I find these hanging baskets rather a novel idea in home decoration. These are used in place of the wide friezes that became popular in the very late years of the nineteenth century. Wide friezes were printed on the paper in a horizontal fashion, which makes perfect sense as that is how they were hung....

Robert Graves Co. was founded by a Brooklyn-based Irish immigrant, and was one of the most successful wallpaper manufacturies in the United States from the 1860s to the 1920s. This wallpaper frieze was made by the company c. 1905-1915, and would likely have been marketed with a coordinating sidewall and ceiling paper. It features a...

Traditionally, wallpapers have imitated more expensive materials, such as architectural details, painted wall decorations, wood grains, marble, and, most often, textiles. In the mid-18th century when wallpapered rooms became a prevailing fashion in England and France, wallpaper borders were as important a decorative element as the coverings themselves. A brilliant swag of printed paper flowers,...

French architect and theorist Viollet-le-Duc (1814-1879) spent more than half of his career restoring Gothic-era castles, cathedrals, and public buildings, including such notable projects as Notre Dame de Paris and the city walls of Carcassonne. Yet he’s often seen as a pre-modernist, influencing Henry van de Velde and even Frank Lloyd Wright. Viollet-le-Duc’s theories of...

A rather severe group of peonies, roses and other flowers grow with grape vines in a tangled mass on this wallpaper frieze of the late-nineteenth century. Dark outlines and blocky coloring causes the blossoms to appear stylized and two-dimensional. Instead of subtle shading, the illusion of depth is created by overlapping the floral elements. The...

This neo-classical wallpaper frieze is a broad horizontal band meant to decorate a wall near the ceiling. I was immediately drawn to the three-dimensional quality of the block-print, as well as the intricate details that can be seen in the wings, imagery on the urn, and adornments on the confronted figures. The various Greek and...

This wide architectural frieze shows contains scallop shells rendered in high relief, set within arches outlined with egg and dart moldings, between which are wreath-enclosed torches. Above this is a dentil molding. This is printed in numerous shades of gray, with larger fills of complementary colors of red and green. There are also elements printed...

This roll of wallpaper sports a rather unusual look. The design is printed vertically but it is not a continuous pattern. Intended to be installed as a wide border or frieze running horizontally, each almost square repeat of this design would be cut apart with the sections installed side by side, as the floral and...

In this frieze, printed by the Gledhill Wallpaper co. in 1906-7, tall, slender trees stand in the foreground, growing from a well-manicured lawn like elongated stalks of broccoli. A paved, white sidewalk runs horizontally across the length of the frieze, branching off in the center of the panel and leading to a majestic landscape of...