Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Chapter the Eighth: In Which I Call In An Expert

We had previously, in one of my, hey-let's-start-a-demolition-project-at-bedtime extravaganzas, uncovered the original wallpaper in the downstairs bedroom. This room was created by placing a wall a third of the way across the cabin thereby making 2 rooms. What I believe happened was that for whatever reason they put horizontal boards over the green paneling and then papered directly over that.

 
At some later date they nailed fabric over the wallpaper and then put up another layer of wallpaper and later papered 2 more times and then painted it green and *then* they put up drywall. I have been trying to ascertain when this first wallpaper layer was installed in hopes of it helping us to date the time frame in which the cabin was constructed.
 
 
Historic New England has a fabulous online collection of old wallpaper and the Smithsonian  Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum has a phenomenal collection as well. After looking at tons of examples of wallpaper online I was pretty sure that this paper was fairly old, but I really needed confirmation so.....I called the Smithsonian! I thought "hey what do I have to lose, they'll either be helpful or tell me that peons should direct their questions elsewhere." I spoke with Greg Herringshaw, the assistant curator of wallcoverings and he was so nice and helpful. He had me email him some pictures and sent me this reply:
 
Dear Paris, it is difficult to place a date on patterns like this as they are not really indicative of any style, and have pretty much been 200 years.  That being said, the density of the pigment on the paper pasted to the boards suggests this is a block print. Block-printed papers use very chalky opaque pigments to print, and the colors are printed one on top of another so you get a buildup of colors. Machine-printed colors are much thinner usually allowing you to see through to the color below. If your paper is block-printed I would put its date as 1850 or earlier. Manufacturers started machine-printing around 1840, and this paper with its small design would have been a good candidate for a machine print had it been available at the time of production. I really can't see enough of the other two papers to give you any information. If you happen to get off more of the top layers of wallpaper I would suggest looking for horizontal seams or joins. This would confirm an early production date.
 
I had Micah take off the rest of the drywall above and below the above picture and guess what we found? Horizontal seams! My hunch was correct and this is in fact an early block printed paper. I'm so excited, you'd think I just won the lottery!  :-)
 
The horizontal seam indicating an early wallpaper
 
 This is the response I got from Greg after we sent him pictures of the horizontal seams:

Paris, congratulations! That is a good find. Speaking in general terms, France started making continuous paper by machine around 1820, England around 1830, America around 1840. This transition to machine-made paper did not happen overnight as the machines were expensive. Also, for a while after this the better wallpapers were still printed on handmade paper. I'm just curious, is there a secondary pattern going on behind or around the leaf and floral motifs? These early papers could not be cleaned so the majority of the surface area was covered with some type of pattern to help disguise the dirt. I would guess your paper was produced in America based on its simple design "formula" so could safely date it around 1840.  Greg
 


8 comments:

  1. Oh my gosh!!! I'm so glad you're documenting all this!!!! What a find!

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    1. I'm so glad that I have friends who get as excited about this as I do!

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  2. that is so awesome......are you going to try to save a portion of that wall???

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    1. Linda, I have some of the paper peeled off and I'm saving that, but I don't think I can save it on the wall. Because they put the paper directly on boards the acid is destroying the paper, in many sections there is no paper left. I'm open to suggestions, but I can't think of how to save it.

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  3. oh, by the way, I am your lucky #13 follower...I love you blog, love your home and can't wait to see the finished....well we are never finished home.....I watch in amazement !!!

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    1. Aww, thanks Linda! I find this house so easy to love. :-)

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