New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1881-10-18
THE WALLPAPER COMPETITION

Some months ago Messrs. Warren & Fuller,
manufacturers of wallpaper III this city, offered very
liberal prizes Tor the best designs for wallpaper and the
result of the competition thus brought about is new to he
seen at the gallery of Mr. Il E. Moore Kurtz Building,
Madison Square where the designs submitted are hung
up for the public inspection
The public shat to inspect viii no doubt be sur
prised to find 50 few designs awaiting their approval or
dsapproyal 1t certainly TO have bceu expected
that the liberal offers Of MessTs. Warren Fuller
would have drawn forth more and more Interesting de-
signs from artists and from professional workers Bnt
asitis hardly enough designs have been received to
make respectable show upon tine walls and the general
character of the designs is such 70 make the awarding
the prizes a matter Of very little difficulty.
Not few OF the designs the productions OF proes-
siona wOrknen and have the merits and defects which
we shond expect to find the work Of persons accns-
toned TO please to try TO please, the tastes OF the
general public Most of the w0rkucn employed In our
large paper-hanging manufactures are Engushmen,
Frenohmcu Germans who have been regularly trained
in all the processes and who have been through long
schooling watching the changes of the public taste and
the vagarcs offashOn They enter competition Ike this
with the great advantage OF ksOwing what practical
and what il not; what can be "carried out and what
would to execute or so costly as 20 put It's
execution Of the question. Their drawings here eX
bibited have this merit if they have few others
that they look exactly tie Wallpaper made
from them would look; the methods OF drawing
and OF laying the color are exactly those that
will appear to have been followed II any one Of them
shall be accepted and placed the hands OF The worHmen
This is the advantage, or one Of the advantage, en-
loved by the professional designer IL entering such
competition this; the disadvantage hc is under Is that
he cannot escape easily from the conventional ideas in
which he has trained, and he is too much persuaded
that If all the rules have been carried Ou his design u
therefore good He fOrgots that the purpose Of
such competition this is not to repeat the old but 10
suggest least something new, and might easily hap
thpt fhc win q
one who had the least notion how wallpapers are
made nor least skill in making his drawing look Ike
manufactured article In short what Is wanted Is IDEAS
and It is not strange if find few ideas ia
the designs that come from the workshops.
For, in the workshops, Independent ideas
are not apt Gouish they killed by routine and BY
the influence Of sound decorative principles"
Take the design hung the south wall near the mid
die and marked Perseverance" The author has taken
great pains with his work, and thinks wen OF it that
he accompanies it with large printed circular in the
form of letter to Messrs Warren Fuller, describing
his design IN detail, proving its absolute prac-
toabity and defending its decorative character Ii
rather euar1aOe performance ia Its way, and It'll i'm
possible not 70 have certain respect for person who
goes thoroughly TO wOrk-nrst TO make design and
then to fight for It.
The design s like all the rest divided into the three con
yentinnai parts tina dado, tao wall proper and
freze The character Of the whole pretend' TO he Jap
anese and il 10 the extent OF nearly everything in
Japanese models. This the author defends in
a of fvo propositions OF Ach the lat is the most
remarkable since what could DO sUrprisns than to
hear professional designer OF Wallpapers say that be
greatly Influenced in his selection OF tine Japlnesque
as model by his belief that decoration IN this style
would prove novelty We tell This competitor what
would be a novelty. 1t would be q novelty In "a de
sign for wallpaper that should be absolutely free from
all suspicion OF the Japanesque. As Tor a JapaDesque
design being novelty, must have been shut in
Patagonia or In Canada to have thought IL possible.
However, here Is before tho desi9n OF Persever
ance," and find 1t satisfactory reading
analy of IL than did before ghtened
as TO the mystic meaning OF its component parts We
are told that the wall portion, the filing" as IL
seems this part technically called composed Of the
DIR tree, and that the author has never
seen example OF tho fir tree used
In Japanese decoration accompanied by the
Dir cone awaited himself of this beautiful feature
Of the tree lin d way japanese artists would
treat it, etc" Now, We would point out that the
masses OF foliage represented this design as being
portions of the foliage OF single tree, are copied or
borrowed. from Japanese designs In which they always
representso far observation extendsentlre but
drdr trees and that OF TO represent the cones
upon forest Of dwarf trees would be TO violate proba
bnity In in which the Jsps rarely. II ever, choose
to violate It, We have often the pine cones painted
and very beautifully accurately painted, by the
Japs In designs representing branches OF the pne but
that different matter. Besides, II this u
japanese drawing the bunches of pine needles would
lot look hse opened paper fans instead Of being thus
conventionazed out Of all resemblance nature, they
would wildly recall nature and the pine cones,
over would be IN some proportion in size to the needle
banches themselves.
The truth u.s. the design about which the sefsatsned