The 1950s produced wallpapers that fell into a number of different design genres, ranging from modern to kitsch to traditional styles. This paper definitely falls under the latter category. If it wasn’t for the word “WASHABLE” printed in the selvedge it could easily be confused with a wallpaper produced around 1900. With its repetition of...
In celebration of Women’s History Month, March Object of the Day posts highlight women designers in the collection. This sidewall, with its medallions and stylized animal imagery, brings to mind medieval and Renaissance brocades made centuries earlier. However, its two-tone blue gray color scheme has little in common with the vibrant colors of those rich...
Author: Jeffery McCullough Many surviving nineteenth-century crib quilts are evidence that it was more common to make a child-size quilt in colors and patterns that were popular for adult-size bed quilts, rather than in specific “baby” colors. An 1840-1860 crib quilt in the collection of Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum represents common coloration and a...
The visual complexity of the “robe of descent” (jiang yi絳衣) worn by the highest-ranking Daoist priests demonstrates how priests used symbols and words to control their environment. The complex symbols were believed to transform the wearer into a ritual participant who communicated between human and spirit worlds. The priest faced the altar to conduct rites,...
I love the contrast in this paper by Jacquemart et Bénard between the monochrome neoclassical ornament and the vibrantly-colored animals. This sidewall hovers on the border between the austere Empire style of the first decades of the 19th century and the mid-century taste for highly-detailed, brightly-colored designs. The overall layout of this paper, with its...
This sidewall paper in the art nouveau style is printed in imitation of a tapestry or woven textile as seen in the pixelated-like borders of the motifs. This is part of a matched set which would include a coordinated wide frieze and ceiling paper, a trend which began around 1900 and remained popular until about...
