The Washington herald., 1913-07-20
OLD-TUdE SCENIC
WALL DECORATIONS


wall paper was first used a. Q substi-
tute for the more costly tapestries. its
purpose was twofoId. Primarily it was
intended to shut out some Of the damp
and cold. but besides that Il was in itself
decorative There were very few pic
tures in those days: there were not many
satisfactory copies to be had of good
paintings and etchings, as there are to-
day. and the people had their walls
made into pictures.
The earliest known wall papers were
printed On squares of handmade paper,
necessarily crude and difficult to hang.
large proportion Of these were i'm
ported from China. and q number of
them were painted by hand. There were
many styles OF designs used, fruit and
moral. patterns copied from India prints
and imported china. but most interest
ing OF all were the landscapes and water
scenes that often told stories Of ad-
venture. historical events, travel. and
portrayed hunting scenes and the like.
There were no repeats in these wall
pictures: On each wall was . different
scene. each panorama fitting the room
J IN "hich II was to be hung. The chim-
ney breast was usually reserved for the
chief part or climax Of the scene Dor
trayed
Conhned to People OF Means.
Until machinery for making paper in
long strips was invented. about the end
of the eighteenth century, the use Of
| wall paper was confined mainly 10 p~o-
pie OF means, and the humber folk with
| leaner purses had to content themselyes
with painted walls. usually the result
Of the handiwork of some one in the
household If design were incorporated
on these painted walls it was often In
hA fnrr af CT
Ices OF some talented person could be
| enlisted, the walls were perhaps paneled
like the French wall papers, each panel
holding separate picture.
Scenic wall papers seem to have been
most popular in New England and the
| Middle Atlantic States, for more exam
Piles Of this form Of decoration are to
be found in those regions than elsewhere
| in the United States. Judging from the
country houses. some Of the favorite pic
| lures for wall paper were scenes from
Paris. the bay Of Nables. the seasons,
| and the cultivation of tea Sir Walter
Scott's poem. The Lady of the Lake"
was also frequently selected for wall
decoration
One can fancy the delight these wall
pictures must have held for the children
Of those days when picture books were
scare. In The Story Of a Bird Lover"
Prof. W. E d. Scott says. in speaking
about his grandfather's house: las a
boy, the halls interested me enormously;
they bad been papered with such wall
paper as I had never seen elsewhere.
The entrance hall portrayed a vista of
Paris. apparently arranged along the
Seine. with ladies and gentlemen prone
nading the banks, and all the notable
buildings. the Pantheon. Notre Dame.
and many more distributed In the scene,
the river running in front
Rich Panorama
But II was when I reached the second
| story that my childish Imagination was
| exercised Here the panorama was OF
different kind. 1t represented scenes In
| lndia-the pursuit of deer and various
kinds Of smaller game, the hunting of
the lion and the tiger by the natives
perched on great elephants with magnir-
cent trappings- These views are NOT
duplicated in the wall paper; the scene
Is continuous, passing from one end Of
the hall to the other. a panorama rich
| In color and incident had thus a pic
| ture Of India I knew what kind Of
| Clothes people wore and the arms they
| used while hunting
or course. some of the old wall decora-
| tions would today be considered crude
and inartistic, even though hallowed by
| the grace or years. There seems to US
something rather incongruous in having
| walls peopled with life-size figures, as
some Of the old colonial rooms had.
Most Of the old scenic wall papers had
| TO be made especially for the rooms in
which they were to be hung. This rem
dered them definitedly more individual
than our present product of the machine,
that is made in quantities and is capable
OF being fitted to any room. whether suit
able or not In the old days patterns
or scenes were selected with reference
to the room they were to adorn; spacing
and style had to be carefully estimated,
lest the paper should not fit. and this
necessarily Influenced the subjects Be-
iected for q certain type of room.