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Reproducing historic wallpaper is no easy feat. In 2015, Bradbury & Bradbury Art Wallpapers completed a commission to create wallpaper for the restoration of the Mahogany Suite at the Mark Twain House in Hartford, Connecticut. The project involved recreating pioneering designer Candace Wheeler’s (1827–1923) award-winning Honeybee suite of designs from 1881, which included a fill, dado, frieze, and ceiling paper. To create the reproductions, art director Stephen Bauer traveled to Ionia, Michigan, where the only known surviving installation of Wheeler’s Honeybee papers remains in a small room in the town’s public library. He photographed and measured the fill and frieze—the only two original patterns installed there. To produce the dado, Bauer relied on a published engraving and a written description of it. He then located a sample of Wheeler’s design for the ceiling from the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s collection. These combined sources enabled him to re-create a faithful version of the original. Special thank you to Bradbury & Bradbury Art Wallpapers for making this exhibition possible. “The Victorian Papered Wall” is on display pre-security in the International Terminal and online at: https://bit.ly/VictorianPaperedWall
This image was posted on May 11, 2022.