Chapter IV: Act I: of Richard III., C. 8, preamble: "The Sellers of such course (3)

"Painted decoration, whether by hand or stencil, was, no doubt, the immediate forerunner of paper hangings. The earliest reference to paper hangings in this country is to be found in the inventory taken at 'the monasterye of S. Syxborough in the Ile of Shepey, in the Countie of Kent, by Syr Thomas Cheney, Syr William Hawle, Knyghts and Antony Slewtheger, Esquyer, the XXVII day of Marche, in XXVII the yeare of our Soveraigne Lorde, Kyng Henrye the VIII, of the goods and catall belongyng to sayde Monastery.'

"In this very interesting document, a minutely descriptive list of the ornaments, furniture and fittings of the nuns' chambers is given. We find from this that, in place of the 'paynted clothes for the hangings of the chamber,' mentioned in most of the entries, under the heading of Dame Margaret Somebody's chamber is set down 'the chamber hangings of painted papers.'

"Wall-papers of Charles II.'s reign, and later, are still in existence; those at Ightham Mote, Kent, are well known instances.

"But so far as the writer is aware, the accompanying reproductions represent the oldest wall-papers now existing in England. They were found during the restoration of a fifteenth century timber-built house, known as 'Borden Hall' or the 'Parsonage Farm,' in the village of Borden, near Sittingbourne, Kent.

"The design marked 'A' was discovered in small fragments when the Georgian battening and wainscoats were removed in the first floor bed-room of the east front, in the oldest part of the house. These fragments showed that the tough paper had been originally nailed with flat-headed nails to the dried clay 'daubing' or plaster, with which the spaces between the timber uprights of the walls were filled in; the timbers themselves were painted a dark blue-grey, and a border of the same framed the strips of wall-paper. Owing to the walls having been battened out nearly two centuries ago, these fragments of a really striking design have been preserved to us.

"The design of 'B' was also found on the first floor, in the rear portion of the house. It had been pasted, in the modern manner, onto a large plaster surface. The walls on which it was found had been re-plastered over the original plastering and paper and thus the latter was preserved in perfect condition. The design and quality of the paper, and the mode of its attachment, point to a date of about 1650. 'A' is probably of an earlier date (say 1550-1600) and is very thick and tough. The ornament is painted in black on a rich vermilion ground, and the flower forms are picked out in a bright turquoise blue. 'B' is much more modern looking, both in texture and design, and in both is very inferior to 'A.'

"Its coloring is meagre compared with the other, the ornament being printed in black on white paper, and the flower forms roughly dabbed with vermilion. The character of the design in both cases seems referable to Indian influence; possibly they were the work of an Indian artist, and were cut as blocks for cotton printing, an impression being taken off on paper and hung on the walls. The house is in course of restoration under the superintendence of Mr. Philip M. Johnston, architect, to whom I am indebted for some of the particulars above given. To the owner of Borden Hall, Lewis Levy, Esq., I am also indebted for permission to publish the designs which I have reproduced in fac-simile from the original fragments. It is hoped shortly to hang the walls in the old manner with the reproduced papers."

I have copied from an 1859 edition of _Rambles about Portsmouth_, a strange story of the restoration of frescoes in the old Warner house at Portsmouth, New Hampshire:

"At the head of the stairs, on the broad space each side of the hall windows, there are pictures of two Indians, life size, highly decorated and executed by a skillful artist. These pictures have always been on view there, and are supposed to represent some Indian with whom the original owner traded in furs, in which business he was engaged. In the lower hall of the house are still displayed the enormous antlers of an elk, a gift from these red men.

"Not long since, the spacious front entry underwent repairs; there had accumulated four coatings of paper. In one place, on removing the under coating, the picture of a horse was discovered by a little girl. This led to further investigation; the horse of life size was developed; a little further work exhumed Governor Phipps on his charger. The process of clearing the walls was now entered upon in earnest, as if delving in the ruins of Pompeii.

"The next discovery was that of a lady at a spinning wheel (ladies span in those days!) who seems interrupted in her work by a hawk lighting among the chickens.

"Then came a Scripture scene; Abraham offering up Isaac; the angel, the ram, and so on. There is a distant city scene, and other sketches on the walls, covering perhaps four or five hundred square feet. The walls have been carefully cleaned, and the whole paintings, evidently the work of some clever artist, are now presented in their original beauty.

"No person living had any knowledge of the hidden paintings; they were as novel to an old lady of eighty, who had been familiar with the house from her childhood, as to her grand-daughter who discovered the horse's foot. The rooms are furnished with panelled walls and the old Dutch tiles still decorate the fire-place."

