Vintage wallpaper

Magazine Antiques, April, 2008 by Cynthia A. Drayton

Cole and Son in North London has been at the forefront of the wallpaper revival in the twenty-first century. Founded in 1873, this manufacturer has a growing and valuable archive of over four thousand hand-carved wooden blocks that its designers draw upon to create beautiful new papers. The firm's oldest block is for an Elizabethan wallpaper found at Besford Court in Worcestershire, which they manufactured to commemorate the 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare's birth. Also in its archives are the blocks for Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin's designs of the 1840s for the Houses of Parliament, as well as blocks designed by William Morris, Charles Francis Annesley Voysey, and Walter Crane. The firm has copied medallions and stripes from seventeenth-century decorative schemes and designs that Frederick Crace used for the Royal Pavilion at Brighton.

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Cole and Son recently introduced the Vintage Glamour collection of wallpapers designed by Coles Studio in collaboration with the Royal Oak Foundation, the American membership affiliate of the British National Trust. This new collection pays homage to a sophisticated age of sweeping entrances and Hollywood allure dating from the roaring 1920s to the stylish 1950s. The sixteen wallpapers simulate buffed crocodile skin, Boulle tortoiseshell veneers, and grained leather, evoking designs once found in ocean liners, luxury hotels, and haute couture. The theater sets of plays by Noel Coward inspired Belgravia (top), an elegant ribbon design on a leather-grained background that is available in silver on pale gray; duck egg and lime on oyster; silver on light shagreen; or gold, silver, and black on buffalo. Dolly (bottom) was adapted from a 1950s document, and another 1950s design fragment was altered to create Fig (second from bottom). The garden trellis, a motif typical of the period, is reproduced in Hamilton Trellis (second from top). Dolly, Fig, and Hamilton Trellis are available in a range of colorways.

Cole and Son produces hand-blocked, screen-printed, and surface-printed wallpapers using techniques developed during the Renaissance, enhanced by the latest innovations in printing and the use of tonal shading, iridescent, and opti-chromic inks. The firm also offers access to a custom color service for hand-blocked, hand-flocked, hand-screen printed, and single color rotary surface printed papers. Their wallpapers can be seen in a number of landmark buildings including the Palace of Westminster, the Brighton Pavilion, Buckingham Palace, and the White House.

Cole and Son maintains a Web site (www.cole-and-son.com), which displays the Vintage Glamour collection and its other collections of wallpapers and paints. They are available to the trade only and can be ordered through Lee Jofa in the United States (www.leejofa.com).