PRESERVATION OF WALLPAPERS AS PARTS OF INTERIORS

Historic types of wallpaper and decorative schemes of interiors
considered “vulgar” in China. The Chinese adorned their walls
with painted scrolls of landscape, flowers and birds instead. 60
The English historian Eric A. Entwisle has grouped Chinese
wall covers, according to their designs, into three types. 61 The
oldest and most frequent type depicts exotic birds, giant flowers
and blooming trees. (Fig. 6, Fig. 7) The second type shows
scenes of Chinese everyday life, for example peasants or artisans
working on various local handicraft objects. 62 (Fig. 8) The third,
and also the newest and rarest, group is made up of figurative
scenes among trees and giant plant roots.
According to Gill Saunders, the first Chinese papers appeared
for sale in London in the late 17th century. Chinese wallpapers
could be purchased to fit sets of 25 or 40 different lengths, 63
with guidelines on how to arrange them on walls. 64 However,
if a European trader couldn’t purchase a complete set of wall
covers for his customer, he improvised a composition of individual
wallpaper panels that were sold as separate pictures, 65
Chinese graphic sheets, wood-cuts and/or silk paintings. Such a
mixed collection of authentic Chinese papers was most obviously
modified on the site. For a smaller number of Chinese wallpaper
pieces, separate segments were sided with marbled paper and
framed with borders or wooden mouldings, each separately or
as small ensembles. (Fig. 9) This type of room was called a “print
room” in England (for more, see pp. 54–55) and was considered
highly fashionable at the beginning of the reign of George III
(1738–1820), in the 1760s. Wallpapers with figural scenes were
preferred for decorating such rooms. 66
Chinese wall covers were particularly admired for their
hand-painted qualities and non-repeating patterns. However,
60
Yueh-Siang Chang, “Imperial Designs and Enlightened Tastes: Motifs from Nature on
Chinese Export Wallpapers” in The Wallpaper History Review (2008), 23.
61
Clare Taylor, “Chinese Papers and English Imitations in 18th Century Britain” in New
Discoveries. New Research. Papers From The International Wallpaper Conference at the
Nordiska Museet, ed. Elisabet Stavenow-Hidemark (Stockholm: Nordiska Museet Vörlag,
2009), 37.
62
Reepen et al., Chinoiserie...,19.
63
Saunders, Wallpaper in Interior Decoration, 63.
64
Taylor, Chinese Papers and English Imitations..., 45.
65
Ibidem.
66
Reepen et al., Chinoiserie..., 19.
42