PAPER ON THE WALL

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20901, 16 December 1929, Page 13

PAPER ON THE WALL

A WRONG COMMON BELIEF. Once again the world has found that one of its common beliefs is wrong. One used to say that wallpapers were brought from the East in the eighteenth century, and became general in the nineteenth century; then in the . twentieth people got tired of these comparatively modern things and went back to the good oldfashioned way of covering walls with panelling or whitewash. But the Victoria and Albert Museum has upset all this by publishing its first catalogue of wallpapers, proving that they existed in 1481, if not earlier. They did not come to Europe from the East, for the earliest designs are Western, and Chinese designs were only used toward the end of the seventeenth century. One heraldic paper of the sixteenth century was found lining an old box at Longwitton Hall, Morpeth, and a piece of the same paper was discovered sticking to the lath and plaster of an old house in Worcester, while yet another piece was found lining a small deed box at the Public Records Office. Wallpapers were often used to bind hooks or line boxes, and many interesting examples may still await discovery.