Building Paradise

Following the invasion of the Taiwan market by European department stores and furniture retailers, European style bone china dinner sets, tiled tables, and especially floral sofas, curtains and wallpaper, have become a part of everyday domestic life. Are you satisfied with decorating in the European style? In fact, you might simultaneously be creating something of the old "chinoiserie."

Oliver Impey, the author of Chinoiserie and deputy curator of the Oriental Department of Oxford's Ashmolean Museum, says that in his childhood he would often accompany his parents on tours of European palaces and stately homes, but has no recollection of their Chinese rooms making any special impression on him. It was only later, when he became a furniture expert for a famous auction house and began museum work that he started to look at what the so-called "Chinese style" meant from the perspective of art history.

What is foreign?

It is interesting that when one starts looking for the Chinese style, it seems to appear everywhere. With porcelain mantelpiece vases, lacquer commodes, flower-and-bird bedroom wallpaper, from royal palaces to common homes, nearly every room is a Chinese room to some degree. "Chinese elements became an indispensible part of the vocabulary of European ornament very early on, so naturally you do not pay any special attention to them," he says.

Dr. Craig Clunas of England's Sussex University describes these ornaments as "honorary citizens" of Europe. Miss Elsby of the Wedgwood porcelain factory, which is well known in East Asia, says that, of East Asian markets, her company's products actually sell best in Japan, where the "English style" that Japanese consumers prefer is in fact the chinoiserie so favored by 18th-century Europeans.

The oriental style which once crossed the ocean and established itself with difficulty in foreign lands seems to have returned under the guise of "European" culture with an exotic appeal to East Asian customers. It really is very difficult to know just what is foreign.

Oliver Impey points out that you only need to walk around the wallpaper department of a European department store and "you will know that Chinese style is everywhere and that it has not subsided." Do the incomparably English designs of London's Liberty pattern and the rustic styles of Laura Ashley wallpaper really have an oriental lineage?

How do you liven up a wall?

According to a new book on the history of European wallpaper, it was in the late 17th century, when European craftsmen were struggling to achieve a coherent approach to wall surfaces, that Chinese hand-painted wallpaper first arrived in London.

Originally it was called "Indian" or "Peking" paper. But what were the surroundings it was to enter like? Oliver Impey says that after the Renaissance, the design of the rooms of European monarchs and aristocrats was usually directed by an architect. The main type of wall decoration was wood paneling and gilded leather, with tapestries and silk embroidery to create a warm effect.

After the 17th century the idea of the room designed as an entity appeared, with furniture and wall decoration being ordered for and fitted to the room. At this time furniture was usually made to become a part of the wall design. The wall covering, cushions and curtains that were to appear somewhat later all had to be en suite. The wall decoration thus came to play an especially important role.

European craftsmen of the 17th and 18th centuries really did have to struggle to create attractive walls. How could life be brought to heavy oak? Royalty had the resources to fill their walls with layers and layers of porcelain from the East, and there were some who broke up Chinese coromandal screens, splitting the two surfaces to inlay them separately on the walls and show off their beautiful scenes in a new European setting. If you could not afford such a screen then a clever craftsman could always paint the scenes on leather panelling for you.

Traditions from the land of silk

The Europeans were also fascinated by Japanese black and gold lacquer. Its small cabinets were exquisite beyond comparison and provided great stimulation for European craftsmen to improve their varnishing. Because Europe could not produce its own lacquer, however, the result was an imitation which came to be called "japan." This was the method used to create many of the wall decorations in the "lacquer" rooms of many European palaces.

Naturally, the most traditional way of decorating walls was to use silk hangings. Long before the Common Era, the Chinese had begun trading along the Silk Road and selling exquisite silks to the Middle East and Byzantine Empire, reaching as far as Rome. Chinese designs followed the silks. From the Mongol expansion westwards to the European Renaissance, these were transferred west, with the addition of Persian and Byzantine ornamentation. Following the opening of the sea route, silk became one of the main import items of the East India Companies. So, in fact, what is called traditional European textile design has always had oriental elements.