It is gratifying to note that as these old frescoes and wall-papers are ruthlessly destroyed by those unaware of their value (which will constantly increase), there are those who insist on their preservation and reproduction. President Tucker of Dartmouth College, for instance, has forbidden the removal of the Bay of Naples landscape from the walls of what was formerly the library of Professor Sanborn at Hanover, New Hampshire. The house is now used as a dormitory, but that paper is treated with decided reverence.

Reproduction of a fine paper worn, soiled and torn is an expensive matter, but those who realize their beauty order them if the price per roll is six or ten dollars. One of the most delightful papers of the present season is one copied from a French paper originally on the walls of a Salem house and known to have been there for over one hundred years. It is charming in design, with landscapes and flowers, twenty-eight different colors in all, and that means much when it is understood that every color must be printed from a different block when the paper is made.

The paper is brilliant in effect, with many bright colored flowers, pink hollyhocks in a warm rose shade, purple morning glories, some blue blossoms and two different water scenes set deep into the mass of flowers, the scenes themselves of delicate tones and wonderful perspective. The original paper was in pieces twenty inches wide by twenty-eight long, which shows it to be very old. This reproduction will be seen on the walls in houses of Colonial style in Newport this summer.

Yes, summer tourists are looking up old walls to gaze at with admiration. Many have found a Mecca in the Cleasby Place at Waterford, Vermont. Hardly a summer Sunday passes without a wagon load of persons going from Littleton towards the Connecticut River on a pilgrimage to Waterford and the Cleasby House. This house is said to be one of only three in New England which possess a certain wonderful old paper of strange design. The paper, a combination of brown and cream, bears scenes that evidently found their origin in foreign countries, but there are diverse opinions as to the nation whose characteristics are thereon depicted so realistically. An old house at Rockville, Massachusetts, still boasts this same paper, while the third example is on the walls of the Badger homestead, described on page 77. Plates XLVIII to L give scenes from these papers.

The Cleasby house was regarded, in the olden times, as the great mansion in this locality. There was nothing finer than the residence in any of the surrounding towns. The structure was erected by Henry Oakes, an old-time settler in Northern Vermont, whose relatives still reside near by. The paper was put on at the time the house was built and cost one hundred dollars. A paper-hanger came up from Boston to put it on properly, and this cost the owner an extra forty dollar check. In those days, the coming of a paper-hanger from Boston was regarded quite in the light of an event, and a hundred dollars expended for wall-paper stamped a man as a capitalist.

The house is still well preserved and shows no suggestion of being a ruin, although approaching the century mark. The present owner has been offered a large sum for this beautiful old paper, but wisely prefers to hold her treasure.

Paper-hangers to-day are returning, in some cases, to the hand-printing of fine papers, because they insist that there are some advantages in the old method to compensate for the extra work. To go back a bit, the earliest method of coloring paper hangings was by stencilling. A piece of pasteboard, with the pattern cut out on it, was laid on the paper, and water colors were freely applied with a brush to the back of the pasteboard, so that the colors came through the openings and formed the pattern on the paper. This process was repeated several times for the different colors and involved a great expenditure of labor. It was replaced by the method of calico-printing, which is now generally used in the manufacture of wall-paper, that is, by blocks and later by rollers. And why, you naturally ask, this return to the slow and laborious way?

Mr. Rottman, of the London firm of Alexander Rottman & Co., a high authority on this theme, in an able lecture given at his studio in London, explains the reasons in a way so clear that any one can understand. He says:

"In an age where needles are threaded by machinery at the rate of nearly one per second; where embroideries are produced by a machine process which reverses the old method in moving the cloth up to fixed needles; where Sunlight Soap is shaped, cut, boxed, packed into cases, nailed up, labelled, and even sent to the lighters by machinery, so that hand labour is almost entirely superseded; it seems odd and, in fact, quite out of date and uncommercial to print wall-papers entirely by hand process.

"The up-to-date wall-paper machine turns out most wonderful productions. It is able to imitate almost any fabric; tapestries, Gobelins, laces, and even tries to copy artistic stencilling in gradated tints. It manages to deceive the inartistic buyer to a large extent, in fact, there is hardly any fabric that the modern demand for 'sham' does not expect the wall-paper machine to imitate.

"However, in spite of all these so-called achievements, the modest hand-printing table that existed at the time of wigs and snuff-boxes is still surviving more or less in its old-fashioned simple construction. And why is this so?" He then explains why a hand-printed paper is always preferred to a machine paper by the person of taste, whose purse is not too slender. Seven reasons are given for their artistic superiority.

"1. Machine papers can be printed in thin colours only, which means a thin, loose colour effect.

