DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1397#0104
PLATE 27.
PAPER-HANGINGS,
BY KNEPPER & SCHMIDT, VIENNA.
AUSTRIA deserved and obtained Honourable mention for good designs in surface-decoration,
as seen in leather and paper-hangings. Besides those which we have illustrated, Messrs.
Knepper & Co., fancy paper manufacturers, of Vienna, exhibited a great variety of patterns
in gelatine, gold, silver, and bronze paper, and a large series of diaper designs, imitation
leather, and marbling, of remarkable merit.
Mr. Schmitt observes, that as painting is still, in Austria, the prevailing way of ornamenting
the inside of rooms, the demand for paper-hangings is not large. Some few manufactories
established at Vienna, Prague, Salzburg, and Innspruck, sufficiently provide for the inland con-
sumption, finding still time for producing coloured papers of all sorts, paper articles for
bookbinding, &c. These ornamental papers for fancy purposes, according to Mr. Wyatt, in his
Report on the Paris Exhibition, 1855 (Furniture and Decoration), " appear to have been first
applied to ornamental packing in Prance by M. Lambertye. His establishment was in the Marais,
and a considerable quantity of glazed, satined, coloured, and plain papers was made from his
designs and instructions at the great establishment of the Montgolfiers, at Annonay. The Exhibition
of 1806 contained several displays of fancy papers by Messrs. Dodart and Messrs. Schrant, Susse,
& Co.; but Lambertye appears to have been the first to convert them to that use for which they
have, since his time, been applied in such vast quantities. Before his time, the French had
imported from Holland the coloured papers in which their cotton stuffs were usually wrapped.
The firm of Desetables, of Vaux-de-Vin, Calvados, was among the earliest to relieve them from the
necessity of obtaining such papers from abroad. The Germans showed quantities of gilt and
ornamented papers, which it is averred they produce at a lower rate than the French and English.
In the plainer kinds of gilt paper they probably may do so ; but neither in satining, nor marbling,
nor embossing, is their work at all upon an equality as to price, excellence being taken into account.
The firm of Knepper, of Vienna, produces in vast quantities, and obtained a great medal at the
last Munich Exhibition. The jury awarded it a silver medal in 1855."
The paper-hanging selected for illustration is an adaptation of the Mediaeval style, which bears
witness to the advance of good taste in this description of design; indeed, the progress made in
the decorative arts throughout Austria, during late years, is very remarkable. Their surface-
decorations of all kinds in the Exhibition evinced a very just appreciation of the true principles of
such designs, in many cases very tastefully carried out. Perhaps in no country in Europe has that
art which gives tone to all the decorative arts,—viz., architecture,—been practised with more
originality and power of adaptation than in Austria. In the New Imperial Arsenal in the suburbs of
Vienna, constructed from the designs of Van der Null, de Siccardsburg, Forster, and Roesner, we have
seen what to us appears one of the most striking, noble, and original of modern works in Europe.
The New Bank, by Ferstel, in the Renaissance style; the New Synagogue, by Professor Forster ;
and the facade of the Creek Church, by Hausen (these last, in a Moro-Byzantine style), evince great
novelty and good taste in design; whilst the Mediaeval style is excellently worked out in the Creat
Votive Church, by Ferstel; the church of Alt-Lerchenfeld, by Muller; and the Lazarist Church, by
Professor Schmidt. The value of sculpture, painting, and all the decorative arts, is thoroughly
appreciated in these works; and when we add that besides numerous art and archaeological
societies, including the Imperial Commission for Preserving and Investigating Architectural Monu-
ments, drawing is taught in all the Polytechnic, Technical, and Primary schools, in which, in 1859,
on week-days over 3,000 pupils were taught, and on Sundays over 2,000, we may be sure that
art instruction is more and more in request, especially in those parts where industry progresses
most rapidly. This increased artistic and industrial impulse is not confined to the capital only,
but extends equally to all the provinces; and it is not too much to hope that, with the prospect
of a combined national and political future, the various strongly-marked and varied races of which
Austria is composed will each bring to bear their national peculiarities on the arts of the empire.
