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English Wall-Papers of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 January 2012

Hilary Jenkinson
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Extract

The subject of early Wall-Papers has not been much investigated in England. Of the various forms of hanging or wall-decoration which preceded them–designs painted, stencilled, or incised on the walls; and hangings of plain material, of tapestry, of embroidery, of cloth stained or painted, and even of painted paper–and of the wall-papers of the eighteenth century–painted or printed importations from China and the printed products of our own country, from simple floral designs to the Gothics of Horace Walpole or the elaborate ‘scenes’, one set of which sufficed to decorate a whole room –of all these something is known; though we still wait for an authoritative and comprehensive work. But little attempt has been made so far to bridge the gap between medieval and modern, the sixteenth and the eighteenth centuries.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Antiquaries Journal , Volume 5 , Issue 3 , July 1925 , pp. 237 - 253
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1925

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References

page 237 note 2 Miss McClelland (see below) mentions ‘fifty large scrolls’ ordered by Louis XI in 1481: for an English example see an Inventory of 27 Henry VIII from the Public Record Office printed in Archaeologia Cantiana, vii, p. 290.

page 237 note 3 A famous painted paper was presented to Coutts's Bank in the late eighteenth century. The Victoria and Albert Museum possesses particularly fine examples (unused) both of Chinese and of scenic papers.

page 237 note 4 There are several references to Wall-papers in the Letters.

page 237 note 5 See note 3 above.

page 237 note 6 Mr. A. V. Sugden, with Mr. J. L. Edmondson, is preparing an elaborate work, as I found out after the present article was begun. I have been particularly grateful for their friendly co-operation.

page 238 note 1 Especially J. G. Crace in two papers read to the Royal Institute of British Architects in February 1839. I am indebted to Mr. E. Stewart Greene for the loan of copies of these papers, which have been the subject of an article by Mr. Sugden, (The Decorator, 01 1915).Google Scholar Crace used freely Beckmann's, History oj Inventions … and various French authorsGoogle Scholar.

page 238 note 2 Chatto, and Jackson, , Treatise on Wood-Engraving (London, 1838).Google Scholar

page 238 note 3 Traité … de la Gravure en Bois (Paris, 1766):Google Scholar see also the Dictionnaire Portatif des Arts et Métiers, published in the same year; and Bruslons, J. Savary des, Dictionnaire Universel de Commerce … (1723)Google Scholar.

page 238 note 4 Chatto and Jackson think it is an equivalent of the German ‘Helgen’ (figures of saints). It is unknown in this sense to the New English Dictionary; and to Cotgrave's French Dictionary of 1611.

page 238 note 5 Cf. Papillon, , op. cit., i, p. 20.Google Scholar

page 238 note 6 At Rouen, ibid., p. 383.

page 238 note 7 The Dictionnaire Portatif… cites Ordinances of 1586, 1618, 1649, and 1723.

page 238 note 8 Cp. Papillon's account, i, p. 309, etc.: see also Savary des Bruslons, op. cit.

page 238 note 9 Ibid., ii, p. 154.

page 239 note 1 Only two examples of importation have been actually discovered and these on boxes of apparently German origin; or if not German, Flemish: see below, p. 241.

page 239 note 2 It has been rather assumed that the only records bearing on the subject would be those of the Patent Office.

page 239 note 3 Beckmann, J., History of Inventions … (transl. by Johnston, William, London, 1797)Google Scholar, quoting Rymer's Foedera.

page 239 note 4 This is a process of printing the pattern with an adhesive, and sprinkling finely chopped wool, etc., over it.

page 239 note 5 Mentioned by Miss Ackermann and Miss McClelland in the works cited below.

page 239 note 6 The Artist, 09-12 1898, p. 102.Google Scholar The first of the papers figures also in a reconstruction of the room illustrated in Foley's, EdwinBook of Decorative Furniture, i, p. 96Google Scholar.

page 239 note 7 They were shown on the occasion of the reading of this paper by the kindness of the owner, Mrs. Levy.

page 239 note 8 I have this information from Mrs. Levy.

page 239 note 9 Mr. Butterfield's paper suggests an Indian origin, at least for the design. I am indebted to Dr. J. J. Fox for a microscopic examination of the fragment.

page 240 note 1 In The Library, 10 1911:Google Scholar reconstruction of the pattern is there given. It is signed with the letter H and the figure of a bird, which Mr. Sayle ascribed to Hieronymus Cock: later views, however, give it to Hugo Goes (McClelland, N., Historic Wall Papers, p. 39Google Scholar; quoting Herbert's, Typographical Antiquities, iii, p. 439)Google Scholar.

page 240 note 2 The most important are Ackermann, Miss Phyllis, Wall Paper: Its History … (London, 1923)Google Scholar; McClelland, Miss Nancy, Historic Wall Papers (Philadelphia, 1924)Google Scholar; and Jourdain, Miss M. in The Connoisseur, lxii, p. 158 (1922)Google Scholar and Country Life, 29 03 1924.Google Scholar Others have been already mentioned: see also a bibliography in Miss MeClelland's book.

