The story of the royal family's dwindling fortunes during the French Revolution is a gripping one. It becomes more personal by learning why wallpaper was chosen to decorate the empty apartments of the Tuileries in Paris after the family was forced to abandon Versailles. Read More...
The images on this page show the wallpaper covers for two 19th century almanacs. (One of the little books is missing its back cover). The wallpaper is stitched onto the 5" x 7" books with thread. One is the "New England Farmer's Almanac for 1825", by Dudley Leavitt, published by Moore, and the other is "The Farmer's Almanac for 1826", by Robert B. Thomas, published by Richardson and Lord.
They are blockprinted in four colors on a laid paper. There is no
ground. The color which reads "white" is actually just the ground of the paper. There are highlights of an opaque white color around the details.
1825 was not yet the era of really cheap paper; this one probably cost between 20 and 35 cents per piece, put up in a 10 yard roll. In the 1820's the piece was evolving. Before 1800 it had been a selling point for American paperstainers to advertise that they produced the 12-yard piece established by England, but that tradition was going away. The new dominance was that of the French, who produced 9 1/2 yard pieces, and little by little the 12-yard standard got whittled down to 8 yards, which became the American standard single roll by around the Civil War. The maker is not known but it may have been Bumstead or another Boston paperstainer, or maybe John Perkins in New Bedford. New Bedford Mercury, April 8, 1825: "John Perkins, paper hangings of his own manufacture, mostly new patterns, from 20 to 50 cents per roll, warranted equal to any made in this country."
There is something (maybe the stars?) about this scrolly, foliated and rather awkward design which suggests very strongly "I am an early American paper". This is the type of paper that one would expect to see in the background of a group portrait by a non-academic painter, showing a dour-faced family in a farmhouse parlor.
I belive it was Father Flanagan who said "there is no such thing as a bad boy". Similarly, we believe there is no such thing as a "bad" wallpaper. All wallpaper is beautiful because it was always a personal choice, and it always served a purpose. This is the type of wallpaper, and information, that we specialize in at WallpaperScholar.Com, I suppose you could call it the technical end.
The images on this page show the wallpaper covers for two 19th century almanacs. (One of the little books is missing its back cover). The wallpaper is stitched onto the 5" x 7" books with thread. One is the "New England Farmer's Almanac for 1825", by Dudley Leavitt, published by Moore, and the other is "The Farmer's Almanac for 1826", by Robert B. Thomas, published by Richardson and Lord.
1825 was not yet the era of really cheap paper; this one probably cost between 20 and 35 cents per piece, put up in a 10 yard roll. In the 1820's the piece was evolving. Before 1800 it had been a selling point for American paperstainers to advertise that they produced the 12-yard piece established by England, but that tradition was going away. The new dominance was that of the French, who produced 9 1/2 yard pieces, and little by little the 12-yard standard got whittled down to 8 yards, which became the American standard single roll by around the Civil War. The maker is not known but it may have been Bumstead or another Boston paperstainer, or maybe John Perkins in New Bedford. New Bedford Mercury, April 8, 1825: "John Perkins, paper hangings of his own manufacture, mostly new patterns, from 20 to 50 cents per roll, warranted equal to any made in this country."
There is something (maybe the stars?) about this scrolly, foliated and rather awkward design which suggests very strongly "I am an early American paper". This is the type of paper that one would expect to see in the background of a group portrait by a non-academic painter, showing a dour-faced family in a farmhouse parlor. 