Prestwould wallpapers

Magazine Antiques, Jan, 1995 by Richard C. Nylander

Prestwould is notable for the survival of many historic wallpapers and the unusually complete documentation of their purchase and installation. Three French scenic papers, as well as border papers, a dado paper, and wallpaper representing columns remain on the walls today. All of them were hung in 1831. Conservation of these papers(1) and a thorough examination of the building has revealed fragments of four English papers and their borders, installed about 1799, soon after the house was built.

The different patterns not only reflect the tastes of the two generations of women who chose them, Lady Jean Skipwith and Lelia Skipwith, but also illustrate the shift in popularity from English to French wallpapers that took place between the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

On August 6, 1795, Lady Skipwith wrote to her English agent, James Maury:

We wish to have our House papered; but as we are not well acquainted with the prices of the different sorts of House paper, will defer ordering it till some future opportunity. In the mean time will thank you to send us patterns of different qualified papers, with the prices of them. We do not meant to go the length of India paper, only plain English and Irish. I am very partial to papers of only one colour, or two at most--velvet paper I think looks too warm for this country.(2)

Lady Skipwith was clear that she wanted simple patterns, not expensive hand-painted Chinese ("India") paper or flocked ("velvet") paper embellished with wool shavings to resemble fabric.

On March 13, 1796, an unspecified number of samples made by the London wallpaper manufacturer James Duppa were sent to Lady Skipwith by Maury,(3) but unfortunately none survives among the Skipwith papers. In 1799 eleven papers and accompanying borders were finally selected by Lady Skipwith, who received an invoice from Duppa dated August 3 and totaling slightly more than fifty pounds. The papers are described in a kind of shorthand in which color and pattern are combined. Some are straightforward, such as "[Narr.sup.w]. Oak Leaf border"; others, such as "India Plaid on [Olymp.sup.n]" and "Bengall Stripe on Buff" are impossible to visualize.(4) Attached to the invoice are installation instructions that advise smooth, sized walls and a paste of flour and water boiled with "Allum."

Until conservation began in 1989, only one of Lady Skipwith's selections was known--the paper called in the invoice "[W.sup.t]. Sattin Grass purples &c". It was the most expensive of the papers and was used in the drawing room, where it survived in the spaces into which the interior shutters folded and behind the two large pier glasses. The higher cost of this paper reflected the labor required to create what was known as a satin ground--a highly polished surface that was then block-printed with the pattern.

During conservation, samples of two other papers chosen by Lady Skipwith were separated from the nineteenth-century scenic papers. What the invoice calls "Angle Leaf Greens" was found in the dining room, reproduced along with its border, and hung in the room Lady Skipwith and her husband used as a parlor.(5) The second paper, "Worm & pin on Sea Green", was found beneath the scenic paper in the saloon. Thirty rolls--almost three times the number ordered for any other room--were needed to paper this large two-story room, which measures approximately twenty-seven by twenty-three feet. This was the only paper trimmed with borders of two different widths, both called "Festoon." The narrower would have been placed above the chair rail and the wider below the cornice.

The fourth original paper and its border, probably "Leaf & Sprig reds &c," was found on the walls behind later plumbing in the closet/passage between the parlor and Sir Peyton Skipwith's chamber on the first floor. A reproduction of the reconstructed pattern now hangs in the closet/passage and in the adjoining bedroom, where it also may have hung originally.(6) Today Lady Skipwith's wallpapers may seem inappropriate because of their small repeating patterns given the size and scale of the rooms. However, contemporary documents suggest that such patterns were indeed quite fashionable.(7)

In 1831 the interiors of Prestwould were transformed by Humberston Skipwith and his second wife, Lelia. French wallpapers were by then considered fashionable, and it was no longer necessary to order them from abroad. Large warehouses in most major American cities offered a wide variety of French and American papers. Whereas Lady Skipwith had to order through an agent in London, Humberston and Leila Skipwith had only to go to Richmond, Virginia, to purchase fashionable imported goods. They bought all their wallpapers from Francis Regnault Jr. of Richmond, who also installed them.(8) His bill is not as descriptive as Duppa's invoice of 1799. Only the three scenic French papers still on the walls are named: "The Park French gardens and Chase." They are described as "views," each costing thirty-five dollars. One hundred and one additional rolls of paper and sixty-five rolls of borders, only one identified by pattern or color ("French Green leaf"), were ordered for the thirteen other rooms in the house, which included two dressing rooms and a closet. To fill the space between the baseboard and chair rail in the saloon and the dining room, thirteen and a half rolls of "Pannell Paper" were supplied.