PAPER-HANGINGS,
BY KNEPPER & SCHMIDT, VIENNA.
AUSTRIA deserved and obtained Honourable mention for good designs in surface-decoration,
as seen in leather and paper-hangings. Besides those which we have illustrated, Messrs.
Knepper & Co., fancy paper manufacturers, of Vienna, exhibited a great variety of patterns
in gelatine, gold, silver, and bronze paper, and a large series of diaper designs, imitation
leather, and marbling, of remarkable merit.
Mr. Schmitt observes, that as painting is still, in Austria, the prevailing way of ornamenting
the inside of rooms, the demand for paper-hangings is not large. Some few manufactories
established at Vienna, Prague, Salzburg, and Innspruck, sufficiently provide for the inland con-
sumption, finding still time for producing coloured papers of all sorts, paper articles for
bookbinding, &c. These ornamental papers for fancy purposes, according to Mr. Wyatt, in his
Report on the Paris Exhibition, 1855 (Furniture and Decoration), " appear to have been first
applied to ornamental packing in Prance by M. Lambertye. His establishment was in the Marais,
and a considerable quantity of glazed, satined, coloured, and plain papers was made from his
designs and instructions at the great establishment of the Montgolfiers, at Annonay. The Exhibition
of 1806 contained several displays of fancy papers by Messrs. Dodart and Messrs. Schrant, Susse,
& Co.; but Lambertye appears to have been the first to convert them to that use for which they
have, since his time, been applied in such vast quantities. Before his time, the French had
imported from Holland the coloured papers in which their cotton stuffs were usually wrapped.
The firm of Desetables, of Vaux-de-Vin, Calvados, was among the earliest to relieve them from the
necessity of obtaining such papers from abroad. The Germans showed quantities of gilt and
ornamented papers, which it is averred they produce at a lower rate than the French and English.
In the plainer kinds of gilt paper they probably may do so ; but neither in satining, nor marbling,
nor embossing, is their work at all upon an equality as to price, excellence being taken into account.
The firm of Knepper, of Vienna, produces in vast quantities, and obtained a great medal at the
last Munich Exhibition. The jury awarded it a silver medal in 1855."
The paper-hanging selected for illustration is an adaptation of the Mediaeval style, which bears
witness to the advance of good taste in this description of design; indeed, the progress made in
the decorative arts throughout Austria, during late years, is very remarkable. Their surface-
decorations of all kinds in the Exhibition evinced a very just appreciation of the true principles of
such designs, in many cases very tastefully carried out. Perhaps in no country in Europe has that
art which gives tone to all the decorative arts,—viz., architecture,—been practised with more
originality and power of adaptation than in Austria. In the New Imperial Arsenal in the suburbs of
Vienna, constructed from the designs of Van der Null, de Siccardsburg, Forster, and Roesner, we have
seen what to us appears one of the most striking, noble, and original of modern works in Europe.
The New Bank, by Ferstel, in the Renaissance style; the New Synagogue, by Professor Forster ;
and the facade of the Creek Church, by Hausen (these last, in a Moro-Byzantine style), evince great
novelty and good taste in design; whilst the Mediaeval style is excellently worked out in the Creat
Votive Church, by Ferstel; the church of Alt-Lerchenfeld, by Muller; and the Lazarist Church, by
Professor Schmidt. The value of sculpture, painting, and all the decorative arts, is thoroughly
appreciated in these works; and when we add that besides numerous art and archaeological
societies, including the Imperial Commission for Preserving and Investigating Architectural Monu-
ments, drawing is taught in all the Polytechnic, Technical, and Primary schools, in which, in 1859,
on week-days over 3,000 pupils were taught, and on Sundays over 2,000, we may be sure that
art instruction is more and more in request, especially in those parts where industry progresses
most rapidly. This increased artistic and industrial impulse is not confined to the capital only,
but extends equally to all the provinces; and it is not too much to hope that, with the prospect
of a combined national and political future, the various strongly-marked and varied races of which
Austria is composed will each bring to bear their national peculiarities on the arts of the empire.