page 240 note 3 There are two copies of this sheet, one of which is now displayed in the Record Office Museum.

page 241 note 1 The Ashmolean Museum at Oxford: see further details below.

page 242 note 2 It had been suggested that William Morris might have come across some of these papers; but neither Miss Morris nor Mr. H. C. Marillier, to whom I appealed, were able to confirm this. Mrs. Gerald Horsley was good enough to go through her late husband's papers in search of some fragments of which I was told by Mr. E. Stewart Greene, but without success. Several correspondents directed attention to papers which proved to be of later date than was thought, (the paper at Ightham Mote, for example, quoted as an early one, is, I understand, eighteenth-century Chinese).

page 241 note 3 I have to thank the Librarians and Keepers of all these Repositories and Collections and Mr. C. C. Oman at South Kensington for much kind help.

page 241 note 4 Monsieur Delen, Conservateur Adjoint, was good enough to let me examine about a dozen of these. In shape and make they all closely resemble our specimens (nos. 64 and 81 c of the Court of Wards Deeds Boxes, mentioned below): and the top of at least one reproduces exactly the style of engraving and the method and tints of colouring used on our papers: there are one or two small differences, but I think there can be no doubt of the common origin.

page 242 note 1 The history and antiquities of the hair-trunk have yet to find an enthusiast; but they are probably related to those of public and private transport conveniences.

page 242 note 2 Curious examples are British Museum Additional Charters 37408, containing a grant by Garter of 1753, which has projections for two seals and a deep box made to contain more than one charter, of about 1714.

page 242 note 3 Of these boxes, preserved in the Public Record Office, two are of wood covered outside with paper, as has been already mentioned; 128 are lined with printed paper, five with paper printed with a design, and one with manuscript. All the printed matter agrees with the dates here given except in the case of one box (no. 159), which is also irregular in the matter of its contents and is apparently a later importation. I have been much indebted for information to my colleague, Mr. S. C. RatclifF, who examined these boxes for another purpose. For their examination by Frederick Devon in 1843 and 1844 see Deputy Keeper's Reports IV, V, and VI. Devon does not notice their linings.

page 243 note 1 Many have attached to them the original note of their delivery into Court.

page 243 note 2 The Court, set up by 31/33 Henry VIII, was actually abolished in 12 Charles II (1660).

page 243 note 3 Also reproduced (in reduction) by Miss McClelland and Miss Ackermann.

page 244 note 1 At Longwitton Hall (see The Connoisseur, xvi, p. 51). A tracing is in the Victoria and Albert Museum (Department of Design, etc., D. 1074, 1904).

page 244 note 2 Now in the Museum side by side with the variant form. Its provenance is unknown.

page 244 note 3 From Court of Wards Deeds, Box 42.

page 244 note 4 Decorative Furniture, i, p. 191.

page 244 note 5 Nos. 5 B and 83 D.

page 244 note 6 I owe this example to the kindness of Mrs. R. L. Poole, who reconstructed the pattern by cutting up photographs of the box.

page 244 note 7 I owe this example to Mr. C. F. Bell, F.S.A. It has been reproduced, but wrong way up, by Miss Jourdain (op. cit.).

page 244 note 8 Box 146 s.

page 245 note 1 Probably in the Court of Requests.

page 245 note 2 By Miss Jourdain, op. cit. I have to thank Mr. Bell not only for information but for generously allowing me the use of his full-sized photograph for reproduction. One or two small gaps in it have been filled in. Mr. Bell pieced the paper together from small fragments and these having stretched a little the sheet is not now quite rectangular; but the original fitting of sheet to sheet is undoubted. When this article was read a number were shown pasted up together. The paper was originally found by Mrs. Poole.

page 246 note 1 The superiority of the treatment of flowers and leaves over that of figures in (e.g.) the Sheldon tapestries is most marked; cp. (to take only one example in printing) the frontispiece to the Grete Herbal of 1529.

page 247 note 1 Following a suggestion by the President, made at the time this paper was read, I have since looked a little more closely for the stitch-work models on which these designs were based. There can be no doubt that they follow exactly (as Miss Jourdain also suggested) the lines of the ‘Spanish’ or ‘Black work’–English embroideries in black silk on white linen, which are ascribed to the latter half of the sixteenth century. See Mr. Kendrick's, A. F. article in A Book of Old Embroidery (special number of The Studio, 1921)Google Scholar and his reproduction of a cover, a head-dress, and a pillow-case in plates 8, 10, and 16. The style is ‘supposed to have been brought in … by Queen Catherine of Aragon’.

page 244 note 2 Box 32.

page 248 note 1 Department of Engraving, Illustration, and Design 27333.21, 11-24, and 25-27.

page 248 note 2 By Miss McClelland, op. cit.

