PRESERVATION OF WALLPAPERS AS PARTS OF INTERIORS

Historic types of wallpaper and decorative schemes of interiors
Figure 6. The Chinese wallpapers in
Hellbrunn Palace in Salzburg depict
exotic birds and blooming trees.
Figure 7. A detail of a Chinese wallpaper
from the Schlossmuseum in
Weesenstein Palace in Germany. Reproduction
from Schlösser und Gärten
um Dresden, Lothar Kempe, Renate
and Rofer Rössing, VEB E. A. Seemann
Buch- und Kunstverlag, Leipzig, 1979,
p. 111.
coloured flock or gold and bronze. Most commonly they were
used to outline interruptions in a wall: windows, doors, fireplaces,
cabinets and pilasters. 58 Borders with widths of 10.16–12.7 cm
were combined with narrower ones, especially on the horizontal
level, along chair rails and cornices. This type of decoration
stayed in fashion until the beginning of the 19th century.
A large and easily distinguishable group of wallpapers used
in multiple Rococo rooms were exotic Chinese wall covers, which
were painted or printed on either paper or silk. Such wall covers
were produced for the foreign, especially European, market.
The idea of covering large surfaces with paper is a European
conception; for the Chinese such a means of wall decoration
was unknown. 59 In fact, paper coverings on the wall were
58
Frangiamore, Wallpapers in Historic Preservation, 36.
59
Reepen et al., Chinoiserie – Möbel und Wandverkleidungen. 5. Bestandskatalog der
Verwaltung der Staatlichen Schlösser und Gärten Hessen (Bad Homburg und Leipzig,
Verlag Ausbildung + Wissen, 1996), 18.
41