This floral wallpaper was produced in the early 20th century where the large-scale floral motif and scrolling stem and foliage convey the organic and sensuous nature of the art nouveau style. This paper is part of an unbound wallpaper sample book that contained a wide variety of designs in the art nouveau and Mission styles....

We recently photographed a rather large mid-century wallpaper sample book in the museum collection. The book contains numerous examples of complementary papers, or papers that were designed to be used together within a room or in adjoining rooms for continuity. The sample book was organized to reflect this use, as the coordinating papers were bound...

In Line, a wallpaper designed by prolific illustrator Ilonka Karasz, appears here as pages from a 1948 sample book, which originally contained the work of forty leading contemporary designers. Square blocks, each composed of a creatively arranged, continuous zigzag line, are stacked up like Tetris tiles on a dark-eggplant colored ground. The blocks are rendered...

François Ducharne (French, n.d.), owner of the luxury textile company Soieries F. Ducharne, sold his colorful printed dress silks in France and the United States. Ducharne started his business in Lyon, France in 1920, likely inspired by the successful and profitable collaborations between artists and textile manufacturers such as Raoul Dufy’s (French, 1877–1953) partnership with...