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English School 18th c. England 1700 - 1799 Sold
Chinoiserie design with Bird Cage and Musical Instruments: An unused sheet of Wallpaper
1750 circa
Watercolour over printed outline on an uncut double-demy sheet of laid paper, without watermark
Dimensions: 65.00 cm x 93.00 cm
Diameter: 0.00 cms
Stamped with the wallpaper Duty stamp (an early equivalent of VAT) on verso - 1/2 d. per sheet. The number 3 is the excise officer's identity number.
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This sheet of English wallpaper, which can be dated by the Duty stamp on the reverse to circa 1750, is a rare example of the vividly hand-coloured English wallpaper referred to by J B Jackson in his book of 1754. British manufacturers from the 1760s produced single-sheet papers of this kind, with fanciful Western interpretations of Chinese motifs. They were intended as a cheaper alternative to the fashionable, but expensive, hand-painted wallpapers imported from China by the East India Company. The composition suggests that this paper was designed to be joined end to end with identical sheets to form a frieze-like decoration, possibly for a music room. The wallpaper was produced and sold uncoloured and was subsequently coloured before pasting.
The V&A Museum in London owns another sheet of this wallpaper design.

Exhibition Catalogue no, Page no, Illustration no. Institution/Venue People From To
Master Drawings for Master Drawings London 2003 Peter Nahum At The Leicester Galleries
May 2003 September 2003
The Leicester Galleries At The International Fine Art Fair 7th Regiment Armory, New York, 7-12 May 2004 Peter Nahum At The Leicester Galleries April 2004 May 2004
Master Drawings Week 30 June - 7 July 2006 Peter Nahum At The Leicester Galleries
June 2006 July 2006


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