement,...

For the past couple days, I’ve had the pleasure of working with a French scholar doing research on the Parisian wallpaper manufacturer Jules Desfosse and later, Desfosse & Karth. We went through the museum holdings of wallpapers by this design firm and saw some really beautiful pieces. Jardin d’Hiver stands out as one of the...

This is one of the most gorgeous and dramatic wallpapers produced during the early twentieth century. The design shows a brilliantly colored peacock perched in a cedar tree, with copious blossoms of lilac and wisteria in yellow and lavender. All of the printed colors pop against the black ground. And note the size of the...

This delicate floral design by Lanette Scheeline was one of the early wallcoverings printed on Tyvek. The design consists of a fairly small repeat, actually, a single small bouquet of mixed flowers, perhaps wildflowers, repeated two across the width and repeating vertically on the diagonal. The flowers are rendered in a stylized manner, and printed...

France started making advancements in wallpaper manufacture in the 1770s, and by the 1780s they were making papers of a quality that has never been surpassed. Réveillon is one of the better-known manufacturers from this period, and was most celebrated for his arabesque designs, which were influenced by the recently discovered wall paintings at Herculaneum...

Josef Zotti (b. Italy, active Vienna, 1882–1953), Austrian architect and furniture designer, collaborated with Herrburger und Rhomberg, one of the largest textile companies in Vorarlberg, Austria. The partnership began after the completion of his studies and extended until the 1930s. The earliest works were woven fabrics, particularly tablecloths, decorated with graphic motifs that were characteristic...

This post was originally published on December 12, 2015. The French designer Edgar Brandt spurred a revival of interest in interior furnishings made of iron in the 1920s. His participation in the 1925 Paris Exposition won him great praise. Brandt’s ironwork was admired throughout the fair; he designed the gates of the front entrance, his...

Doris Doctorow was working for Harper’s Bazaar when she was sent on assignment to Mexico to photograph the fabric workshop of brothers Leslie and James Tillett. She soon fell in love with Leslie, cancelled her return home, and learned the craft of silk-screen printing. Their partnership in work and life lasted nearly fifty years until...

Gently swirling clusters of flowers and their accompanying foliage weave across this delicately colored repeat. Soft blues and greens evoke freshly opened blossoms while the stormy gray background suggests a recent or impending shower. Curving between the main clusters are constellations of small white blooms that highlight the rest of the composition, adding a layer...

In celebration of Women’s History Month, March Object of the Day posts highlight women designers in the collection. Horn Poppy is a block-printed wallpaper designed by May Morris for Morris & Co. May designed wallpapers and textiles for the Morris & Co. firm and is the younger daughter of designer and craftsman William Morris. This...

Chrysanthemum could be considered the signature print of House of T Fabrics. It was one of the studio’s best-selling designs for over forty years. House of T was founded on New York’s Upper East Side by the husband-and-wife design team of Leslie and D.D. Tillett. From their combined living and working space on East 80th...

Queen Anne’s Lace recalls the simple charm of a photogram, an early photographic process where objects, frequently botanical specimens, were placed directly on a photosensitive paper and exposed to sunlight. In fact, the detail captured in this floral design was probably created by placing the flowers directly on the photographic emulsion used to create the...

During World War II, commercial construction in the United States came to a standstill, but Dorothy Draper received a plum commission to design the interiors of Cassino Hotel Quitandinha, in Petrópolis, a mountain resort outside Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, designed by Italian architect Luis Fossatti and constructed by entrepreneur Joaquim Rolla. At the time it...

This post was originally published on March 5, 2016. Wallpaper can be used to create a very personal space, one reflecting the style and/or temperament of its creator, or possibly to inspire the desired mood. The myriad wallpapers in production at any given time range from ultra-minimal and loose, to dense pattern-rich designs. Peacock Garden,...