Pictures depicting large emblematic male and female figures in garden settings used as wallpaper in the Chinese Dressing Room at Saltram National Trust Inventory No. 872998

Around 1760s

 

The wallpaper in the Chinese Dressing Room, painted on mulberry paper, is probably the oldest at Saltram, dating from the early eighteenth century, and depicts elegant people in a garden setting. The scheme is made up of multiple copies of two Chinese hand-coloured prints. On the main walls of the room the two prints have been hung in alternating pairs. The pictures are printed on paper and finished by hand in black ink and colour. They were mounted on a textile lining. There are about 20 alternating pairs of prints on the main walls, and more on the partition. The skillful way in which the joins between the prints have been disguised, by cutting off the top margins around certain motifs and by the addition of certain cut-out motifs, suggests the involvement of a professional paper hanger. The partition was decorated in a slightly different way, with the addition of large figures cut from other prints, and it appears to have been inserted into the room slightly later. Some colours have faded, particularly in the backgrounds.