Wallpapers

One of the spin-offs of an interest in miniatures is you learn little bits of history and information about other crafts as you go. It can often lead to an interest in or love of things other than miniatures. In my case, amongst other things, I have developed a love of antique and vintage wallpapers. I could sit and look at the wonderful designs of antique and vintage wallpapers on the internet for hours and the social history behind the wallpapers of a particular era. It is a fairly recent interest so I have a lot of learning ahead of me and I look forward to it.

 

For those of you more recently following my blog you may not have stumbled across the you tube video I provided a link to some time back that gives you a glimpse of 300 years of wallpapers in 3 minutes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BR8umOkTEbw

 

I am lucky to have obtained a few pieces of antique wallpapers from a friend which I have shown in a previous post:

http://myrtlemanorminiatures.blogspot.co.nz/2014/03/fabulous-vintage-wallpapers.html

 

While I recently took you on a guided tour of my craft room and my treasures I realised there was one treasure I haven't shown you. It is a little 1938/39 sample book of Sanderson fancy papers. The whole book is only 7 inches by 3 inches. I am sure many of you will recognise the name Sanderson in relation to wallpapers and fabrics.

 

In brief, the company's start was in 1960 when Arthur Sanderson established himself in London as an importer of French wallpapers. In 1968 he started commissioning block-printers in England to print designs and in 1879 the company's first wallpaper factory was built.

 

The sample book I have is divided into sections and I give you a tiny glimpse of some of the contents below:

 

 31 Papers.

Most of the flocks are a single colour but there are two multi-coloured flock papers.

 



 

83 Papers.

Many of the papers in this section are gold textured prints.

Approx 175 papers.

Some of these scaled down would make great mini bags and suitcases.

 



27 pages.

 



 

 

15 pages.

 

77 pages.

 

Some of you who have vintage houses may recognise some of the last few papers.

  

While I originally bought this sample book to use the papers I have found it hard to pull it apart.

 

I did use a tiny piece of paper for this table.

 

 

I could copy the papers of course, albeit that they are very small, but then you don't get the wonderful textures of some of the papers. I might do that though at some stage with some of the leatherettes to experiment with some miniature handbags and suitcases.

 

In the meantime I am just happy to own this wonderful glimpse of the past.

 

I do have a project in mind relating to antique wallpaper that I hope to start soon ... watch this space.

 

I'd better stop typing this post and try to finish my Petite Properties book-ends first though.

 

Have a great weekend.

 

Book Ends Progress

I am making slow progress with the Petite Properties book-ends. I had my 87 year old Mum stay with us for a week so I didn't get any miniatures done last weekend or during the week. It is school holidays here in New Zealand and our daughter has gone with Mum to spend most of this coming week with Mum and other family in the city where I grew up an hour away. Therefore today, after getting on top of the housework, I had a bit of time to do some work on the book-ends. It nearly didn't happen because I had misplaced the instructions... very frustrating! Luckily I found them tucked away in a box of kits I had shown Mum while she was here.

 

Anyway, here are some progress photos of the book-ends:

 

 The Red Door House.

 

 The Green Door House.

 

 The two houses.

 

 The Green Door.

 

 The Red Door.

 

 The bays have been started.

I need to add a bit more detail to the doors. Hopefully with my daughter being away for the next few days I can get some more done and will have another progress report next weekend.

I took my Mum to the local antique shop while she was here. She bought me some interesting books called 'The Saturday Book', two vintage hankies that I can use to make something in miniature, and a cute little dog.

The Saturday Books are 1948, 1949, 1950 and 1962. The books were put out annually between 1941 to 1975. They are described as a 'Repository of Curiosities and Looking Glass of Past and Present'.

These are the details of the hankies. Unfortunately the previous owner has named them in black ink but I want to use the lovely details for something miniature. I am thinking of using the top one as part of a fire screen with a colour behind it.

And finally there is this little dog. He is quite comical looking but definitely has the cute factor. His expression reminds me of one of my dogs.

Doesn't he make you smile.

What is this?

Hi blog friends.

A friend of mine has a wonderful old sewing box full of antique treasures and I am trying to help her find out what this item is:

It is a round brass object with retractable spikes. The knob on the top moves the spikes in and out but there does not seem to be a mechanism for locking the spikes when they are out. The back is flat but with a raised rim on the outside. If this is a needlework tool of some sort it gives room for a needle to go underneath threads.

I did look at the crochet doily in the bottom picture which came out of the same box and it made me wonder if it could be a tool for making lace flowers or to start some other form of needlework but it seems odd that you can't lock the spikes.

I have spent quite a bit of time on the web this morning to no avail so I just thought I'd see if any of you can shed some light onto what this item was used for.

It was made in Italy and has the wording ES - D.R.P. - BRFVETTATO - (a Crown) - PATENTE.

If anyone knows what this tool is used for and how it is used I'd really appreciate you commenting below. Any links to anything on the internet would be appreciated.

I'm still hoping I might finish my blackwork table cloth this weekend so hopefully I will be able to post a picture of it in the next day or two. Then I'm keen to have a go at scaling some vintage felt bag designs down into 1/12th scale.

This is part of a vintage felt knitting needle holder with felt flowers.

Have a great weekend everyone.

