Green Flock Wallpaper

This paper was printed in 1995 and 1996 as a facsimile reproduction (by Allyson McDermott Conservation) of the sumptuous wallpaper used in the great Picture Gallery which was finished in 1745. The original paper represented a triumph of the makers' - or, to use the 18th century term, 'paper-stainer's' - skill in imitating the still more expensive silk velvet or damask hangings made originally in Italy for wall-hangings. The green flock wallpaper may have been supplied by an upholsterer named Abel Ikin in 1741. It was replaced by a crimson flock paper in 1826.

The lengths of paper are made up (as they were in the 18th century) of individual pieces of linen-rag paper, pre-joined to form rolls. Before the 1830s wallpaper was neither made in continuous rolls by machine, nor printed by machine. Pre-joining sheets of paper enabled the paper-stainers to produce drops of the 12 feet 6 inches' length required for the Picture Gallery. Printing across the joins meant that they could imitate the big pattern-repeats of these glamorous textiles.

You will notice that the wallpaper has a shiny ground. This is a varnish pigmented with Malachite (a semi-precious stone). Over this a bluer pigment, also from Malachite, was stencilled; the main pattern was then printed in varnish from four blocks, giving the full repeat, and dusted with dyed and powdered wool. Our wallpaper probably represents the first time that this technique has been used for 150 years.

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