Papering the walls

A SET OF EIGHT CHINESE WALLPAPER HANGINGS EARLY 19TH CENTURY

Decorated with various birds, butterflies and insects amongst bamboo and trailing flowers, above peony bushes, backed on later paper scrolls, seven with moulded end-strips attached for hanging purposes

106 x 46 in. (269.5 x 117 cm.) (8)

I noticed Christie's have these 8 panels of wallpaper for auction at their sale in London on 14 April, with an estimate of GBP8-12,000. Unfortunately not much additional information about where they were manufactured, but I suspect these things were not so well catalogued for an item that was fairly mundane.

My own Treasure Hunt

The National Trust, (England's premier heritage charity) "protects and opens to the public over 350 historic houses, gardens and ancient monuments...they also look after forests, woods, fens, beaches, farmland, downs, moorland, islands, archaeological remains, castles, nature reserves, villages...etc"

Little Augury introduced me to the excellent blog written by Emile de Bruijn, and I have recently been in touch with him on a number of subjects. He mentioned that he had seen the Chinoiserie wallpaper fragment I have framed in my dining room, (above), and the similarity between it and that in the bedroom of Belton House, in Lincolnshire. His post Visions of the east shows that wallpaper, and detail from it. There do appear to be similarities, in some parts.

Now I need to conduct a treasure hunt of my own, to establish provenance and context.

Dining out on it

The stopover in Hong Kong on the way to Japan wasn't a struggle when we are lucky enough to stay in this house, on the Peak. But that aside, it was a wonderful opportunity to catch up with our host, and with a parade of visitors who came calling. So much was the fun that the visit to Kanazawa was a rude shock to the system; well, weather-wise anyway.

More images of the Hong Kong house to follow.

Detail devil

The "right" height.

Previous installation.

The brown paper cut-out method.

In progress.


I mentioned previously that I was not altogether happy with the initial height of the two China Trade pictures, (which were hung using the existing screws for other pictures). The initial placement wasn't hideously wrong, but it just wasn't quite "right", a comment I made several times to my partner, which resulted in a refrain of expletives.

So finally on Friday, feeling calm, I put into place my brown paper cut-outs of the pictures at the height I thought they really should be: aligned with the top of the framed Chinoiserie wallpaper. Perfect. It does two things: raises the eye, and therefore the height of the ceiling, and two, removes the obviously uneven distance that existed between the bottom of the picture and the yellow cachepots. Well, actually three things. The bottom of the picture is now also aligned with the bottom of the lampshades.

Oh, the trials of symmetry, (and anality?). The devil is in the details.

Hung, drawn and painted

The China Trade pictures that I bought late last year and mentioned here, have finally been reframed and are up on the wall.

In a recent discussion on Style Court I expressed an opinion that I'd always prefer to see pictures framed, however minimally. Normally my approach to frames is that they should be very extravagant, but in order not to detract from the simple gold bamboo frame of the Chinoiserie wallpaper in the centre of the dining room wall, I have chosen a more modest approach this time.

I drew inspiration from commentators - for which many thanks, but I decided that I wanted a reference to the red lacquer chairs, so I've used gold and a predominantly deeper, darker red, (perhaps the "burnished" red suggested by Toby Worthington), with black outline.

I haven't quite decided whether I'm satisfied with the height of the pictures, but I will live with them as they are, and then decide; no need to give the walls that Gaza treatment anymore than they already have.

Crystal carols

Tinkle bells, tinkle bells...oh, indulge me in my silly season Christmas week wordplay.

I mentioned that visitors to our house were more likely to be served from a glass receptacle than a silver one, (to accommodate the tinkle of ice over glass), and here is a selection of some to choose from.

I stopped using decanters some years ago because of a fear of the lead in the crystal seeping into the alcohol; well, not my fear, but that of someone important in my life. Whether that theory is true or not, I now actually really like empty decanters, as their effect enhances the silver and black and white theme in decorative objects throughout the sitting and dining area. And they work so well with artificial light, (including and especially very dimmed overhead halogens).