■ at home with ANTIQUES information and advice from historic new england Your Old House Compiled by Brian Roche If walls could talk Until the advent of modernism in the early twentieth century, the use of wallpaper was nearly universal in American homes of all economic classes. Beginning as an expensive handmade imported product in Colonial times, wallpaper became much more affordable and popular in the industrial age. It was especially prized as a way to cover plaster walls and hide cracks, and the cost was often comparable or even cheaper than painting. Although wallpaper in all types of styles and materials continues to be used to this day, serious study of this historic material culture has only resurfaced in recent decades. At the height of its popularity, “during the last quarter of the nineteenth century, published analysis of wallpaper focused not only on its visual qualities but also on the symbolic, moral and even religious implications of various kinds of patterning,” writes Catherine Lynn, author of Wallpaper in America, From the Seventeenth Century to World War I (1980). “Popular journalists, critics writing in art and architectural magazines, and novelists, as well as the authors of books and articles on interior decorating and domestic economy and those who wrote for the building and decorating trades, devoted an unprecedented and unsurpassed quantity of space and mental effort to the subject of wallpaper.” Many popular designs were continually manufactured for decades, sometimes making dating somewhat difficult. This French example was produced by Robert Mauny Caillard from 19201970 and features a drapery swag edged with bead, cable and dentil stripes on a sprig diapered background. Wallpaper at Historic New England Historic New England has been at the forefront in the collection and study of wallpaper in America. In 2000, they made their internationally known collection of more than 5,000 pieces ranging from the 1750s to the 1950s available to the public through an online exhibition and dedicated searchable database. This invaluable Fabric with tassel and braid trim and wallpaper sample from the Codman House, one of Historic New England’s properties. September 2010 ■ Antiques Journal ■ Page 39