Wallpaper
Maker & role
Unknown, Maker
Production date
circa 1849
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Object detail
Measurements
0 - Whole, L: 48 x W: 9cm (L: 480 x W: 90mm)
Credit line
Gift, NSW Government Architect, Public Works Department, 1987
Caroline Simpson Library & Research Collection, Museums of History New South Wales
Caroline Simpson Library & Research Collection, Museums of History New South Wales
Caption
Wallpaper fragments, Gothic Revival design from Richmond Villa, c.1849
Description
This wallpaper design is an example of the Gothic-Revival style, popular in early to mid-19th century Australian (and English) decoration. The Gothic designs of this period were generally not accurate representations of a medieval Gothic style, but romanticised notions of the past. While A.W.N. Pugin championed the Gothic style, he was one of the first critics of the romanticised version. Pugin disliked both the inaccuracies of such design as well as the use of shading to produce pictorial forms in three-dimensions. When he came to design his own wallpapers, Pugin used flattened two-dimensional motifs, often stylised flowers or foliage, though still in the Gothic style. Gothic-Revival wallpapers were not to remain popular in the domestic sphere much past the 1860s, but Pugin's concerns about the sham of three-dimensional designs were echoed by other design reformers like Owen Jones and Charles Eastlake, and can be found in advice manuals into the 20th century.
Retrieved from the first floor hall, behind a 1912 door frame, at Richmond Villa, Sydney. Richmond Villa was designed in a Gothic-revival style by Colonial Architect Mortimer Lewis as his own residence and constructed in 1849. Originally located behind the NSW Parliament House in Macquarie Street, Sydney, it was dismantled and reconstructed in Kent Street, Sydney in 1976 in order to make room for extensions to Parliament House.
Retrieved from the first floor hall, behind a 1912 door frame, at Richmond Villa, Sydney. Richmond Villa was designed in a Gothic-revival style by Colonial Architect Mortimer Lewis as his own residence and constructed in 1849. Originally located behind the NSW Parliament House in Macquarie Street, Sydney, it was dismantled and reconstructed in Kent Street, Sydney in 1976 in order to make room for extensions to Parliament House.
Accession number
L90/46-1
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