The Winterthur Library

 The Joseph Downs Collection of Manuscripts and Printed Ephemera

Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum

5105 Kennett Pike, Winterthur, Delaware  19735

302-888-4600 or 800-448-3883

 

 

OVERVIEW OF THE COLLECTION

                                               

Title:               Wallpaper

Dates:             1759-[ca. 1920]

Call No.:         Col. 321         

Acc. No.:        [various – see detailed description]

Quantity:        1 box, 2 map case folders, 1 roll

Location:        34 E 4-6; 2 A-B 3; Map Case 3, drawer 2

 

 

 

SCOPE AND CONTENT

 

This artificial and still open collection consists of fragments and rolls of wallpaper and designs for wall and ceiling decorations, many identified with specific houses or decorating firms.  Floral designs predominate.  The majority appear to be from homes in New England.  As well, the collection includes photographs (both color and black and white) of wallpaper. 

 

Additional wallpaper fragments have been used as book bindings, for decorative purposes, or as samples for interior decoration schemes.  References to these may be found by doing a search of the catalog using the terms Wallpaper – Specimens, Wallpaper – Sample books, or Wallpaper – Samples.  Advertisements and trade cards for wallpaper or wallpaper hangers can be located in the appropriate collections under the term Wall hangings.

 

 

ORGANIZATION

           

Arranged in accession number order.  The photos are in a separate box.

 

 

LANGUAGE OF MATERIALS

 

The materials are mostly visual, but there is some printing in English and French.

 

 

RESTRICTIONS ON ACCESS

 

Collection is open to the public.  Copyright restrictions may apply.

 

 

PROVENANCE

 

Purchases and gifts from various sources.     

 

 

RESTRICTIONS ON ACCESS

 

Most of the wallpaper samples have been scanned and the images are available at this repository.  The scans should be examined before the original samples.  A few samples were too large or fragile to be scanned, and direct access will be granted to those.

 

 

ACCESS POINTS

 

People:

            Peel, Robert, 1723-1795.

            Usner, Jeremiah.

            Geist, Daniel. 

 

Topics:

            Cresswell and Washburn (Philadelphia, Pa.)

H.D. & J. Moeller (New York, N.Y.)

Howell and Brothers.

            J. Zuber et Cie.

            Robert Graves Co. (New York, N.Y.)

            W.N. Peak.

            Wallpaper.

Wallpaper - Specimens.

            Interior decoration.

            House furnishings.

            Account books.

 

 

 

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE COLLECTION

 

Location: 34 E 4-6; 2 A-B 3; Map Case 3, drawer 2

                                                                             

 

Box 1:

 

62x42.1-.3       Wallpaper fragments found pasted on the back of a print dated 1759 which was, in turn, glued to a tulip wood stretcher frame.  Design is white flowers and leaves within stripes on blue-green background.  (see also 65x667.1-.3) (trex 1406)

 

65x665.1-.2     Wallpaper fragments from Dr. Matthew Rockwell House, East Windsor, Connecticut, 1816.  Design is of red and white dots on gold background with red and white plaid border.  (trex 3055)

 

65x666            Fragment of wallpaper removed from back of a book ca. 1790. Design is stencil type: brown flowers and ribbons on blue background. (museum acc. no. 62.628; trex 3056)

 

65x667.1-.3     More fragments of the wallpaper described in 62x42. (trex 3057)

 

66x131            Fragment of wallpaper from a house at 20 Brush Hill Lane, Milton, Massachusetts.  According to the owner, Mrs. Conger Williams, the house was built in 1810.  The paper was in the attic stairway.  The design is vertical picture frame-like shapes in blue on white or tan background, with scrolls of blue dots in between each frame. (trex 2542)

 

68x143.1-.2     Wallpaper fragments from Williams House, Lebanon, Connecticut, 1780-1810.  Design is pink and white flowers and green leaves on blue background.

 

68x193                        .1         Wallpaper fragment: gold background with design of flowers and leaves, both in peach.  The number 519 is written on the front. 

                        On back is written a note “I think two or three furniture patts. [patterns, .i.e. patterns for upholstery fabrics] may be drawn from this paper….”  The note goes on to mention copperplate designs.  Under that note is another: “I do certify that the above was written to me by the late Sir Robert Peel, Baronet, when in business, Jno. Harding, August 9, 1838.”  [Sir Robert Peel was in the textile printing business.]

                        .2         part of an envelope addressed to John Harding, 1812.

                        .3         engraving of a portrait of Sir Robert Peel; from portrait by Sir Thomas Lawrence, engraved by H. Robinson.

                        [trex 3149]

 

69x153.1         Wallpaper piece with abstract designs in green and yellow on pink background.  This is probably the pattern called “Yellow Mabem,” by Duppa of London, ca.1805.