"Wallpaper actually appeared as a cheap substitute for ornamental textile hangings," says Oliver Impey. Although many art historians would disagree, this was in fact even the earliest function of easel paintings.

A cheap substitute?

Most scholars agree that Europe began using printed paper designs to decorate walls and ceiling panels in the late fifteenth century, but that none of these early works have survived. There are also those who think that wallpaper was introduced to Europe by Spanish and Dutch traders in the 1550s. No matter how it came about, by the end of the 17th century we can see an English commentator remarking: "A great deal of Papers is now-a-days so printed to be pasted on walls, to serve instead of Hangings, and truly if all parts of the sheet be well and close pasted on, it is very pretty, clean . . . . " At this time English wallpaper was called "black and white" and was decorated with floral designs of carnations, roses and strawberries, with some having the addition of colored ink painted on.

Of course, the Chinese wallpaper that arrived in Europe in the late 17th century was far from being a "cheap substitute." Right up until the time that it became a widespread fashion in the mid-18th century, it was still 20 times the price of English wallpaper. The cost of one panel was the equivalent of a tenth of a parson's annual salary.

Exquisite Chinese wallpaper was always put in the best room. In 1720 one person records seeing a parlor during the reign of England's George I, "adorned with China paper, the figures of men, women, birds, flowers, the liveliest I ever saw come from that country." This fashion was loved most of all by George III and George IV. What is most surprising is that even George Washington, who was busy working for independence in remote North America, wrote a letter to a business acquaintance asking him about "Indian paper" to display in his new dining room.

Chinese flowers vs American birds

It seems today that the Chinese wallpaper that covers whole rooms with its florid arrangements and lively figures is just like folk painting, dominating not so much to be pretty and clean as to make up for a certain dissatisfaction with the small landscapes on porcelain and lacquer ware and bring all of "China" into the room.

Aside from the most commonly seen flower and bird designs, wallpaper featuring tea production, porcelain manufacture, sericulture or hunting scenes was even more expensive. Reflecting the demands of the European consumer, later designs even combined human figures into flower and bird scenes to create a more lively picture.

The intricate painting of such wallpaper was carried out by hand. One set usually consisted of 25 to 40 panels, each one 12 feet long and three or four feet wide, just right for the measurements of European rooms at the time. Thoughtful merchants would even add extra birds and flora so that the edges could be made to meet properly.

It would seem that even this kind of service was not enough to satisfy the most ambitious enthusiasts, however. One English lady of taste went so far as to paste 25 large birds on her paper. It was only discovered in 1986 that this "Chinese wallpaper" actually featured a number of prints from an album of American bird species by a well-known ornithologist.

Selling what you don't like?

If the Chinese could make this kind of exquisite wallpaper for export, people must wonder what their own wallpaper was like, or whether they actually used it at all. According to Craig Clunas, "Those early visitors to China who, unlike their merchant contemporaries, managed to penetrate the homes of the elite, were struck by the relative bareness and lack of decorative surfaces within the elegant Chinese interior."

In 1696 the Jesuit Father Louis Le Comte published his memoirs of his travels in China in which he remarked that the Chinese use hand-painted silk hangings or glued paper on the walls. Du Halde also recorded that the Chinese of his day were very skilled at papering walls. However, this wallpaper was most likely the plain paper that the Chinese literati advocated for filling the room with whiteness.

If the literati were like this, the same is not necessarily the case for the rooms of businessmen in Canton. There is some suggestion that it was the custom for such figures to paste colored paintings on their window paper. When this was appreciated by their European customers they would present it to them as a gift. It was only when this was widely admired that it became one of the goods that captains in the East India Companies shipped back as private trade for sale to royalty and aristocracy.

