Wall Panelling Corporation

[ 3 ]

Typical Outline Mural Decoration
c. 1570

As true mural painting has to be carried out on a newly plastered walls or wall panelling we must be grateful that in this instance the 17th century artist was either not prepared to obliterate the original artist's work or else he did not consider the rather uneven sur­face with its painted crossbeams a good enough background for his plastering. Whatever the reason the structure was covered, and fortunately, not even re-discovered until com­ paratively    recently when a new owner (an artist himself) was troubled by rats running between the two walls and on investigation the original paintings reappeared. The greatest of care has been exercised in the cleaning of the oak beam walls and now the designs are exposed once again in all their original clarity of colour; they seem actually to be part of the structure of the house, so well
do they fit into the rough timbered walls. An interesting economy appears in the bedrooms; where the original four-poster beds must have been there is no decoration on the wall behind the bed-head nor did the artist attempt to pretend that there was. The design quite simply finishes in the space permitted in the same way that it finishes where an exposed upright beam is visible, although as the space is much narrower the design has to be altered in scale to fit. The whole scheme is so simple and intimate that it is absolutely right for this particular little house.

Harvington Hall, once an old manor house, within about 20 miles of Dowles Manor, would seem to have employed the services of the same mural decorator, amongst many others. Illustrated here one small section of a design that appears above a doorway: this is done in outline in black and blue, and although the mermaid has a more `knowing' look than the charmingly vacant expressions on the faces of the `owners' of Dowles, the design is very similar both in inspiration and execution.