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Object Timeline

1981	We acquired this object.
2001	We exhibited this object.
2013	We photographed this object.
2016	We photographed this object.
2024	You found it!

Sidewall (USA)

This is a sidewall. It was made by American Wall Paper Manufacturers' Association. It is dated 1879–1887 and we acquired it in 1981. Its medium is machine-printed paper. It is a part of the Wallcoverings department.

Moorish-style architecture framing views of exotic lands is interspersed with palm trees, a flock of storks, and waterfalls in this Aesthetic-style design. The Aesthetic Movement celebrated “art for art’s sake,” meaning that the most important quality of a work was its beauty, rather than its effective representation of social or political themes.

It is credited Gift of Mrs. Wesley Wright, Jr..

A faded black sheet, formatted horizontally (landscape) contains a pinkish red space across the center which is divided into three uneven rectangles. The space on the left contains a square decorated in a black stellate (star-like) mosaic pattern which sits across a horizontal base of repeating keyhole shapes in alternating shades of black and red. Across the top of the square are three vertical openings boxed in with cross-hatched shading. Dark onion-domed towers (qubba) fill the three openings. A pillar lightly decorated with an intertwined branching root pattern with black accents divide this space from the center image. This next image has two pillars each topped by large circles which are filled with alternating black triangles shaped like slices of pie. The pillars stand in front of a fence decorated with thin diamond-shaped lines. As if looking out from a balcony, behind this opening is a view of domes, buildings, towers, and brick walls rendered simply with blocks and zigzags. On the right is a nest with a pair of storks atop a column. The space on the right , framed with a vertical mosaic pillar on the left and another root-like pillar on the right. A faint mosque tower centers the rectangle, within which two additional towers are enclosed over a base of small black rectangles. The base of this section is decorated with an overlapping and repeating calligraphic pattern. In the thick black border below the scene, the object is described as 'A Mezzotone Paper from Katzenbach and Warren, Inc.' and titled ''Arabian Nights' designed by Ilonka Karasz.'

Page From A Sample Book, Mezzotone Papers, 1948
mezzotone print on paper.
Gift of Katzenbach and Warren, Inc..
1959-134-1-21

Its dimensions are

219 x 49.5 cm (86 1/4 x 19 1/2 in. )

Cite this object as

Sidewall (USA); Made by American Wall Paper Manufacturers' Association (United States); machine-printed paper; 219 x 49.5 cm (86 1/4 x 19 1/2 in. ); Gift of Mrs. Wesley Wright, Jr.; 1981-17-1-a,b

This object was previously on display as a part of the exhibition Rooms with a View: Landscape & Wallpaper.

Short URL http://cprhw.tt/o/2DpXv/
Accession Number 1981-17-1-a,b
Object ID 18616231