Victorian Wallpaper Samples and Vintage Poster, Manchester Museum

30 September 2019 · Manchester

A wall of Victorian-era decorative wallpaper samples fills the frame in patchwork columns — botanical prints, Moorish geometrics, gilded damasks, and an Art Nouveau theatre scene sit side by side. To the right, a large framed vintage poster combines period wallcovering patterns with a Belle Époque couple in formal dress. The display sets decoration as the subject: not wallpaper as backdrop, but wallpaper as designed object, each sample arguing for its own place in a room.