Chinese Wallpaper

This wallpaper was hand-painted in China for the export market. It dates from c.1800 and was intended to form a panoramic view of an Oriental garden. The garden is planted with flowering trees and shrubs in vases, and the viewer looks out over an alabaster balustrade.

These wallpapers were made in panels about four feet square and were shipped in this form to Europe. When an upholsterer like Thomas Chippendale was employed to redecorate a room, he expected the owner to supply the Chinese paper himself. In this case the owner of Temple Newsam, Frances, Lady Irwin, was given the paper by the Prince of Wales on a visit in 1806, probably as a gesture of affection for her eldest daughter Isabella, Marchioness of Hertford.

It was she who had the paper hung in 1827, creating the Blue Drawing Room (also known as the Chinese Drawing Room) out of what had been the best dining room. She embellished its design with prints of exotic birds cut from John James Audubon's famous publication The Birds of America: she subscribed to the first issue.

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