WASHABLE WALLPAPER
[WALLPAPER.]
A substantial album of printed wallpaper samples.
France, 1923–24.
Thick oblong folio (c. 23.6 × 35.4 × 9.5 cm), with samples of well over 400 different papers (numbered by stamp on the versos up to 422, a small number torn away, some unnumbered), some papers present in several colourways or with matching borders as overlays (the borders all unnumbered), prices added in pencil on the versos; secured at the left edge with metal pins within a wood block, bound in red textured cloth over boards, front cover lettered gilt ‘M. D. Lille-Paris-Lyon. 1923–24’, cloth ties; some slight wear and soiling to covers, else very good, some samples slightly browned but most in excellent state.
A delightful sample album of French wallpapers printed by a variety of stencil, block and lithographic methods, on papers plain, coloured, textured, and silked.
There is a dizzying array of colours and styles from the subtle to the downright garish; relics of Art Nouveau mix alongside Deco styles, and even a few more modernist designs reminiscent of those produced by Rasch for the Bauhaus. Pink and blue florals give over to brown and green vine patterns, and bold stripes in blues, yellow and black, maroon, pinks and browns; striking pochoir swathes of orange, pink and electric blue sit alongside lithographic papers that imitate tapestries or exploit that technique’s capacity to render tonal gradients; papers 135–9 are friezelike designs with landscapes and figures, 279–290 are a selection of papers with metallic or iridescent elements, and 352–394 imitate tiles (several are even glazed). Notable also are a number of papers labelled ‘lavable sanitaire’ and evidently designed for use in kitchens and bathrooms.
Though the majority papers are inevitably anoymous (the ‘M. D.’ of the cover is likely a retailer not a manufacturer), a large group of related pochoir papers are signed in the margin ‘AMT’, i.e. Ancienne Maison Turquetil, a nineteenth-century concern based since the turn of the century at Ivry-sur-Seine on the outskirts of Paris.