"2. In machine papers the whole of the various colours are printed at one operation, one on the top of another. In hand-printed papers, no colours touch each other until dry, and so each colour remains pure.

"3. Large surfaces, such as big leaves, large flat flowers, broad stripes that have to be printed in one colour, are never successful in machines, wanting solidity of colour. Hand-printed papers run no such risk.

"4. The machine limits the variety of papers to the flat kind; to flat surfaces supplied by the paper mills in reels.

"5. Flaws, irregularities, and so on, when occurring in machine goods, run through many yards, owing to the necessary rapidity of printing, and the difficulty of stopping the machine; whilst every block repeat of pattern in the hand-printed goods is at once visible to the printer, who rectifies any defect before printing another impression, and so controls every yard.

"6. The hand-printed papers, being printed from wood blocks (only dots and thin lines subject to injury being inserted in brass) show more softness in the printing than papers printed from machine rollers that have to be made in brass.

"7. The preparation of getting the machine colours in position, and setting the machine ready for printing, necessitates the turning out of at least a ream, or a half ream (five hundred or two hundred and fifty rolls) at once; whilst the equivalent in hand-printing is fifty to sixty rolls. It often happens that the design of a machine paper is approved of, whilst the colourings it is printed in are unsuited to the scheme. By the hand process, room quantities of even ten to fifteen pieces can be printed specially at from 15 per cent. to 20 per cent. advance in price, while the increase in cost for such a small quantity in machine paper would send up the price to ridiculous proportions."

The use of brass pins in the wood blocks is also a revival of the old method, as you will see from this interesting paragraph from a recent volume--Lewis F. Day's _Ornament and Its Application_:

"Full and crowded pattern has its uses. The comparatively fussy detail, which demeans a fine material, helps to redeem a mean one.

"Printed wall-paper, for example, or common calico, wants detail to give it a richness which, in itself, it has not. In printed cotton, flat colours look dead and lifeless. The old cotton printers had what they called a 'pruning roller,' a wooden roller (for hand-printing) into which brass pins or wires were driven. The dots printed from this roller relieved the flatness of the printed colours, and gave 'texture' to it. William Morris adopted this idea of dotting in his cretonne and wall-paper design with admirable effect. It became, in his hands, an admirable convention, in place of natural shading. The interest of a pattern is enhanced by the occurrence at intervals of appropriate figures; but with every recurrence of the same figure, human or animal, its charm is lessened until, at last, the obvious iteration becomes, in most cases, exasperating.

"And yet, in the face of old Byzantine, Sicilian, and other early woven patterns with their recurring animals, and of Mr. Crane's consummately ornamental patterns, it cannot be said that repeated animal (and even human) forms do not make satisfactory pattern.

"For an illustration of this, look at the wall-paper design by Crane: 'This is the House that Jack built.' It seems, at first glance, to be a complicated ornamental design; after long searching, you at last see plainly every one of the characters in that jingle that children so love."

William Morris, and his interest in wall-paper hanging, must be spoken of, "For it was Morris who made this a truly valuable branch of domestic ornamentation. If, in some other instances, he was rather the restorer and infuser of fresh life into arts fallen into degeneracy, he was nothing short of a creator in the case of wall-paper design, which, as a serious decorative art, owes its existence to him before anyone else."

In his lecture on _The Lesser Arts of Life_, he insisted on the importance of paying due regard to the artistic treatment of our wall spaces. "Whatever you have in your rooms, think first of the walls, for they are that which makes your house and home; and, if you don't make some sacrifice in their favor, you will find your chambers have a sort of makeshift, lodging-house look about them, however rich and handsome your movables may be."

A collector is always under a spell; hypnotized, bewitched, possibly absurdly engrossed and unduly partial to his own special hobby, and to uninterested spectators, no doubt seems a trifle unbalanced, whether his specialty be the fossilized skeleton of an antediluvian mammoth or a tiny moth in a South American jungle.

I am not laboring under the exhilarating but erroneous impression that there is any widespread and absorbing interest in this theme. As the distinguished jurist, Mr. Adrian H. Joline, says, "Few there are who cling with affection to the memory of the old fashioned. Most of us prefer to spin with the world down the ringing grooves of change, to borrow the shadow of a phrase which has of itself become old-fashioned." Yet, as Mr. Webster said of Dartmouth, when he was hard pressed: "It is a little college, but there are those who love it."

Besides, everything--Literature, Art and even fashions in dress and decorations,--while seeming to progress really go in waves. We are now wearing the bonnets, gowns and mantles of the 1830 style and much earlier. Fabulous and fancy prices are gladly given for antique furniture; high boys, low boys, hundred-legged tables, massive four-post bedsteads, banjo clocks, and crystal chandeliers.

