BOOKS PAPER BOOK London Wallpapers: Their Manufacture and Use 1690-1840. Treve Rosoman. English Heritage, 1992. 60pp, b/w illustrations and colour catalogue. Sofrback. ISBN 1 85074 426 2. Price £ 12.50. One of the most un-nerving aspects of site visits is being faced with a wall bearing scraps of paper which are quite clearly hisroric but about which very !itrle may (or may not) be known. This publication, which accompanied last year's exhibition at the RIBA's Heinz Gallery, should be essential reading for all Conservation Officers anything less than entirely expert in this subject. The catalogue is introduced by a thorough examination of wallpaper, its trade and traders from the late 17th century through to the 19th. An illustrated catalogue of exhibits follows, with short end sections on EH's role 111 paper conservation, of traders, bibliography. a 'preliminary' list footnotes and London dominated the production of papers during this period, supplying the rest of the country as well as exporting to Europe and America. Despite the imposition of a paper tax in 1712 which was not repealed until 1836, the production of papers rocketed and the samples taken from the English Heritage Architectural Study Collection demonstrate the variety of designs produced and the ingenuity of the designers and technicians. One of the most interesting aspects of the catalogue is that it discusses the role of the paper srainers in the 18th and early 19th century world of 'interior decoration' and shows how wallpaper was affiliated to a number of other trades, particularly stationers, leather gilders, upholsterers and the painter stainers. What is revealed by both trade cards and the samples found is chat the papers were very closely related to contemporary textiles and were frequently designed in imitation of them. Perhaps rhe best known example of this is the use of flocks, bur the catalogue also shows how 'mock flocks' were produced rh rough the use of black pigment, imitation Irish stitch through blurring of the pattern, and the mysterious use 'Balustrade'. a reproduction of a mid-!9th century French dado paper, with an architectural design,.from the new Victorian Society leaflet on wallcoverings;see page 13. CONTEXT 40 of small brass pins for stippled grounds, apparently to give the desired woven appearance. It was not simply textiles which were copied. Trade cards refer to the use of marbled paper and also wainscot and there is one reference to paper imitating stucco at Strawberry Hill. Designs, like those of textiles, seem to have been largely based on floral motifs bur there are examples of more abstract patterns, of gorgeous architectural stair pieces and in one case, of a plain ground paper painted over with a terribly fashionable Etruscan vine. Frustratingly little is known about the designers, although Thomas Bromwich, a successful paper and pap1er mache merchant, is discussed in a short, final section in the introduction. What makes this publication so useful is that it not only helps to establish some more recurrent pattern and colour types for 18th and early 19th century papers, bur also discusses how these papers were made, registered, sold and hung and what might be revealed under those rather disgusting paper sandwiches hanging off the walls. Knowing what rooms these papers came from helps in understanding how people lived bur also how to assess the importance of the rooms historically, in rum assisting in determining the acceptable levels of alteration. One area which was not fully covered in the catalogue, and which could not really be expected in such a publication, is the relationship between historic paints and papers. We are told how colours were mixed for transfer and there is some reference to more expensive pigments such as carmine being used in thin washes but it would be interesting to know how closely vogues in paint colours and effects were echoed in papers and how much both of them related to textile production. As more home-owners are seeking information about original schemes of decoration, an overview on this issue would be most useful. Full credit should go to Treve Rosoman and English Heritage for amassing this information in an area which is woefully lacking in published material, and particularly to Orde Solomons whose appendix on the decay, removal and conservation of rhe papers is a clear, more technical exposition of how they have learnt to contend with the vagaries of papers which have survived. It's obviously a case of 'call in the experts' when papers emerge and the publication of this catalogue should ensure that conservationists throughout Britain are better equipped to face those grubby scraps with more confidence. Harriet Hawkes COTSWOLD HOME TRUTHS The Country Houses of Gloucestershire. Volume Two. 1660-1830. Nicholas Kingsley. Phillimore. 1992, 316pp, 164 b&w plates, 11 colour illustrations. ISBN O 85033 806 9. Price £30.00. Nicholas Kingsley is the City Archivist of Birmingham and was formerly with Gloucestershire County Record Office. The first volume of his intended trilogy on Gloucestershire houses, from 1500 to 1660, was a bold and well received venture in selfpublishing which appeared in 1989. The current work maintains the high standard set by the earlier book. A short, lucid, introductory essay examining style, materials, designers, craftsmen and their patrons precedes a gazetteer of all known country houses both surviving and lost. Coverage is variable depending on the interest of the house and, of course, the availability of evidence. Each property is illustrated by one or more clear photographs or prints showing its most outstanding features; rhe accompanying text explores both architecture and ownership. A final section includes details of country houses of the period which the author considered the architectural equal of others in the book but which fail to qualify as country seats or estates. Today Gloucestershire is often regarded as an exclusive landed county. Yet, during the period examined here, few nationally notable houses were built and it was principally only after 1800 that "London" based architects began to displace local men. While Kent, Talman and Continued on page 42 39
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