There were two types of Chinese wallpaper decors: Birds and Floral scenes or Depiction of the various Crafts, such as farming (rice plantations), fishing, making of tea, silk, porcelain, all usually intermingled together within a landscape and buildings.
This particular decor depicts exclusively porcelain manufacture, showing the various stages of its production. The scenes are set within various small buildings housing the different stages of its production, amongst trees and rocks, with mountains in the background. This décor may have come from a larger scenic which showed other crafts. Normally such decors would have a double or triple total width (the former owner may have adjusted these panels or a specific placement in his home within boiseries). The figures are varied (craftsmen, buyers or agents) and are rather large in scale (30-33 cm height).
This rare set could be compared to other known similar decors, such as the ones in Oud Amelisveerd near Utricht, Netherlands, Harewood House in Leeds, England, Coutts Bank, London, and Bradenburg in Munich.
This decor is heavily stained in its background, probably in this state since a long time and restoration of the papers should be undertaken.
The project will bring new knowledge regarding the materials used to manufacture these papers as well as the characterization of the degradation products and evaluation of the conservation state to plan a future conservation restoration intervention.
Chinese Wall Paper