Those able to do it are setting tapestries into their stately walls, hangings of rich brocades and silk are again in vogue and the old designs for wall-paper are being hunted up all through Europe and this country. Some also adopt a colored wash for their bed-room walls, and cover their halls with burlap or canvas, while the skins of wild animals adorn city dens as well as the mountain lodge or the seaside bungalow. So we have completed the circle.

The unco rich of to-day give fabulous sums for crystal candelabra, or museum specimens of drawing room furniture; and collectors, whether experts or amateurs, and beginners just infected with the microbe are searching for hidden treasures of china, silver and glass.

Why should the Old Time Wall-Papers alone be left unchronicled and forgotten? In them the educated in such matters read the progress of the Art; some of them are more beautiful than many modern paintings; the same patterns are being admired and brought out; the papers themselves will soon all be removed.

Hawthorne believed that the furniture of a room was magnetized by those who occupied it; a modern psychologist declares that even a rag doll dearly loved by a child becomes something more than a purely inanimate object. We should certainly honor the wall-papers brought over the seas from various countries at great expense to beautify the Homes of our Ancestors.

PUBLISHER'S NOTE.

_The wall-papers reproduced in the following plates were in many cases faded, water-stained and torn, when photographed. Many of the photographs are amateur work; some are badly focused and composed, some taken in small rooms and under unfavorable conditions of light. The reader will bear this in mind in judging the papers themselves and the present reproductions._

_PLATE VII_

_PLATE VIII_

PLATE VII.

The Bayeux Tapestry.

The oldest tapestry now in existence, dating from the time of
William the Conqueror, and apparently of English workmanship. The
set of pieces fits the nave of the Cathedral of Bayeux, measuring
231 feet long and 20 inches wide. Now preserved in the Bayeux
Library.

The subjects are drawn from English history; Plate VII represents
the burial of Edward the Confessor in the Church of St. Peter,
Westminster Abbey.

PLATE VIII.

The Bayeux Tapestry.

King Harold listening to news of the preparations of William of
Orange for the invasion of Britain.

_PLATE IX_

_PLATE X_

PLATE IX.

Borden Hall Paper.

The oldest wall-paper known in England; found in restoring a
fifteenth-century timber-built house known as "Borden Hall," in
Borden village, Kent, near Sittingbourne.

Design "A" was found in the oldest part of the house, and probably
dates from the second half of the sixteenth century. The paper is
thick and tough, and was nailed to the plaster between uprights.
The walls were afterward battened over the paper, and the recovered
fragments are in perfect condition. Ground color rich vermillion,
with flowers in bright turquoise blue, the design in black.

PLATE X.

Borden Hall Paper.

Old English paper, design "B"; found in rear part of house and
dates from about 1650. It was pasted to the plaster in the modern
manner. Printed in black on a white ground, flowers roughly colored
vermillion. Inferior to "A" in design, coloring, and quality of
paper.

_PLATE XI_

PLATE XI.

Early English Pictorial Paper

Late eighteenth century hunting scene paper from an old Manor House
near Chester, England. Reproduced from a fragment in the collection
of Mr. Edward T. Cockcroft of New York City. The pattern is
evidently repeated at intervals.

_PLATE XII_

PLATE XII.

The Cultivation of Tea.

Hand-painted Chinese paper, imported about 1750 and still in good
state of preservation; the property of Mr. Theodore P. Burgess of
Dedham, Mass. The subject is perhaps the oldest theme used in
wall-paper decoration in China.

_PLATE XIII_

_PLATE XIV_

PLATE XIII.

The Cultivation of Tea.

Paper on another side of room shown in Plate XII.

PLATE XIV.

The Cultivation of Tea.

Third side of same room. The scene continues round the room without
repetition.

_PLATE XV_

_PLATE XVI_

PLATE XV.

Early American Fresco.

Painted river scenes on the best chamber walls of the house of Mrs.
William Allen at Westwood, Mass. The elm and locust trees and
architectural style are plainly American, but the geographical
location is uncertain. The colors are very brilliant--red, blue,
green, etc.

PLATE XVI.

Early American Fresco.

Another side of same room, showing conventionalized water fall and
bend in the river.

_PLATE XVII_

_PLATE XVIII_

PLATE XVII.

Early American Fresco.

Another view of the painted walls at Westwood, Mass. The object
depicted is neither a whale nor a torpedo-boat, but an island.

PLATE XVIII.

Early American Fresco.

Painted hall and stairway in an old house in High Street, Salem,
Mass., attached to the very old bake-shop of Pease and Price. The
frescoes were executed by a Frenchman. Colors are still quite
bright, but a good photograph could not be secured in the small and
dimly-lighted hall.

