Era: 1750-1775
Pagodas
This wallpaper and the accompanying Floret Border were hung in the 1768 Jeremiah Lee Mansion in Marblehead, Massachusetts. The opulent Georgian mansion, which has been owned and preserved by the Marblehead Museum and Historical Society since 1909, features rococo interior carvings as well as early English hand-painted scenic papers from the 1760s. The Pagodas pattern … Continued
Norton Conyers Diamond
Norton Conyers is a mid-14th Century house in North Yorkshire, England with Tudor, Stuart and Georgian additions. The home has been owned and occupied by the Graham family continuously since 1624. In the midst of a major renovation several years ago, the current Grahams discovered sizable fragments of this large scale paper in the Head … Continued
Ipswich Sprig
Small sprig motifs gained popularity in the 1760s and remained in fashion until about 1815, after which they gave way to papers with larger scale repeats. A reproduction of this pattern (discovered in Ipswich, Massachusetts) was commissioned by the Smithsonian Institution for use in the 1760s parlor of the Choate House at the National Museum … Continued
Everard Medallion
The source for this pattern is a wallpaper fragment discovered beneath a 19th century cornice in the Thomas Everard House in the historic 18th century town of Williamsburg, Virginia. The diamond shaped design is formed by four slender scrolled leaves surrounding a foliate medallion. The scrolling and symmetry of the leaves are typical of the … Continued
Everard Damask
This wallpaper is reproduced from fragments found on the walls of the dining room at the Thomas Everard House in the historic town of Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia. It is an excellent example of the large scale floral and foliate imitations of damask textiles that were popular in the mid 1700s. “Flocking” was often used to … Continued
Chestertown Vine
The surviving document for Chestertown Vine was found in the Buck-Bacchus Store, the oldest commercial building in Chestertown, Maryland (and also the home of Adelphi’s Buck-Bacchus Border). The building was constructed in 1735 by John Buck, a wealthy Devonshire, England merchant who expanded his business holdings in the Colonies. The building was purchased by William … Continued
Carnations and Shells
Carnations and Shells may well be the earliest complete repeats of a wallpaper motif found in situ in the United States. There are two samples of it in the Historic New England archives, one from the Cowing House in Weymouth, Massachusetts, and a larger sample with “Whipple House” scribbled on the back. The Whipple House … Continued
Butterfly Chintz
The original antique document for this pattern was purchased by the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation for its collection. Little is known about the origins of this early French pattern, although the use of multiple floral species emanating from a single vine was a popular one. Exceptionally beautiful, it illustrates how closely fabric and wall hangings correlated … Continued