Busting Myths – in particular the
Georgian Regency myth that aristocrats clambered to have their walls pasted and
wallpapered with damask print and beautiful bird prints, is far from true. Aristocrats
during the Georgian period considered silk-clad walls as not only a mark of decorative panache it also became
the mark of their wealth, as had vast wall tapestries of old within fortified
manorial houses, castles, and palaces.
Frieze work
By
the end of the Stuart era (Queen Anne) when velvet as a favoured upholstery fabric
had already been superseded by damask print, we see in the Georgian period
where silk print, from damask to stripes, the latter very much in vogue prior
to and the early years of the Regency era. In many houses oak panelled walls
were renovated, the upper removed and replaced with silk panels with glorious
effect, and those with silver and gold thread shimmered in candle light even
though silk itself reflected light.
Silk Clad Wall
With
new found wealth of the Georgian age, a good many of the grand estates built on
slavery in foreign parts, not least in the West Indies, (though the British were
not alone in the practise of slavery, which included the French, Dutch et al) and
as grand new houses and estates appeared on the English landscape, likewise whole
streets in towns and cities were erected (Bath, Cheltenham, London et al, and
Bright Helmstone latterly known as Brighton in the era of the Regency).
Silk Cladding.
With
new wealth came new builds and large windows to create light and airy rooms, French
windows opening onto terraces, and so too desire for elegance escalated with
grand orangeries, and long before the Victorians went wild with glass house construction.
Victorians went to town with conservatories from modest to spacious, from
lean-to to freestanding, thus almost every garden in Victorian England had a greenhouse
of one sort or another, often erected by occupants, except for the very poor
who lived in back-to-back houses with tiny yards.
Many
of the grand new houses adopted Grecian themed interiors with glorious single
colour panels with not only plaster frieze work to ceilings but to walls, not
unalike Jasper Ware as can be seen with Wedgewood ware crockery, ornamental
dishes, bowls, pots ‘n’ all.
The reason for no wallpaper being the first wallpapers of the Regency era were rather garish and more attuned to walls at theatres, music halls, and those lacking taste, as many said of the Regent himself, as tending tasteless in dress.
Ghastly, were they not?
