Product Description

The only international history of wallpaper from its origins to today's digital and laser printing, now brought completely up to date.

Wallpaper is high fashion, and literally so in the wallcovering lines launched by Gucci in 2003 and Benetton in 2004. Innovation has been fueled by technology (with developments such as multicolored dry rub-off transfers); by environmental concerns (with nonwovens, or vlies, that breathe and create no harmful residues); and by a profusion of retro, luxury, naturalistic, humorous, and artistic ideas.

First published in 1994, The Papered Wall has been revised to include a new and fully illustrated chapter on recent trends and a thorough reworking of its invaluable reference section, including suppliers of historic patterns and collections open to the public.

Written by experts from Belgium, Britain, France, Germany, and the United States, this authoritative volume begins with the individually printed sheets that formed the first wallpapers in the fifteenth century. It encompasses English flocked papers with repeats as large as seven feet, spectacular French panoramas encircling an entire room, and exquisitely printed bowers of roses. By 1900 technical inventiveness and designers like William Morris had put new kinds of wallcoverings and a vast choice of patterns before a worldwide market. The twentieth century saw a struggle between traditional ideas and radically "modern" styles—Jugendstil, Art Deco, Bauhaus, and postwar contemporary designs.

Complete with a guide to care and conservation, this is a timely, informative, and stimulating record of wallpapers for every use and taste. 369 illustrations, 216 in color.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #327376 in Books
• Published on: 2005-09-01
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 272 pages

From Library Journal
The history of wallpaper reflects the technological, artistic, and social developments that have taken place since the 15th century, when printing presses produced "dominos"-single sheets of block-printed patterns used to decorate walls. Hoskins, archivist for wallpaper manufacturer Sanderson & Sons, has assembled the writings of 15 decorative arts scholars whose goal is to show that wallpaper is a decorative art to be studied, appreciated, and preserved. Somewhat pedantic in writing style, this book succeeds in presenting the beauty of the papers' designs, particularly when showing the exquisitely vivid Chinese wallpapers of the 18th century and 19th-century French scenic papers. For interior design collections and those interested in historic preservation.
Gayle A. Williamson, Fashion Inst. of Design & Merchandising, Los Angeles
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Fourteen archivists, curators, and experts on decorative art have been gathered by editor Hoskins to display their collective knowledge of wallpaper. Lest the readers think the subject warrants only an abbreviated book, they should realize wallpaper has been around since the late 1400s. Provided here is a wealth of information--from ceiling papers and the applied art of Albrecht D{}urer to contemporary innovations in texture, design, and technology--and woodcuts, paintings, and photographs showing common bonds among householders of most nations; every part of the world professing to manufacture art for the walls is well covered. For those libraries with an extensive collection of books on design. Barbara Jacobs

About the Author
Lesley Hoskins is a Specialist Curator at the Museum of Domestic Design & Architecture, Middlesex University, and a curator in the field of nineteenth- and twentieth-century interiors and wallpapers.