_PLATE XIX_

_PLATE XX_

PLATE XIX.

Early Stencilled Paper.

Fragments of very old paper from Nantucket, R. I.

PLATE XX.

A Peep at the Moon.

Another quaint stencilled paper found at Nantucket, R. I.

_PLATE XXI_

PLATE XXI.

Pictured Ruins and Decorative Designs.

Hall of a homestead at Salem, Massachusetts, old when gas lights
were introduced in Salem. The paper was undoubtedly made to fit the
stairway and hall. The large picture in the lower hall is repeated
at the landing.

_PLATE XXII_

PLATE XXII.

Hand Colored Paper with Repeated Pattern.

Parlor in the home of Mrs. Russell Jarvis at Claremont, New
Hampshire. The paper is hand-printed on cream ground in snuff-brown
color, and is made up of pieces eighteen inches square, showing
three alternating pastoral scenes. In the frieze and dado the
prevailing color is dark blue. (p.56)

_PLATE XXIII_

_PLATE XXIV_

PLATE XXIII.

Scenes from Nature in Repeated Design.

Parlor of the Lindell house at Salem, Massachusetts. White
wainscoting and mantel surmounted by paper in squares, showing four
outdoor scenes. The fire-board concealing the unused fire-place is
covered with paper and border specially adapted to that purpose.

PLATE XXIV.

The Alhambra.

Two scenes from the Alhambra Palace, repeated in somewhat
monotonous rows. Still in a good state of preservation on the upper
hall of a house at Leicester, Massachusetts,--one of the sea-port
towns rich in foreign novelties brought home by sea captains.

_PLATE XXV_

_PLATE XXVI_

PLATE XXV.

Cathedral Porch and Shrine in Repeated Design.

Effectively colored paper still on the walls at Ware,
Massachusetts, showing a shrine in the porch of a cathedral; the
repeated design being connected with columns, winding stairs and
ruins. The blue sky seen through the marble arches contrasts finely
with the green foliage.

PLATE XXVI.

Cathedral Porch and Shrine, Architectural Background.

Paper on a chamber in the mansion of Governor Gore of
Massachusetts, at Waltham, Massachusetts, erected and decorated in
1802. Medallion pictures in neutral colors, of a cathedral porch,
shrine and mountain view, alternating on a stone-wall ground.

_PLATE XXVII_

PLATE XXVII.

Birds of Paradise and Peacocks.

The drawing-room of the Governor Gore Mansion at Waltham,
Massachusetts, bequeathed by its owner, Miss Walker, to the
Episcopal Church for the Bishop's residence. The paper is still in
beautiful condition, printed on brownish cream ground in the
natural colors of birds and foliage. (p. 75)

_PLATE XXVIII_

PLATE XXVIII.

Sacred to Washington.

Memorial paper in black and gray placed on many walls soon after
the death of Washington. The example photographed was on a hall and
stairway. (p. 88)

_PLATE XXIX_

PLATE XXIX.

Dorothy Quincy Wedding Paper.

On the Dorothy Quincy house on Hancock Street, at Quincy, Mass.,
now the headquarters of the Colonial Dames of Massachusetts. It was
imported from Paris in honor of the marriage of Dorothy Quincy and
John Hancock in 1775, and still hangs on the walls of the large
north parlor. Venus and Cupid are printed in blue, the floral
decorations in red. The colors are still unfaded. (p. 65)

_PLATE XXX_

_PLATE XXXI_

PLATE XXX.

The Pantheon.

Mounted fragments rescued from the destruction of the dining-room
paper which was on the walls of the King's Tavern or "Waffle
Tavern" at Vernon (now Rockville), Connecticut, when Lafayette was
entertained there in 1825. All the characters of Roman mythology
were pictured in woodland scenes printed in gray and black, on
small squares of paper carefully matched. Below these ran a band
bearing the names of the characters represented; and below this, a
grassy green dado dotted with marine pictures. (p. 69)

PLATE XXXI.

Canterbury Bells.

Paper from Howe's Tavern, at Sudbury, Massachusetts,--the "Wayside
Inn" of Longfellow's Tales. The fragment is in poor condition but
possesses historic interest, having decorated the room in which
Lafayette passed the night on his trip through America. (p. 67)

_PLATE XXXII_

_PLATE XXXIII_

PLATE XXXII.

The First Railroad Locomotive.

Paper on an old house in High Street, Salem, supposed to represent
the first railroad. The first trial of locomotives for any purpose
other than hauling coal from the mines, took place near Rainhill,
England, in 1829. The paper may celebrate this contest, at which of
three engines was successful. (p. 89-90)

PLATE XXXIII.