Unfortunately the artists who painted wallpaper did not leave their names, and their origins remain uncertain, as does the question of whether or not the Chinese used this pretty wallpaper themselves. There is a constant search for such evidence in books on this subject.

The words of the famous British architect of the Chinese style, Sir William Chambers, are most frequently quoted on this. He describes the Chinese practice of hanging a large sheet of thick paper, covered with antique Chinese paintings, in the middle of the wall. There is also the description of the house of a Chinese mandarin in the works of the early-19th-century plant hunter, Robert Fortune: "Its walls were hung with pictures of flowers, birds, and scenes of Chinese life." It is probable that what both of these English gentlemen saw was not actually wallpaper.

Who lasts longest?

Because the widely welcomed Chinese wallpaper was expensive and took more than 18 months to deliver, British imitations soon appeared. In the mid-18th century the European fever for China was at its height and arranging "painted Paper of Pekin . . . . and choicest moveables of China" busied ladies in country houses large and small. Wallpaper was, of course, the best way to create a Chinese room. The English stately home of Saltram, which was used by Taiwan director Ang Lee as the location for Sense and Sensibility, has three such rooms. However, perhaps because the film is set in the early 19th century, when neo-classicism was already dominant, this attractive antique wallpaper does not appear on screen.

Compared to easily movable and adaptable furniture and porcelain, wallpaper easily gets damaged, ages, and is changed when it goes out of fashion. Despite this, in today's royal and aristocratic homes it is still possible to see quite a few rooms decorated with Chinese wallpaper, especially in England. One reason is the good quality of the paper and fixity of the pigments. There is said to be more 18th-century hand painted Chinese wallpaper preserved in its original location than there is common wallpaper of the 19th century. Some people attribute this to the fact that the wallpaper was so expensive, leading craftsmen to carefully mount it on canvas for protection against damp and to facilitate movement and re-use.

The secret scenery in the wall

Oliver Impey points out that although France was the center of fashion, firstly tastes changed there very fast and secondly wealth was concentrated at the center and the aristocracy were clearly separated from the common people. In the English social system, the power of the monarch was limited, and the local lords took the lead in caring for the commoners. Although there was class division, there were still many channels of communication. Because of this, the trends of the times would easily feed downwards and be widely disseminated. Hence things were more likely to be preserved.

Another reason was that although the Chinese taste was supplanted by other fashions, it kept resurfacing. There has often remained a secret scenery concealed at the bottom layer of walls which has been repeatedly restored by experts to its original appearance.

"The so-called fashion of the times was always cyclical" says a leading interior designer in London. The styles were always going from elaborate to elegant, then your eyes would get bored and want elaboration again. The colors went from gay to somber, and after a while returned to gay.

When the Chinese wallpaper that was admired for its fresh colors and lively flowers and birds came under the dark aesthetic of the Gothic search for historical roots, it was described as having "harsh colors" and being "too lavish in imitating nature." Yet while a famous wallpaper designer such as Owen Jones could strongly criticize Chinese designs for "lacking imagination" and being "unchanging," he could later write another book in which he changed his mind completely.

Fashion goes in cycles

The Chinese style rises and falls in the European decorative arts. "I can remember that it has come into fashion at least twice in this century," says the London interior designer. Once was in the 1930s after the big London exhibition by China's National Palace Museum, which shook spectators all over Europe. Oliver Impey also says that this seems to be the first time that people in the West saw real Chinese art, rather than what the Chinese "considered suitable or had specially made for export to the tasteless barbarians of Europe."

From Western films of the 1930s we can actually find traces of this wave of Chinese fever. In the black and white version of Pygmalion, made long before Audrey Hepburn's My Fair Lady, there is a scene where Eliza has shed her rags and emerges from the bath wearing a silk Chinese robe. And on Professor Higgins' piano there squats a smiling pagod!

