Wallpaper is decorative paper applied to interior walls, printed, painted or stencilled with patterns or pictorial scenes. Historic wallpapers are an important part of interior design history and survive both in situ in old houses and as fragments, sample books and rolls held by collectors and museums.
Early European wallpapers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were printed from wood blocks on small sheets. In the eighteenth century flock papers imitating cut velvet became fashionable in grand houses, while hand-painted Chinese papers depicting birds, flowers and figures were imported for drawing rooms and bedrooms. French manufacturers later produced spectacular scenic papers printed with hundreds of blocks. Machine printing in the nineteenth century made wallpaper affordable for ordinary homes, and design reformers such as A. W. N. Pugin, Owen Jones and William Morris produced patterns of lasting influence. Arts and Crafts and Aesthetic papers remain especially admired. Antique wallpaper is fragile and susceptible to light, damp and acidity, so conservation requires specialist care. Many historic designs are still reprinted from original blocks, allowing period interiors to be decorated with authentic patterns.