High Street House Paper.

Scene on opposite side of same room. The subject and figures seem
English. The scenes are in colors, the dado in black and grey on
white ground.

_PLATE XXXIV_

_PLATE XXXV_

PLATE XXXIV.

Pizarro in Peru.

Remains of Pizarro paper in the Ezra Weston house now used for the
famous Powder Point School for Boys, at Duxbury, Massachusetts.
Formerly on sitting-room but now preserved in a small upper room;
stained and dim. It was brought from Paris by Captain Gershom
Bradford, and is supposed to depict scenes in Pizarro's invasion of
Peru in 1531. The same figures are shown in successive scenes, more
or less distinct though running into each other. (p. 97)

PLATE XXXV.

Pizarro in Peru.

Another corner of same room. Both the paper and photograph are
difficult to reproduce.

_PLATE XXXVI_

_PLATE XXXVII_

PLATE XXXVI.

Tropical Scenes.

Paper from the Ham House at Peabody, Massachusetts, now occupied by
Dr. Worcester. These scenes are quite similar to those of the
Pizarro paper, and may have been the work of the same designer.

PLATE XXXVII.

Tropical Scenes.

Ham house paper. Another side of room.

_PLATE XXXVIII_

_PLATE XXXIX_

PLATE XXXVIII.

On the Bosporus.

From a house at Montpelier, Vermont, in which it was hung in 1825,
in honor of Lafayette who was entertained there. The Mosque of
Santa Sophia and other buildings of Constantinople are seen in the
background.

PLATE XXXIX.

On the Bosporus.

Opposite side of same room. Fishing from caiques on the Golden Horn
before Stamboul.

_PLATE XL_

PLATE XL.

Oriental Scenes.

Paper still on the walls of the home of Miss Janet A. Lathrop, at
Stockport, New York. It was put on the walls in 1820 by the sea
captain who built the house, and in 1904 was cleaned and restored
by the present owner. No other example of this paper in America has
been heard of, except in an old house at Albany in which the mother
of Miss Lathrop was born. In the "Chinese room" of a hunting lodge
belonging to the King of Saxony, at Moritzburg, near Dresden, is a
similar paper or tapestry from which this may have been copied. It
is printed in grays which have become brown with age, from engraved
blocks, and finished by hand. This is a rare example of the use of
rice paper for a wall covering. (p. 55)

_PLATE XLI_

PLATE XLI.

Oriental Scenes.

Continuation of same paper; apparently a religious procession.

_PLATE XLII_

PLATE XLII.

Oriental Scenes.

Another section of the Lathrop house paper.

_PLATE XLIII_

PLATE XLIII.

Oriental Scenes.

End of room containing three preceding scenes.

_PLATE XLIV_

PLATE XLIV.

Early Nineteenth Century Scenic Paper.

Side wall of parlor of Mrs. E. C. Cowles at Deerfield,
Massachusetts. The house was built in 1738 by Ebenezer Hinsdale,
and was re-modelled and re-decorated about the beginning of the
nineteenth century. Still in good state of preservation. The colors
are neutral.

_PLATE XLV_

PLATE XLV.

Parlor of Mrs. Cowles' house, end of room.

_PLATE XLVI_

_PLATE XLVII_

PLATE XLVI.

Another example of the same paper as that on the Cowles house
(Plates XLIV and XLV). This paper was imported from England and
hung in 1805, in a modest house at Warner, New Hampshire,--such a
house as seldom indulged in such expensive papers. It is still on
the walls, though faded.

PLATE XLVII.

At Windsor, Vermont, two more examples of this paper are still to
be seen. One is on the house now occupied by the Sabin family. This
was built about 1810 by the Honorable Edward R. Campbell, and the
paper was hung when the house was new. (p. 52)

_PLATE XLVIII_

_PLATE XLIX_

PLATE XLVIII.

Harbor Scene.

Paper found in three houses in New England--the home of Mr. Wilfred
Cleasby at Waterford, Vermont; the Governor Badger homestead at
Gilmanton, New Hampshire, built in 1825; and an old house in
Rockville, Massachusetts, built about ninety years ago. The scene
fits the four walls of the room without repetition. The design is
printed in browns on a cream ground, with a charming effect. The
geographical identity of the scenes has never been established. (p.
109)

PLATE XLIX.

The Spanish Fandango.

Continuation of same paper; another side of room.

_PLATE L_

PLATE L.

Strolling Players.

