ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how paper hangings were codified in relation to other desirable interior finishes in terms not only of imitation and cost, but other practical factors too such as durability, and wider trends in design. It examines wallpapers imitating materials such as wainscot, japanning, leather and textiles. Hanging paper on the wall was a new idea in the late seventeenth century. Paper's predecessors were either blank, carved or painted wood panelling; leather hangings; woven, printed or painted textile hangings or painted finishes. Although a few, mainly heraldic, patterns have been found in grander homes, when wallpapers moved from concealment to visibility on the wall they were more frequently hung in merchants' houses, especially in the towns which clustered around the edge of London such as Watford and Epsom, or port towns along the East Anglian coast. Vanessa Alayrac-Fielding's key study has noted the decisive role played by durability of colours in determining the quality of both wallpaper and fabrics.