When China began its "open door" policy in the 1980s, a huge amount of folk decoration was also transported to the West by the large number of tourists and antique dealers, where it was used for interior decoration. The London interior designer thus designed a Chinese-style living room for one of his customers.

The 20th-century Chinese room

In a Georgian terraced house on the edge of a central London park, the lattice-work window shutters on the balcony let in speckles of afternoon sunlight, which land on the mock-bamboo furniture. The table lamp sits on a porcelain stand and resembles a pagoda, and on the wall is a series of Chinese folk paintings brought back from mainland China by the interior design company. This is indeed a 20th-century Chinese room. The "Chinese style" that the lady owner is most proud of, though, is her scurrying Pekinese.

This year the treasures of the National Palace Museum are on tour in America. In autumn the Chinese mainland is also holding what is heralded as the largest ever display of Chinese treasures in the British Museum. It seems we can expect another high tide of Chinese fashion.

This may present something of a dilemma for Taipei's fashionable men and women when they are searching the department stores for European-style printed curtains and wallpaper.

A room full of flowers and birds, bursting with energy, should be a good choice to appreciate both the European style and pay respect to Chinese tradition. However, Julius Bryant of English Heritage, an expert in restoration, describes the wall paper of Chinese rooms as being "like a nursery."

Don't make your sitting room a bazaar

What then did our ancestors who sold all this wallpaper think about it all? "In a small room . . . do not use wallpaper; only philistines like it" and "no garish flowers and birds in the corners." The recommendation of the Ming-dynasty connoisseur Wen Zhenheng was that although the ancients saw the wall decorations as being most important, "There is nothing as beautiful as simplicity."

Li Yu of the Qing dynasty, on the other hand, does not mind so much about wallpaper, seeing as everyone was using it. He was even inspired to use crimson paper as the background and paste on light fragments to give the effect of cracked porcelain, making it seem like one was inside a teapot.

It seems as though it is still acceptable to put up patterned wallpaper. With the approval of Qing dynasty connoisseurs, at least it cannot be considered as a betrayal of one's ancestors. However, when you are displaying your Wedgwood porcelain it might be advisable to remember that our ancestors also taught that, "There are myriad creatures under heaven; to use them sparingly is best." Whatever you do, do not let your sitting room become like a busy bazaar, or you might be risking indulging in the taste of the European monarchs.

p.20(above) The wallpaper in the Chinese room of England's Woburn Abbey is as good as new. After a famous botanist had stayed overnight he decided to send people to China to collect plants. (Photo by Vincent Chang)

p.21(opposite) Oliver Impey, the author of Chinoiserie, says you only need to look at the wallpaper in any department store to see that chinoiserie styles have not subsided. (photo by Vincent Chang)

p.22The Chinese room in Spain's Aranjuez palace uses Chinese folk paintings for wall decorations.

p.23A chinoiserie wall decoration that was fashionable in the Rococo period. Has the concept of wall decoration developed by the Chinese in days gone by been realized in Europe?

p.24The high quality of 18th-century Chinese wallpaper combined with modern restoration techniques has allowed paper that has suffered the ravages of time to regain much of its former glory.

p.25The Chinese room at Italy's Palazzo Stupinigi. Wallpaper featuring human figures was more time-consuming to make and thus more expensive.

p.27Can the chinoiserie style be seen in the floral wallpaper of an English countryside bed and breakfast house?

The Chinese room in Spain's Aranjuez palace uses Chinese folk paintings for wall decorations.

A chinoiserie wall decoration that was fashionable in the Rococo period. Has the concept of wall decoration developed by the Chinese in days gone by been realized in Europe?

The high quality of 18th-century Chinese wallpaper combined with modern restoration techniques has allowed paper that has suffered the ravages of time to regain much of its former glory.

The Chinese room at Italy's Palazzo Stupinigi. Wallpaper featuring human figures was more time- consuming to make and thus more expensive.

Can the chinoiserie style be seen in the floral wallpaper of an English countryside bed and breakfast house?