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.

 

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.

Wallpapering Completed

I have completed my challenge to wallpaper a room of The Laurels this weekend. I wanted an oriental feel to the room as I have a collection of vintage miniature Chinese mudmen in the room and have one or two Japanese miniatures I may include in the room at some stage. I haven't really decided whether it will be a living room or a library/study.  I still need to hunt out some vintage miniatures to go in the room.

The wallpaper is a reprint of a 1914 wallpaper from http://www.puppenstubentapeten.com/epages/61540032.sf/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/61540032/Categories

The pink nursery paper was a reprint of an old dollshouse wallpaper from the same site.

The wallpapers are printed on the back of old rolls of wallpaper and so are easy to work with because they are thick enough to hide some of the imperfections you find in an old house. They were also one of the few options I could find that was tall enough for these rooms, the rooms being 12.5 inches tall. The other advantage is that for most papers you can order any length you want. I ordered 100cm, enough to cover the three walls.

I still need to do the floors as you can see.

The fire places are original to the house. They are rather large and cumbersome but it is part it's history.

On the fireplace are some vintage vases I have managed to find.

The little dog I picked up at a local antique shop. Isn't he cute.

The globe is a vintage Chad Valley .

I made the table the globe is standing on.

One side of The Laurels wallpapered.

Now lets see if there is enough weekend left to play with some fimo!

Wallpaper

I was just looking for information on old wallpapers on the web trying to date a wallpaper in my old dolls house and I stumbled across the following YouTube video from a Kit Laybourne at Oxygen Media (with the Cooper-Hewett National Design Museum) called 'Wallpaper That Moves'. It basically covers 300 years of wallpaper in 3 minutes. Very clever and a good quick reference.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BR8umOkTEbw
Unfortunately it didn't help me identify the wallpaper in my dolls house. I'm still looking!