Antique Wallpaper

Printing antique panoramic wallpapers is one of our specialties, it is perhaps even our core business. We put our expertise at your service to allow you to decorate your interiors with reissues of the most beautiful vintage wallpapers. Discover our collection of patterns and how to match them to your interior. you can see also our panoramic wallpapers

What is the history of Antique wallpaper ?

It can be said: the first ancient wallpapers do not belong to the history of wall art decoration, but to that of bibliophily, since they concern the ornamentation of books; they are called "dominoté papers". The term "domino" comes from Italian and means "cap, envelope, mask". The first mentions in texts of the profession of domino maker appear in the second half of the 13th century. The practice was soon regulated: we learn that the dominoes were involved in ornamental work in the margins by intervening on the lettering, the cul-de-lamp and other bands. This is why, in most cases, these antique decorations presented geometric and floral patterns. As such, the dominoes are not considered as artists and are attached to the corporation of cartiers. In addition, and in order to protect printers and publishers, dominotiers were not allowed to use printing type. Concretely, they have the right to make all kinds of images like marbled papers, fancy papers, playing cards, board games and .... wallpapers! That's why dominoterie is considered the first manifestation of the old panoramic wallpaper; the dominoté papers are decorated with geometric and floral patterns designed on the principle "of the connection": assembled one and another, these dominoté papers form a continuous and repetitive creation. They are then called "hanging papers" or "tapestry papers". During the XVIIIth century, Around 1750, the first antique wallpapers appeared on the walls in England. In 1763, Jean-Baptiste Réveillon opened a wallpaper factory in Paris. Today, Papiers de Paris offers you the opportunity to discover our re-editions of the most beautiful designs and models of this historical factory, but not only. As a specialist in vintage and old style wallpaper, we propose to bring to life all your creative desires.

Oriental inspired antique panoramic wallpapers

Among the particularly popular antique wallpapers are those inspired by Indian and Asian civilizations. This oriental source of inspiration was largely encompassed in what was called chinoiserie. This type of decoration with a lot of floral ornaments was particularly fashionable in the 18th and early 19th centuries; however, at that time, it was more a question of tontisses rather than wallpapers (tontisses are panels made up of particles of colored leaves, chopped up and fixed by a mordant on a canvas following a pattern). From now on, the precision of the top-of-the-range digital printing of our workshops located in the center of France, allows you to benefit fully from the warmth and the beauty of this type of decoration, like our , for an excellent quality-price ratio. Among our references inspired by this inescapable style of the history of antique panoramic wallpaper, we suggest you discover "Chinoiserie 18ème". This chinoiserie represents a decoration made up mainly of branches populated with peacocks, pheasants and other very colorful birds with, in the lower part, small picturesque characters. This creation was originally installed in the apartment of Pierre Bergé and Yves Saint-Laurent; for our reissue, we have solicited Delphine Neny, Best Craftsman of France, in order to offer you the most faithful copy that is.

Antique style wallpapers that replicate antique decor

Another style of antique wallpapers was particularly in vogue in the 18th century: the one that reproduced antique decorations and more specifically antic & neoclassic decors. This fashion inherited from the ancient world is explained by the rediscovery and excavation of the cities of Herculaneum and Pompeii (respectively excavated from 1738 and 1748). The rediscovery during the 18th century of Roman cities, buried in 79 AD by the eruption of Vesuvius, remarkably preserved had unprecedented repercussions on the knowledge that we then had of the ancient world and led to a real craze in terms of decoration and ornamentation, so much so that we sought to reproduce on the walls the most beautiful decorations of these exceptional homes as that of the Villa of the Mysteries of Pompeii. More widely, the fashion was then for grotesques; grotesques are in fact purely ornamental decorations composed of somewhat strange subjects, animals and fantastic characters, leafy scrolls as columns... Why are they called that? This is explained by the context of the discovery of these decorations towards the end of the 15th century: painted on the walls of Roman houses buried for centuries and rediscovered buried, these houses made contemporaries think of caves. Among the most popular houses, we find the palace of Nero: the famous Domus aurea. If you too would like to decorate your home or hotel with this type of decoration, it is quite possible thanks to Papiers de Peints and our reproductions of ancient style wallpapers such as with our model "The Four Seasons - Spring - Decorative Panel".

The republishing of antique wallpapers: a specialty of Papiers de Paris

We have made the reproduction of antique wallpapers our specialty and our trademark. Thanks to digital printing, Papiers de Paris can bring back to life the most beautiful decors created during the past centuries, and this, for an affordable price. For example, we suggest you discover our antique panoramic wallpapers inspired by the 18th century. This is the case of "In the Country": this late 18th century panoramic painted on paper board. It shows a charming country scene with walkers, a horseman or even dogs.

Practical information about our Antique wallpapers

Making this kind of reproduction or new prints of antique wallpapers can seem complcated but this is our speciality so we can assist at any step of the project . We deliver our vintage wallpapers, wether in standard or custom sizes, in every country with courriers like UPS. Do you want to know more about our creations and manufacturing methods? Do not hesitate to contact us.
lire aussi notre article antique wallpapers of French Museum of decorative arts