This is one of a number of wallpaper designs by Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin in the museum collection. Pugin began designing wallpapers in the early 1840s, and was probably the most prolific wallpaper designer of the nineteenth century, designing more patterns than even William Morris. He created a number of private commissions for large country...

This Object of the Day  celebrates one of many treasured objects given by Clare and Eugene V. Thaw to Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum.  It is republished here in memory of Eugene V. Thaw. Click on this link to read more about the Thaws and their gifts to Cooper Hewitt.    This charming gothic interior was the...

This beautiful monochromatic wallpaper is an excellent example of mid-nineteenth century stylistic eclecticism. The window, surrounded by fan vaults and Gothic tracery, is a typical Gothic Revival image. However, the bunches of flowers and swirling acanthus leaves that frame the Gothic interior are Rococo Revival motifs, pointing to the enormous  influence of French culture on...

The ornate pulpit of a ruined monastery forms the focus of this Gothic revival sidewall. The scene is bordered on either side by a large pillar with what could be a spiral staircase wrapped around it. Done in subdued monochrome, the detailing of the pulpit is beautifully done as is the gradation of color in...

French architect and theorist Viollet-le-Duc (1814-1879) spent more than half of his career restoring Gothic-era castles, cathedrals, and public buildings, including such notable projects as Notre Dame de Paris and the city walls of Carcassonne. Yet he’s often seen as a pre-modernist, influencing Henry van de Velde and even Frank Lloyd Wright. Viollet-le-Duc’s theories of...

This charming gothic interior was the private study in the Cottage Palace, St. Petersburg, Russia, of Alexandra Feodorovna, wife of Nicholas I. Born Frederica Louise Charlotte Wilhelmina of Prussia, Charlotte, as she was known, was promised in a political alliance to Grand Duke Nicholas Pavlovich in 1814. They married three years later and by 1825...

This grand English wallpaper was designed by A.W.N Pugin in the mid-nineteenth century, and is a prime example of the Gothic Revival style he championed. The brown pattern is block printed and flocked on a metallic gold ground. The pattern features alternating crowned fleur-de-lis and Tudor roses, set within a diaper or ogival framework. The...