24 
House 
Garden 
& 
CHINESE WALL PAPERS of A CENTURY AGO 
Their Importation—Types of Design and Technique—Reproductions and Restorations — 
Their Present Vogue and Decorative Use 
EUGENE CLUTE 
But other influences had been growing. 
The art of wall paper printing had de¬ 
veloped in Europe and during the latter half 
of the 18th Century papers of great beauty 
were produced. Taste was changing—deco¬ 
rations depicting romantic scenes from the 
life of the times were favored and repre¬ 
sentations of classic and mythological sub¬ 
jects began to be much used in wall panels. 
The European demand for Chinese wall 
papers decreased and nearly a century ago 
their importation seems to have stopped. 
Since that time the available supply has 
consisted of papers carefully removed from 
the walls of old houses and of sets that for 
some reason were never hung. These have 
been found from time to time in garrets and 
other out-of-the-way places where they had 
lain for many years, sometimes in the orig¬ 
inal wrappings in which they were imported. 
Chinese papers were never without ad¬ 
mirers in England during the 19th Century. 
They were constantly sought by those who 
were painted in Chinese 
designs by some of the 
best F rench decorative 
artists under Louis XIV 
and there were many 
other evidences of the 
Chinese influence upon 
the interior decoration. 
This influence was 
strengthened during the 
18th Century by the in¬ 
creasing importation of 
Chinese objects of art. 
Louis XV sent a commis¬ 
sion to China for the 
purpose of establishing 
closer trade relations be¬ 
tween that country and 
France. Great Britain 
sent her first ambassa¬ 
dor, Lord Macartney, to 
China. Sir William 
Chambers made a num¬ 
ber of voyages to the 
East and his descriptions 
of Chinese customs, arch¬ 
itecture and art had a 
marked influence upon 
decorative taste in Eng¬ 
land. As is well known, 
Chippendale won much 
of his fame as a cabinet 
maker with his designs 
of Chinese inspiration. 
Innumerable other men 
became enthusiastic ad¬ 
mirers of Chinese art 
and helped to stimulate 
interest in it. Chinese 
designs were seen every¬ 
where. That this in¬ 
fluence reached America 
is attested by the old 
Chinese papers that are 
still on the walls of some 
houses that date from 
Colonial times. 
Wall Paper Printing 
T HE China of our 
fancy—a land of 
flowers, pagodas and 
odd-looking boats; a 
land of a thousand 
strange sights is pre¬ 
sented to our gaze with 
wonderful artistry in the 
old hand - painted wall 
papers that were brought 
to Europe and America 
more than a century ago. 
Little is known about 
their importation and we 
can only guess how they 
came to be made. There 
is nothing to show that 
the Chinese ever used 
papers of this kind on 
the walls of their homes 
and it is supposed that 
they made them only for 
export. Probably the 
first set was made on or¬ 
der for some European 
by a painter of screens 
or of pictures. 
The Dutch East India 
Company, the English 
East India Company 
and the French company 
were active at that time. 
These great trading or¬ 
ganizations no doubt 
played an important part 
in the importation of 
Chinese wall papers 
which seem, however, to 
have arrived in many 
ways. 
Early Importations 
Travelers in the Far 
East brought sets home. 
Representatives of busi¬ 
ness and government 
officials whose posts were 
in China sometimes sent 
them. Ship masters and 
others were commissioned from time to time 
to secure them. Ships sailing from Ameri¬ 
can ports probably brought some of these 
papers to this country in Colonial times, 
while others came by way of England. 
Tea merchants in China occasionally 
shipped them in conjunction with the tea 
consigned to their agents in London. In 
these instances the wall papers were usually 
packed in the tea chests on top of the tea, 
the lead-foil lining of the chests covering 
and protecting the wall papers as well as 
the tea. Owing to this practice, Mincing 
Lane, where the tea importers had their 
places of business, became a center of dis¬ 
tribution for Chinese wall papers in Lon¬ 
don during the latter half of the 18th Cen¬ 
tury and there those who were interested 
went in search of them. 
Everything Chinese was favored both in 
France and England from the latter part 
of the 17th Century through the 18th Cen¬ 
tury and well into the 19th. Wall panels 
The Cadwalader 
Room in the 
M e t r opolitan 
■Museum, show¬ 
ing a Chinese 
wall paper im¬ 
ported to Eng¬ 
land probably in 
the reign of 
George I 
Two of the 
twelve strips 
composing the 
fine set in colors 
on a blue ground , 
presented by Sir 
Win. Ingraham 
to the Victoria 
and Albert 
Museum 
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