Illustration: John Illingworth Kay. Rose Stripe wallpaper design, 1906.
The decorative work of the English designer John Illingworth Kay is often seen as both expansive and original, with large areas of foliage clustered throughout his work being a particular theme of his style of decoration. However, these examples of wallpaper work produced by him in the first decade of the twentieth century also show the ability of an artist or designer to control, or at least to temper, personal tastes or excesses to those of the larger public taste, or at least to that of their perceived taste.
Kay produced these examples for the English influential wallpaper manufacturer Essex & Co. Interestingly this was the same period that Kay was actually head of the design department of the company. He was to retain that position for the first two decades of the twentieth century. He saw the best of the early twentieth century phase of British design and decoration, with names such as Charles Francis Annesley Voysey, E L Pattison, Lindsay Philip Butterfield and T R Spence providing decorative pattern work for the wallpaper company.
Illustration: John Illingworth Kay. Abingworth wallpaper design, 1907.
Edwardian England was a period of mixed and often acute contrasts. Socially, politically and artistically it could be said that England was at its most static with the small minority at the top of society holding firmly on to the reigns of power and privilege, while the majority at the bottom were beginning to show obvious signs of irritation and discontent with the imposed status quo. It was obvious to many that society was going to have to accommodate a much larger participation in all aspects of life from all social classes. However, the uneasy and unjust balance between the few 'haves' and the majority 'have-nots' was maintained largely unscathed throughout the Edwardian era. This has given us the often repeated idea that Edwardian England was that of a long and sentimental late summer of garden parties and country retreats. Interestingly, those who maintain this sentiment often derive from the social classes that would never have been allowed to participate in this fantasy in the first place.
Illustration: John Illingworth Kay. Bianca wallpaper design, 1907.
It would perhaps be more accurate to portray Edwardian England as a society and culture that was locked into a strict framework. This framework was used to strangle any form of upheaval or large-scale change in the status quo. It could be fairly seen as a period when the upper classes attempted to put the brake on any further social or cultural change. Particularly change that was to effect the status and power of women, the working man and even that of the Empire. These changes could, and eventually did affect the position of this small minority, dissolving its influence and power to a great extent.
Society is often reflected in the arts and particularly those of the decorative arts. The formalised and conservative structure of Kay's wallpaper design work could be said to at least partially reflect the stiff intransigence of many aspects of English life. While the rest of Europe largely came to accept, and in many cases to even embrace the tenets of the Art Nouveau movement, England was both cautious and tempered in its approach. Many of the decorative and art magazines published in London were openly scathing of what was considered the 'new movement'. The abandonment of formal structure and the indulgence in the contemporary was considered by many to be shortsighted and contrary to the English way.
Illustration: John Illingworth Kay. Walden wallpaper design, 1907.
Although there is an element of individuality and the contemporary within these designs, and to be fair Kay did produce more varied and luxurious pattern work for wallpaper production, the examples shown here are locked into a fairly rigid and formal structure. In some ways at least, they do reflect the formal cautiousness of the English. To embrace the new and the untried would be to embrace change in more avenues than was perhaps acceptable for Edwardian England.
Further reading links:
The Edwardians: The Remaking of British Society
The Diehards: Aristocratic Society and Politics in Edwardian England (Harvard Historical Studies)
Women and Social Action in Victorian and Edwardian England
Twentieth-Century Pattern Design
Wallpaper: A History of Style and Trends
Wallpaper
The Papered Wall: The History, Patterns and Techniques of Wallpaper, Second Edition
Wallpaper in America: From the Seventeenth Century to World War I
Wallpaper: The Ultimate Guide
Fabrics and Wallpapers for Historic Buildings
The Walls Are Talking: Wallpaper, Art and Culture
Wall Papers for Historic Buildings: A Guide to Selecting Reproduction Wallpapers
London Wallpapers: Their Manufacture and Use 1690-1840 (Revised Edition)
Wallpaper (Historic Houses Trust Collection)