Lost in Illustrations

My husband decided to treat me today to a visit to the local antique shop. By that I mean he dropped me off at the antique shop while he and Jamie went and got some groceries and posted a parcel. I haven't let myself walk in the door of the shop since Pete lost his job. The lady in the shop had just put out a lovely old ABC book just before I walked in the shop. I saw it almost instantly. I had to have it.  I also bought a little elephant that matches another one that I have so they will look nice either side of a miniature mantel piece and a slightly over-sized vase of flowers that I am sure I can make use of somewhere. I also had a quick look in the local Hospice shop and bought some plastic monopoly pieces and some mesh ribbon along with an orange cake ribbon that came in the same bag.

As far as the plastic monopoly pieces go I think the boots will paint up well, I will flock the little dog to look like a toy dog for my Timeless Toys toy shop and I will paint the little wheel barrow and put some flowers in it for a floral decoration for a window sill or table. I thought I would add some beads to a little square of the mesh ribbon to make a miniature sugar bowl cover and I am sure there will be many more uses for it.

As for the book I just love it. I have always loved beautiful book illustrations and the coloured illustrations in this book are gorgeous. There is an inscription inside the book with the date 1904. The book is not in perfect condition and some little child has done a bit of colouring in here and there but for 110 years old the book isn't doing too bad. I am going to scan the book and create a miniature version.

The book is an ABC book and has cute little verses in it e.g. for F it says "F is for Fishing, and F is for Freddy; He's caught three fine fish and a young duck already" and for G it says "G is for Gardening, and G is for Gerty whose Garden is bright, though her pinafore's dirty."

Of course being me I had to do some research. The book was published by Ernest Nister, London & E P Dutton & Co, New York and was printed in Bavaria. I looked up Ernest Nister in Google images and I was lost in illustrations - beautiful images of old book illustrations. I then started looking at pictures of other antique book illustrators. Needless to say time went and my day disappeared.

It is now 10.30 pm on Saturday night in New Zealand and I am about to head to bed to read.

Tomorrow I hope to do a tutorial, most likely for the fire screen that I promised someone.

See you tomorrow.

Fabulous Vintage Wallpapers

A friend of mine that I met through the Dolls Houses Past and Present website recently won some fabulous vintage wallpapers at an auction. Some of the papers date back to the early 1900s. At the time I purchased a piece of two of the wallpapers from her, being:

Unfortunately this photo just does not do this paper justice. To start with each pattern is quite large. The greeny blue square alone is nearly 11 inches square. I am hoping to frame one section of this for my wall. The pattern in the middle looks and feels like it is hand painted. You can feel the different layers of each colour. I don't know what the print process was for these old wallpapers but I definitely want to do more research. There is no company name on this paper.

I also bought some of the above paper from her. This was from Allen-Higgens W & Co and was marked Vogue Papers. Apparently the company was a high-end wallpaper manufacturer in Worcester, Massachusetts. The company started in the late 1800s but I am not sure how long the company continued for. Again, more research required. 

I just love this paper and anyone who regularly follows my blog may recognise it as the paper I used in my two giveaway items and the paper I decorated the sewing room with in The Laurels.

These were the two giveaway items I made using scraps of this paper:

Anyway, my friend and I were recently emailing each other about a vintage house on an online auction site when she asked me to re-send my address to her because after seeing what I had made with scraps of the wallpaper she was going to send me a few more scraps in an envelope.

Imagine my excitement when a week or so later a box arrived containing scraps of vintage wallpaper - big big excitement. I kept carefully unwrapping each piece of wallpaper and looking at it. Unfortunately because some of these papers are so old they are a bit fragile but perfectly okay to get pieces big enough for making mini items. In fact there are some fairly generous sized pieces too. I am certainly going to treasure these papers and use them carefully. I might also get a set of small matching frames and  frame some of the wallpapers for the wall. It has confirmed to me how much I love vintage wallpaper and old book end papers and will certainly be keeping an eye out for more.

These are the papers that arrived in the box:

 This is a very thin blue floral wallpaper with YC & DC on the side margin.

A small scrap of floral wallpaper marked 'Standard Papers'.

 

A small close-up scrap of the fabulous wallpaper below. 

Marked MP & CM of US - Union Made.

 While this particular paper does look very old in fact I think it might be from the 1960s. It is marked on the back 'Hand Printed by Mason Fabrics, Pattern Corona, 332'. I think it may be a design by a William Mason, a New Zealand wallpaper designer, who liked to use late nineteenth century imagery for some of his designs.

Here is an interesting frieze/border - there are two sections. It is design 4763 but there is no company name. My daughter is in the background patiently holding the papers draped over my office chair.

Isn't this a gorgeous border/frieze. No company name. Again there are two different parts to this design. I'm not too sure how these were used together. Maybe the thin strips below could be cut to use around door frames or the like. This design is absolutely gorgeous.

This is another small piece of wallpaper by a company called  Becker Smith & Page, Inc. Phil,A. I have found a record of this company in 1911 and then again in 1922 but haven't really found out much information yet. I will keep digging.

This is a more modern vintage with a smaller scale design good for miniatures. My friend found this in an op shop and kindly shared it with me.

Well I hoped you enjoyed looking at these vintage wallpapers. Just think of all the other wonderful papers that must be out there.

I haven't forgotten that I have promised to do a few tutorials - weathervane, fire screen and rose basket. I will hopefully get one of these tutorials on my blog in the weekend and I will hopefully also do something towards Timeless Toys. 

I am lucky in that I have a three day weekend this weekend as Monday is our region's Anniversary Day.