Wall Panelling Corporation

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Although there probably were no small houses actually decorated by Angelica Kauffman's hand, her example was imitated throughout the country, and ladies of all stations expressed their artistic inclinations in the decoration of their homes.

 

Farrington's Diary (1797) tells us that Frogmore was decorated in one room by the Princess Royal with thirty-six drawings in pen and ink besides ornaments on chair covers etc., and that the Princess Elizabeth had decorated a long narrow room with painted flowers and subjects of children etc. cut out in paper. Possibly the example of Angelica Kauffman's success did much to stimulate a genuine interest in Georgian interiors decoration.

 

Side by side with the fine Adam rooms with their beautifully carved marble fireplaces and refined stucco ornament, we find the first `Holy Gloom' of the Gothic Revival. This was a phase-far-reaching in its example-which first appeared in Horace Walpole's famous building at Strawberry Hill, (started in 1753 and finished in 1778). Walpole in his search for that which was as far removed from the `outmoded' classic as possible, wanted his new wallpapers painted with a Gothic design. In order to get the real atmosphere he desired, his artist was instructed to visit Durham Cathedral for inspiration, and there to make drawings of the cathedral aisles and `holy glooms.' The whole scheme of decoration at Strawberry Hill was a conscious effort to establish a new order for interior decoration, and there is no doubt that the example set by Walpole in the eighteenth century set the pace for the Romantic Age of the early nine­teenth.

 

Even whilst Adam designs were being carried out there were a vast number of intellectuals who condemned his `filigree' ornament and praised the exponents of the Gothic Revival used in Georgian interiors.
Apart from the Gothic wallpapers, the smaller house was rarely influenced by this particular phase until about 1800 when `Gothic' doors and windows appeared in the thatched cottage and seaside villa, and cluster columns took the place of the classic pilaster.

Oak Panelling had practically disappeared before George III came to the throne, its use as a wall-covering being entirely superseded by wallpapers and materials, wall panelling and wainscot. Plastered walls were sometimes divided into large `panels' by a plaster rib and small ornaments in the classic style. The papered walls were often decorated with the popular sporting print, a series of engravings, a set of family silhouettes. All these details can be clearly seen in the `Conversation Pieces' of the time.

The influence of the Orient was more apparent in Georgian Interior designs as the century progressed, and lacquered furniture, China silks and carpets, were as much in use as the beautiful furnishings made by the English craftsmen of the period.

Of these furnishings a variety of forms made their appearance in the later years of the eighteenth century and their ornament and design have not been improved upon since. The English cabinet-maker had reached a stage of perfection in his work that can never be truly imitated by factory-made furniture of a later date. Chairs, tables, bookcases, clocks, settees, daybeds, sofas, desks, cup­boards and chests, and the most comfortable armchair of all, the 'wingback', were not the only items of furniture that received special attention from the artist; there were a hundred and one ornaments and foibles of the time cherished by the fashionable world that are out of place today-such as wigstands, knife­bozes, sconces, torchieres, wine-boxes, fire screens etc.-each useful in its original setting and still a thing of beauty.