Same paper, third view. The set of paper on the Cleasby house is
said by descendants of the builder, Henry Oakes, to have cost $100,
and $40 for its hanging. The similar set on the Badger homestead
should have cost $50, had not the messenger lost the first payment
sent, so that that sum had to be duplicated. This is on a smaller
room than at the Cleasby house, requiring less paper. (p. 76-80)

_PLATE LI_

_PLATE LII_

PLATE LI.

Rural Scene.

Paper on the parlor of Mr. Josiah Cloye at Ashland, Massachusetts,
and found also in several other places; colors neutral.

PLATE LII.

Rural Scene.

From another example of the same set found at Marblehead,
Massachusetts.

_PLATE LIII_

_PLATE LIV_

PLATE LIII.

French Boulevard Scene.

Paper from the Forrester house at Salem, Massachusetts, now used as
a sanitarium for the insane. Since the photographs were taken the
paper has been removed as it unduly excited the patients.

PLATE LIV.

French Boulevard Scene.

Same as above. Found also in a house at the sea-port town of
Nantucket.

_PLATE LV_

PLATE LV.

Gateway and Fountain.

French paper, imported before 1800, but never hung. A few rolls
still survive, in the possession of Mr. George M. Whipple of Salem,
Massachusetts.

_PLATE LVI_

PLATE LVI.

Scenes from Paris.

A very popular paper found in Federal Street, Salem, on the parlor
of Mrs. Charles Sadler, daughter of Henry K. Oliver; in the Ezra
Weston house at Duxbury, Massachusetts, built in 1808; the Walker
house at Rockville, Massachusetts, and several other New England
towns. The principal buildings of Paris are represented as lining
the shore of the Seine. The inclusion of the Colonne Vendôme shows
it to have been designed since 1806; and as the horses on the
Carousel arch were returned to Venice in 1814, the paper probably
dates between those years. (p. 88)

_PLATE LVII_

PLATE LVII.

Scenes from Paris.

Another side of room shown in Plate LVI. The paper is in pieces 16
by 21 inches. The colors are soft, with green, gray and brown
predominating, but with some black, yellow, red, etc. The drawing
is good.

_PLATE LVIII_

PLATE LVIII.

Bay of Naples.

This seems to have been the most popular paper of the early
nineteenth century. It decorated the room in which the author was
born--the library of Professor E. D. Sanborn of Dartmouth College,
at Hanover, New Hampshire,--and is still in place. The house is now
used as a Dartmouth dormitory. The same scenes are found in the
Lawrence house, at Exeter, New Hampshire, now used as a
dormitory--Dunbay Hall--of the Phillips Exeter Academy; on the
house of Mrs. E. B. McGinley at Dudley, Massachusetts, and on
another at St. Johnsbury, Vermont, now owned by Mrs. Emma Taylor.
(p. 49, 108)

_PLATE LIX_

PLATE LIX.

Bay of Naples.

Continuation of same scene. This paper is in neutral colors, and
made in small pieces. It was imported about 1820.

_PLATE LX_

PLATE LX.

Bay of Naples.

Detail. The monument has a Greek inscription which Professor
Kittredge of Harvard University translates literally: "Emperor
Cæsar, me divine Hadrian. Column of the Emperor Antoninus
Pius"--who was the son of Hadrian. The pillar of Antonine still
stands at Rome. The statue of Antoninus which formerly surmounted
it was removed by Pope Sextus, who substituted a figure of Paul.

_PLATE LXI_

_PLATE LXII_

PLATE LXI.

Bay of Naples.

Another side of room.

PLATE LXII.

Bay of Naples.

Detail: Galleon at anchor.

_PLATE LXIII_

PLATE LXIII.

Cupid and Psyche.

Panelled paper in colors, designed by Lafitte and executed by
Dufour in 1814. It consists of twenty-six breadths, each five feet
seven inches long by twenty inches wide. It is said that fifteen
hundred engraved blocks were used in printing. The design is
divided into twelve panels, depicting the marriage of Cupid and
Psyche, Psyche's lack of faith and its sad consequences.

The scene reproduced shows the visit of the newly-wedded Psyche's
jealous sisters to her palace, where they persuade her that her
unseen husband is no god, but a monster whom she must kill.

_PLATE LXIV_

PLATE LXIV.

Cupid and Psyche.

While Cupid lies sleeping in the darkness, Psyche takes her dagger,
lights her lamp, and bends over the unconscious god:

* * * There before her lay
The very Love brighter than dawn of day;

* * * * *

O then, indeed, her faint heart swelled for love,
And she began to sob, and tears fell fast
Upon the bed.--But as she turned at last
To quench the lamp, there happed a little thing,
That quenched her new delight, for flickering
The treacherous flame cast on his shoulder fair
A burning drop; he woke, and seeing her there,
The meaning of that sad sight knew too well,
Nor was there need the piteous tale to tell.