page 248 note 3 Upon our first specimen is written John Egleffielde Church Warden Mr Christopher Whitson sucfeded Mr John Egleffeeld but is bound by the book binder the year before him: the others have Churchwardens' names for the years 1614, 1615, and 1616.

page 248 note 4 Cp. in the British Museum copy of John Davies's Writing Schoolemaster … (1663) Peter Stent's list of Large Sheets of Effigies and Stories, in Colours, and other wayes… See also Johnson, J., Experimental Precepts … (1669)Google Scholar.

page 249 note 1 Department of Engraving, etc., E. 202, 1913: reproduced by Miss McClelland, op. cit.

page 249 note 2 The photograph was kindly supplied by the owner, Mrs. Brown.

page 249 note 3 I am indebted for this example to Mr. Barnard.

page 249 note 4 Another, showing Charles II and his Queen, with a surround of oak-leaves, has been shown me by Mr. Sugden and will, I believe, be reproduced in his book.

page 249 note 5 Master Richards, bundle 153: it contained deeds concerning property in Ireland.

page 249 note 6 From Mr. C. Overy Masters.

page 249 note 7 Miss Jourdain (op. cit.) reproduces a lining, from a chart in Lord Leverhulme's collection, of this period; and another, in an old box belonging to Mr. H. H. Bellot (exhibited when this paper was read) may be put, from its suggestion of Chinoiseric, at about the same; both these are figure designs.

page 250 note 1 Department of Design, etc., E. 4012/1915. It is reproduced by Miss McClelland, op. cit.

page 250 note 2 Public Record Office (provenance unknown); British Museum, Add. Ch. 16293; Lambeth Library; and Bewdley, as mentioned below.

page 250 note 3 I am indebted to Mr. J. F. Parker (through Mr. Barnard) for the photograph.

page 250 note 4 No. 83 D.

page 250 note 5 I have to thank Mr. Sugden for telling me of this.

page 250 note 6 I have not here gone into the interesting question of its history because that is a side-line; but it may be noted that the papers were probably common in France (see Papillon, op. cit.) in the sixteenth century; that Evelyn thought it worth while to read a paper on the process to the Royal Society in 1661, so that it was presumably then little known in England; and that such papers were common in London (as we know from Stationers' advertisements and datable examples) early in the eighteenth century. I have to thank Mr. A. Forbes Sieveking, F.S.A., for telling me of Evelyn's paper, which is still in the possession of the Royal Society.

page 250 note 7 Specimens will be found in the series of eighteenth-century Letters-Patent boxes in Admiralty 4, nos. 21, 34, 56, and Treasury 40, nos. 12, 16, 19, at the Record Office.

page 251 note 1 I am indebted equally to the Company for allowing me to examine and figure this box, and to Mr. Sugden for telling me of it and lending me the block here used.

page 251 note 2 Probably by means of the device, well known later, of metal pins driven into the wooden block.

page 251 note 3 I am judging, of course, by Mr. Butterfield's reconstruction.

page 251 note 4 Exhibited when this paper was read: I much regret that the necessity for finishing this work quickly prevents my securing a photograph for reproduction here.

page 251 note 5 In spite of the fact that the box has other linings of printed sheets of a later date.

page 252 note 1 Box 5 B. This paper was apparently overlapped by one of the Jacobean fragments already described.

page 252 note 2 Also in Germany, to judge by the Antwerp boxes cited above, p. 241. For the practice in France see Papillon, , op. cit., i, p. 383Google Scholar.

page 252 note 3 Discovered at the Maid's Head Inn by Mr. Walter Rye, who told me of it. It is figured in Colonel J. R. Harvey's Deer Hunting in Norfolk; and a piece is preserved at the Norwich Castle Museum.

page 252 note 4 At Mr. Perkins's shop in the Market Place. I am indebted to Mr. Edgar Powell for knowledge of this paper.

page 252 note 5 It may be remembered that one of the claims made in the boastful and misleading pamphlet of J. B. Jackson (published in 1754) is in connexion with his use of oil colours. Jackson, of course, no more invented colour printing in wall-papers than he invented the chiaroscuro process.

page 252 note 6 Admiralty Musters, Series I, Nos. 1669–71, 1745, 1746, to which my attention was called by Miss Fairbrother. It may be remarked, by the way, that had the idea of decorating Publishers Boards obtained in this country as it apparently did in Italy and elsewhere abroad, we might have known a good deal more of our eighteenth-century coloured wall-papers: see the collections of such covers in the British Museum (a volume under the reference 1811. b. 34, of which I was informed by Mr. Barclay Squire, F.S.A.), and in the Department of Design, etc., at the Victoria and Albert Museum–provenance is unfortunately not very certain, but they are foreign; cp. also a small collection in Cambridge University Library.

page 253 note 1 An early example has recently come to light, again among the Admiralty Records, in the cover to a Captain's Log dating apparently from 1761 (Adm. 51/3874).

page 252 note 2 Where I inspected them by the courtesy of the Master, Mr. P. J. Palmer.