The most sumptuous eighteenth-century wallpapers were the flocked patterns which imitated silk or wool damasks and cut velvets. Much of the expense of these early wallpapers was due to the fact that the rolls they were printed on had to be made up of individual sheets of paper glued together and that they were hand-printed with wood blocks, one block for each color of the design. Prior to 1760, only the wealthiest colonists in urban centers in New England could afford to decorate their homes with wallpaper but it became increasingly available as the century progressed.
Only one wallpaper in Historic New England’s collection with a history in New England dates to this early period it was later used to cover a copy book of poetry in 1783.Īt first, paper hangings, as wallpaper was called in the eighteenth century, were available from stationers and book sellers or as a custom order from merchants who specialized in imported luxury goods later, it also could be purchased from upholsterers. Like all early references, it is more descriptive of quantity than of design. The earliest record of wallpaper in America is in the estate inventory of a Boston stationer in 1700, where “7 quires of painted paper and three reams of painted paper” were listed.
