Wallpaper

Description

Seventeen matching fragments of a Neoclassical set of panel and border wallpapers from the Hayes House (1810), South Berwick, Maine. Elements include an upper border or frieze block-printed horizontally on one roll (fragments a-d), sidewall panels printed vertically (fragments e-o) and a chair rail, or lower, border printed horizontally on one roll (fragments p-q). The frieze is composed of five horizontal decorative bands. The top band depicts architectural molding printed in shades of brown and white. The second band is decorated with six-sided rosette and palmette figures printed in metallic gold and black on a green background with visible brush strokes. The third band depicts classical figures rendered in shades of gray and white on a light ochre background in imitation of relief sculpture. The fourth band depicts a maple leaf draped over a horizontal rod, in tan flocking overprinted in orange and brown. The fifth band of the frieze is the arched top of the laurel leaf-framed paneled below. The ground color of the frieze is light brown on inlaid paper in partial sheets. The sidewall consist of panels framed by tan flocked laurel leaves and berries overprinted in orange and brown. The interior of each panel is printed with rows of brown leaves, each row alternating direction, on light brown ground. The panels are surrounded by rosette and palmette figures on green ground, echoing the second band of the frieze . From left to right, each side wall roll consists of the vertical green stipe with rosettes and palmettes, the flocked laurel leaf, the interior leaf pattern and the flocked laurel leaf. The chair rail, or lower, border is composed of three bands. The uppermost band is the laurel leaf border forming the bottom edge of the sidewall pattern frame. Here the pattern varies with the addition of a centered, eight-sided medallion with blue center. The middle band, like the second band of the frieze and the areas surrounding the sidewall panels, has a pattern of rosette and palmette figures printed in metallic gold and black on green hand-painted background. The rosette and palmette figures in the frieze, the sidewall and the lower border differ slightly from one another. The final band depicts a cylindrical architectural molding with rows of layered palm leaves printed in shades of brown and white.
All patterns in the set are block-printed on laid paper. An additional fragment of the sidewall panel was separated from the group and catalogued as 2001.281.607r. The Hayes House is now a part of the Berwick Academy campus.