Illustration: Hinchcliff & Co. Flock and gold paper wallpaper design, 1849.
The four wallpaper designs illustrating this article were all produced by the London based company Hinchcliff & Co between 1849 and 1850. They are flock papers and therefore were intended to be both heavy and substantial, a statement of endurance, giving the distinct impression of stability and continuation, along with an element of implied wealth.
Interior accessories have always been more about the reflection of the self to others, than that of personal taste and enjoyment. This was particularly so in the nineteenth century when society was at its most fluid for generations. New money, due mostly to the expansion in markets produced by the industrial revolution, created an ever expanding wealthy class, many of whom were one or two generations divorced from relative poverty and most of whom had ready cash that they fully intended to spend liberally.
Illustration: Hinchcliff & Co. Imitation cord border wallpaper design, 1849.
The retail market reflected the shift in the dynamics of British society and began energetically supplying interior accessories, much of which was readily available through the various aspects created by the industrial mass manufacturing process. Textiles and wallpaper were particular favourites, as the logic of the new wealthy clients assumed that the more they bought and the more they displayed, the richer others would think they were. In that respect, textiles and wallpaper were the most easily available in near bulk quantities, which is why they were often liberally festooned within domestic interiors, the mantra being quantity over quality. In this regard nothing much has changed in the intervening generations, the philosophy of quantity over quality still holding strong in the twenty first century.
In the mid-nineteenth century when Hinchcliff & Co produced these four wallpaper designs, there were a number of companies supplying a range of styles to suit all the needs of the burgeoning wealthy classes. Some companies pandered and cajoled customers into wild extravagances, whereby wallpaper became a medium that was not to complement or harmonise with a room and its furniture, but was to make its own statement, often the louder the better. Industrial and chemical dyes and paints were liberally used as they were often much more intense than natural formed ones. This heightened the experience, and in the case of wallpaper where lead paint was liberally used, it was even theoretically and often physically bad for your health.
Illustration: Hinchcliff & Co. Wallpaper design, 1849.
Some companies erred on the side of caution and had a much more muted approach to the expanding interiors market. Although wallpaper companies such as Hinchcliff & Co produced what we would consider design work that is a little heavy and cumbersome for a relaxed lifestyle, we have to remember that Victorian homes were often zoned and could take on a number of different themes and attitudes. Homes were often a balance of private and public, with private areas having less to show off and therefore were often muted and relaxed. Wallpapers in these spaces tended towards a softer palette and were often dominated by small floral motifs or tiny geometric pattern work.
Public spaces on the other hand, were often formalised, and pattern work here often took the form of a much more strident and colourful tone. Pattern work often followed themes such as classical or renaissance Europe, giving the impression of taste, sophistication and a scholarly understanding of European decorative art. In reality of course, it could also be interpreted as vulgar and nouveau, particularly by those of longer standing than the newly wealthy.
Illustration: Hinchcliff & Co. Flock wallpaper design, 1850.
However, it should be remembered that wallpapers during this period were part of a personal, professional and social projection that took in domestic interiors in general. Therefore, early and mid-Victorian taste was not necessarily one that was altruistic in content. Important messages and intonations were being made by the hosts that their guests would have instantly and fully understood, even though much of it is lost to us today. That interior accessories are subtly interconnected with the social era in which they were produced, is an important point.
A pattern for a wallpaper design reflected the social and cultural pressures and influences on both the individual designer, if one was used, and the company that printed and manufactured it. However, the pattern would also reflect the tastes and standing of the individual customer who bought it, what they were trying to portray, and what the contemporary social and cultural influences were as a consumer.
In retrospect, pattern work should perhaps not be judged too harshly outside of its immediate and natural era. Hinchcliff & Co.'s heavy duty flock wallpapers, they produced work in a range of other styles as well, were produced for relatively large formal rooms, where colour, style and quality were an important accessory to both the standing and influence of the interior, but more importantly that of the individual who had specifically chosen the pattern and style to suit their own needs, or at least the intended reflection of those needs.
Further reading links:
Wallpaper: A History of Style and Trends
Wall Papers for Historic Buildings: A Guide to Selecting Reproduction Wallpapers
Wallpaper (Historic Houses Trust Collection)
Fabrics and Wallpapers: Design Source Book
Wallpaper, its history, design and use,
Fabrics and Wallpapers for Historic Buildings
French Scenic Wallpaper 1795-1865
London Wallpapers: Their Manufacture and Use 1690-1840 (Revised Edition)
Wallpaper and the Artist: From Durer to Warhol
Wallpaper: Decorative Art
Landscape Wallcoverings (Cooper Hewitt National Design)
Wallpaper in Interior Decoration
The Walls Are Talking: Wallpaper, Art and Culture
Wallpaper, its history, design and use: with frontispiece in colour and numerous illustrations from
Twentieth-Century Pattern Design
Pattern Design: Period Design Source Book
Wallpaper in America: From the Seventeenth Century to World War I
Wallpaper: The Ultimate Guide
The Pattern Sourcebook: A Century of Surface Design
Fabrics and Wallpapers: Twentieth-Century Design
Victorian Wallpaper Designs (Internatinal Design Library)
Wallpaper in Decoration