 

69x153.2         Wallpaper border piece on embossed gold paper. Designs appear to have color added after printing in very bright reds, greens, and blues.  Designs of animal heads, horns, flowers and birds.

 

76x98.1040     Wallpaper with green background, pink flowers, and white highlights, probably early 19th century.

                        Was probably used to cover a manuscript volume (perhaps an account book) – there are some figures on the reverse side and some writing in German.

 

94x106.1-.6     Modern reproductions of six stencil wall paper designs from a design book by J. Waring, Early American Stencil Decorations, produced by R.E. Thibaut, Inc., New York.

                        .1         floral design, fig. 61, stencil wallpaper pattern 756B;

                        .2         flowers in a vase, fig. 32, stencil wallpaper pattern 756B;

                        .3         tulip design, fig. 97, stencil wallpaper pattern 750A;

                        .4         black flowers, green leaves, within abstract black and green border;

                        .5         green ribbons and abstract flowers in orange and black, fig. 19, stencil wallpaper border 762A;

                        .6         willow tree within border of green ribbons and orange and black stars, fig. 74, stencil wallpaper pattern 755C.

 

95x75.1-.4       four patterns for walls and ceilings from the firm of H.D. & J. Moeller of New York City.  As the Moellers were painters, these may be designs for decorative painting rather than for wallpaper.  Numbers 95x74.3-.4 are oversized and are in the map case.

                        .1         design shows wall decorations of scrolls, ribbons, and an urn with flowers; the bottom part of the wall is covered with wood paneling; design no. 1394;

                        .2         probably a ceiling design, with central medallion (only one quarter is shown), flowers in corner, with scroll design outlining the space, design no. 1255;

                        .3         probably a ceiling design, with flowers toward the center, scroll work in the corner, and a border of scrollwork; design no. 1284 (in map case);

                        .4         possibly a ceiling design, with scrollwork in the corner, and a design of straight lines and flowers for the central panel, design no. 1083 (in map case).

 

96x38.8           Wallpaper design of soldiers on horseback, wearing red caps and blue uniforms, carrying bows and arrows and long lances.  The horses are brown and they are galloping over green stripes.

                        The wallpaper was used to cover an account book kept by Jeremiah Usner in 1851.  He recorded painting wheelbarrows, shovel harrows, a patent clock, standards, sets of hounds, a set of running gears, part of a scythe, spokes, and a ladder.  He also cleaned out a shop, made 50 wedges, sawed off spokes, bored holes in hay ladder beams, carried fellows upstairs, made pins, and helped with harvests.  Some of the accounts belonged to Daniel Geist. 

 

 

Boxes 2-5:

 

08x135.1-.35   An assortment of wallpapers from the 19th and early 20th centuries.   A few are marked with names or initials of makers or printers: Robert Graves Co. (.1a-d, .2a-b, .3a-b); S.P. & P. Co. (.4); Cresswell & Washburn of Philadelphia (.6. .32); Howell & Brothers (.9, .13); J. & Comp’y (.21); A.W.P.M.A. (.26); W.N. Peak (.29a-b); and P.W.P.H. of Providence, R.I. (.35, which is brown wrapping paper).  (Housed in 4 boxes; none of the samples have been scanned.)

 

 

Box 6: photos

09x115            .1-.22   photographs of wallpapers, including scenic (natives met by Captain Cook, the Tizwin ceremony, “Les Incas,” New York harbor, New York Deaf and Dumb Asylum, Chinese scene, Parade Ground at West Point); figures (classical figures, Washington, Gen. Green, a railroad train), and other designs;

                        Also photos which came as a group: family of Jacob Thomas and wallpaper designs (found in Newark, Del.);

                        And a photo of a man printing wallpaper by hand

 

 

IN MAP CASE:

 

88x49.1-4        Four watercolor designs for wall paper on 18th century paper.  Three of the designs combine flowers, foliage, and ribbons.  The fourth is just flowers and foliage.  (in Map Case)

 

95x75.3-.4       see description above (.1-.2 are in Box 1, .3-.4 are in map case)

 

12x60.3           “BBF 1200 U.S. Military Academy at West Point,” made for Brooks Brownfield Company by Thomas Strahan Co.  Vignettes in shades of gray on white background, including several buildings, a monument, and a still life with drum, gun, flag, and other objects.  From second half of 20th century.

 

 

 

ON SHELF 2 A-B:

 

06x33              Roll containing two sections of “Classic Landscape” wallpaper produced by J. Zuber et Cie, Rixheim, France.  Although the design was probably originally produced in the early 1800s, this particular example was printed for the American market after 1914, as it is marked “Made in France.”  The names Auguste Mertze and Schmitt Joseph [sic] are also printed on the paper.

                        (This large roll is shelved at 2 A-B 3.)

 

 

 

ADDITIONAL MATERIAL

 

70x66              Broadside backed with wallpaper, in Col. 214, under Department and Dry goods stores.