Who designed the 1765 Webb House flocked wallpaper? With no maker’s mark we turn to historical records for an educated guess and the standout candidate is a woman, Anna Maria Garthwaite.
Visitors often walk through a historic house viewing wallpaper with little thought other than whether or not they like it. The flocked wallpaper in the Joseph Webb House often receives similar judgement, but learning the history of the paper often changes visitors’ perception. There is, of course, the thrill of looking at something that was seen by our founding father, General George Washington saw the wallpaper. But understanding the origin of HOW the wallpaper came into being and was installed in the Webb House oftens awakens a curiosity to know more.
The first clue: A 1765 tax stamp on the back of a surviving removed section of wallpaper helps to pinpoint the date of the paper from 1763 to 1765. The purchaser of the extravagant paper was Silas Deane and his first wife Mehitable Nott Webb. Like many affluent colonists they had a desire to live fashionably and emulated London taste even if they had never been to London. And though the paper does not have a maker’s mark, much can be gleaned from how it was made about where it came from and who may have created it.
By the early 18th century London was the center of wallpaper production in Europe. Flocked paper – tactile wallpaper with a soft, raised, velvet-like texture – was developed by London makers to provide a more affordable alternative to Italian and French damask wall coverings. Square sheets of paper would be prepped with a base color and left to dry upwards of a month or more. When the paper was set, a large wood block with a cut pattern would be prepped with hide glue and stamped into the paper. Once the adhesive had reached the right amount of tack, dyed and finely chopped wool or cotton fibers with a static charge would be carefully applied onto the paper. The static would cause the fibers to stand tightly on end, giving the illusion of a fabric damask.
The Webb paper was likely made in East London where the industry boomed. The patterns for many of these papers often derived from the neighboring Spitalfields silk industry, where a singularly talented designer outshone her competition when it came to creating cartoons (painted patterns) for silk weavers. Anna Maria Garthwaite was a uniquely talented artist whose desire for independence in the wake of family tragedy led her to the silk industry of Spitalfields. As both a woman and one who chose to remain unmarried she began her career out of necessity. The early death of her father meant she needed to find a way to make money in an age that greatly limited women’s ability to do so. In a time where often prostitution or servitude were women’s only employment options, Garthwaite leveraged her artistic talent as a cartoon maker. Fortunately, she had a talent for design and arrived in London at a point when the Huguenot silk weaving industry had taken off. The popularity of Spitalfields silk prommpted London wallpaper makers to copy or sometimes directly buy cartoons from silkmakers. A cartoon is the initial design that silk and wallpaper makers use as a template for creating fabric and wallpaper. Many of Garthwaite’s patterns were utilized by papermakers for decades. The large bold pattern of the Webb House paper is similar in character to a number of cartoons designed by Garthwaite from previous decades, as can be seen in the oversized pattern of the silk dress worn by Anne Shippen Willing in her 1746 portrait by Feke. Garthwaite’s patterns were replicated in fabric and paper as late as 1800 and though we cannot pinpoint the cartoon for the Webb paper definitely to Garthwaite, her impact on the industry directly influenced the pattern even if she didn’t have a direct hand in the design itself.