PRESERVATION OF WALLPAPERS AS PARTS OF INTERIORS

Historic types of wallpaper and decorative schemes of interiors
textiles. Oriental rugs were imported, copied and interpreted.
Walls were covered with patterns inspired by Kelim carpets and
camels bags, or their European imitations, which were used as
cushions or upholstery. The amount of daylight was controlled
with the aid of curtains or carpets, creating the dim atmosphere
of desert tents.
In Germany, on the other hand, three style groups that
existed simultaneously can be distinguished: Neo-Rococo, Neo-
Gothic and Neo-Renaissance. Besides architecture, the design of
wallpapers and different kinds of mobilia was most influenced
by the historicist styles. If one needed to decorate several rooms,
particularly in manors or city residences, each room could be
furnished in a different style. The choice of style depended on
the function of a room. Thus, similarly to in England, a smoking
room was decorated with Oriental or Moorish furnishings,
textiles and wallpapers, a parlour in Empire or Neo-Classicist
style, a study in Neo-Renaissance or Gothic, a lady’s boudoir,
drawing room and ballroom in Rococo, and a dining room and
library in Renaissance style.
In the second half of the 19th century multiple styles existed
simultaneously. Faster production, together with the transportation
of goods by train, made many products affordable for a
bigger group of consumers. It was the beginning of the era of
mass consumption. Designers felt they had something to offer
and could enhance earlier styles. 114 Technically, they felt that
modern methods were better because machines led to greater
precision for fine designs.
In the middle of the century the tripartite division of the
wall became standard. In all of the trend-setting countries, England,
France and Germany, walls were segmented differently.
The tripartite wall division was a means of dividing and ordering
the space of the wall, as well as breaking up its stiffness. 115
In this case, a dado served as the horizontal carrier of architectural
decoration that stretched upwards towards the frieze
114
Blakemore, History of Interior Design and Furniture, 345.
115
Heinrich Olligs, ed., Tapeten : Ihre Geschichte bis zur Gegenwart. Fortsetzung
Tapeten-Geschichte, Band II (Braunschweig : Klinkhardt u. Biermann, 1970), 12–13.
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