Wallpaper
Maker & role
Unknown, Maker
Production date
circa 1850
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Object detail
Measurements
L: 52 x W: 60cm (L: 520 x W: 600mm); Pattern repeat, L: 40cm (L: 400mm)
Credit line
Gift, Kim White and Lester Oehm, 2004
Caroline Simpson Library & Research Collection, Museums of History New South Wales
Caroline Simpson Library & Research Collection, Museums of History New South Wales
Caption
Wallpaper fragment from a Pyrmont workers cottage, c1850
Description
In the middle decades of the nineteenth century there was an emerging concern about the standard of British design. Wallpapers were often singled out by design reformers like A.W.N. Pugin as evidence of the poor state of current design. A particular annoyance was the use of shading in design which created figures or forms that appeared to be in three-dimensions. Pugin wrote in 'The Builder' journal for 1843: "…those papers which are shaded are defective in principle; for as a paper is hung round a room, the ornament must frequently be shadowed on the light side." Although the trellis or diaper pattern of this wallpaper was preferable to pictorial designs available in this period, its three-dimensionality would continue to be decried by design reformers for much of the remainder of the nineteenth century.
The third closest to the wall of a sandwich of eleven layers of wallpaper, dating from about 1845 to c1880, uncovered in a single storey stone cottage in Pyrmont, Sydney. The wallpapers were found during renovations to the house behind panelling in a room that may have been used as a parlour. The cottage was built between December 1842 and February 1845 by a waterman turned publican named John Reed Harman. He sold the property to another publican, Thomas Bruffell, in 1858 and Bruffell sold in turn to politician, solicitor and substantial property owner George Wigram Allen. The Allen family remained in ownership until 1923 and the house was tenanted throughout this time. Until 1870 there were at least nine different occupants including a butcher, watchmaker, painter, brass finisher, dealer, and master mariner. From 1871 to 1904 a confectioner named George Jansen lived in the house with his family.
The third closest to the wall of a sandwich of eleven layers of wallpaper, dating from about 1845 to c1880, uncovered in a single storey stone cottage in Pyrmont, Sydney. The wallpapers were found during renovations to the house behind panelling in a room that may have been used as a parlour. The cottage was built between December 1842 and February 1845 by a waterman turned publican named John Reed Harman. He sold the property to another publican, Thomas Bruffell, in 1858 and Bruffell sold in turn to politician, solicitor and substantial property owner George Wigram Allen. The Allen family remained in ownership until 1923 and the house was tenanted throughout this time. Until 1870 there were at least nine different occupants including a butcher, watchmaker, painter, brass finisher, dealer, and master mariner. From 1871 to 1904 a confectioner named George Jansen lived in the house with his family.
Accession number
L2005/56-3
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