WILLIAM MORRIS: _The Earthly Paradise._

_PLATE LXV_

PLATE LXV.

The Adventures of Telemachus.

Paper from the home of Dr. John Lovett Morse at Taunton,
Massachusetts, illustrating the sixth book of Fenelon's _Adventures
of Telemachus_. Found also in the home of Mr. Henry De Witt
Freeland at Sutton, Massachusetts; on the hall of "The Hermitage,"
Andrew Jackson's home near Nashville, Tennessee; and in an ancient
house at Kennebunk, Maine. (p. 86-88)

Telemachus, son of Ulysses, and Mentor, who is Minerva in
disguise, while searching through two worlds for the lost Ulysses,
arrive at the island of the goddess Calypso and her nymphs.
Telemachus recites the tale of their adventures, and Calypso (who
is unfortunately divided by the window into two equal parts)
becomes as deeply enamored of Telemachus as she had formerly been
of his father.

_PLATE LXVI_

PLATE LXVI.

The Adventures of Telemachus.

Venus, who is bent on detaining Telemachus on the island and
delaying his filial search for Ulysses, brings her son Cupid from
Olympus, and leaves him with Calypso, that he may inflame the young
hero's heart with love for the goddess.

_PLATE LXVII_

PLATE LXVII.

The Adventures of Telemachus.

Cupid stirs up all the inflammable hearts within his reach somewhat
indiscriminately; and Telemachus finds himself in love with the
nymph Eucharis. Calypso becomes exceedingly jealous. At a
hunting-contest in honor of Telemachus, Eucharis appears in the
costume of Diana to attract him, while the jealous Calypso rages
alone in her grotto. Venus arrives in her dove-drawn car and takes
a hand in the game of hearts.

_PLATE LXVIII_

PLATE LXVIII.

Adventures of Telemachus.

Calypso, in her rage against Eucharis and Telemachus, urges Mentor
to build a boat and take Telemachus from her island. Mentor,
himself disapproving of the youth's infatuation, builds the boat;
then finds Telemachus and persuades him to leave Eucharis and
embark with him. As they depart toward the shore, Eucharis returns
to her companions, while Telemachus looks behind him at every step
for a last glimpse of the nymph.

_PLATE LXIX_

PLATE LXIX.

Adventures of Telemachus.

Cupid meantime has dissuaded Calypso from her wrath and incited the
nymphs to burn the boat that is waiting to bear the visitors away.
Mentor, perceiving that Telemachus is secretly glad of this, and
fearing the effect of his passion for Eucharis, throws the youth
from the cliff into the water, leaps in after him, and swims with
him to a ship that lies at anchor beyond the treacherous shoals.

_PLATE LXX_

PLATE LXX.

Scottish Scenes.

The room on which the Adventures of Telemachus are pictured having
proved too large for the set of scenes, the remaining corner is
filled out with what appear to be Scottish scenes, possibly
illustrations for Scott. Harmony in coloring was apparently of more
importance than harmony in subject.

_PLATE LXXI_

_PLATE LXXII_

PLATE LXXI.

The Olympic Games.

This famous paper, now owned by Mrs. Franklin R. Webber 2d of
Boston, was made in France and imported in 1800 or earlier, but
never hung. Each roll is made up of squares invisibly joined, and
the thirty pieces combine to form a continuous panorama. The
coloring is brown. The paper was probably printed by hand from
engraved blocks, and the shading of faces, etc., added by hand. The
most artistic pictorial paper known. (p. 52-54)

PLATE LXXII.

The Olympic Games.

A tribute to Homer.

_PLATE LXXIII_

_PLATE LXXIV_

PLATE LXXIII.

The Olympic Games.

The shrine of Vesta.

PLATE LXXIV.

The Olympic Games.

Worshipping Athene in the Court of the Erechtheum.

_PLATE LXXV_

_PLATE LXXVI_

PLATE LXXV.

The Olympic Games.

Oblation to Bacchus.

PLATE LXXVI.

The Olympic Games.

Oblation to Bacchus, and procession before the Parthenon. From the
Perry house at Keene, N. H., on whose parlor walls is preserved the
only other known example of the paper just described. (p. 50)

_PLATE LXXVII_

PLATE LXXVII.

The Lady of the Lake.

This series of scenes in neutral colors is photographed from the
parlor of the Rev. Pelham Williams, at Greenbush, Mass., whose
house is one of three on which it still hangs in good condition.
The other examples are the Hayward house at Wayland, Mass., and the
Alexander Ladd house, now owned by Mrs. Charles Wentworth, at
Portsmouth, N. H.