Book of wallpaper samples from about 1910.

The use of wallpaper can be dated to about 200BC when the Chinese used it. In 1481 Louis XI of France ordered 50 rolls of paper with a design of angels on a blue background, to decorate the walls of the many castles he moved to. However in 1839 a four colour surface printing machine was developed in England, and by 1874 a machine was developed that was capable of printing 20 colours. Finally with the development of ready-to-use wallpaper paste in 1888, the use of wallpaper increased greatly to its peak period in the 1920s.

Improvements in paint technology and the chemical industry added new colours to the range available in Australia during the 1830's and 1840's coinciding with the demise and simplicity of Georgian and Regency colour schemes and the beginning of the complex decorative tastes of the Victorian period. Entrance halls, drawing rooms and dining rooms offered the richest and most interesting decoration for the Victorian period. Wallpaper, gold leaf and stencils were found in profusion.

Entrance halls in particular held an endless range of variations in their scale and character and in the approach and quality of their decoration. Even quite small houses attempted to impress the visitor with their display of marble or stone patterned wallpaper and after the 1860s, with a strongly patterned dado paper. Elaborate plasterwork and an archway of imposing proportions, combined with the use of colour and perhaps gold leaf to highlight details of the architectural ornament, completed the picture of grandeur.

State Library of South Australia: Mortlock Wing. From the ground up August 2004-