Charles Dickens wasn't just a stickler for the intricacies of plot and character development. Home decoration was also a lifelong obsession, writes Hilary Macaskill
Charles Dickens in his study at Gad's Hill Place. Photograph: Everett Collection / Rex Feature
It was only when I read his article on wallpaper that I realised a hitherto unappreciated aspect of Charles Dickens: his interest in interior decor. Charles Dickens at Home, the book I was writing about the houses and areas where he'd lived, took on a much more literal meaning.
That article, "Household Scenery", for Household Words, the journal Dickens launched in 1850, comprised 6,000 words on all sorts of wall covering from tapestry to gutta percha (a solution to rising damp) but focused mainly on wallpaper, in more aspects than one could have imagined. It was one of the journal's "process" pieces, on the manufacture of familiar domestic items such as pottery. But it also exhibited his personal taste, alluding to "what we owe to the designers of good paper hangings", and including his impressions of American ways of wallpapering, gleaned from his 1842 tour with his wife, Catherine.
Dickens recounted how they stood "in perplexed contemplation of our chamber wall", musing on the bad joins and disregard for matching patterns. He even gave his own idea for a wallpaper design: "a hanging which, being dark near the floor, becomes gradually lighter towards the ceiling. At present," he went on, "decorators depend on a dark carpet and a light ceiling to give the effect indicated by decorative principle and required by a trained eye, some aid being given by a dark skirting board, and a cornice of light and bright colors; but there seems to be no reason why the hangings on the walls should not do their part."
Dickens had more than a journalistic interest in the subject. From his time at 48 Doughty Street, his first house and now the Charles Dickens Museum, his firm views on interior decor were apparent. The drawing room, restored to its appearance during his tenancy from 1837-1839, shows the changes he made, with the then-new fashion of "new-papering" to the floor after removing the dado rail, and the shade of pink chosen for the woodwork.
He clearly enjoyed home-making – and shopping. Early in his relationship with Catherine, for example, he wrote with satisfaction of preparations for her visit to Furnival's Inn, his first independent home, describing his purchases of "a pair of quart Decanters, and a pair of pots, a chrystal Jug and three brown dittos with plated tops, for beer and hot water, a pair of lustres and two magnificent china Jars – all, I flatter myself, slight bargains".
Full story at The Guardian
That article, "Household Scenery", for Household Words, the journal Dickens launched in 1850, comprised 6,000 words on all sorts of wall covering from tapestry to gutta percha (a solution to rising damp) but focused mainly on wallpaper, in more aspects than one could have imagined. It was one of the journal's "process" pieces, on the manufacture of familiar domestic items such as pottery. But it also exhibited his personal taste, alluding to "what we owe to the designers of good paper hangings", and including his impressions of American ways of wallpapering, gleaned from his 1842 tour with his wife, Catherine.
Dickens recounted how they stood "in perplexed contemplation of our chamber wall", musing on the bad joins and disregard for matching patterns. He even gave his own idea for a wallpaper design: "a hanging which, being dark near the floor, becomes gradually lighter towards the ceiling. At present," he went on, "decorators depend on a dark carpet and a light ceiling to give the effect indicated by decorative principle and required by a trained eye, some aid being given by a dark skirting board, and a cornice of light and bright colors; but there seems to be no reason why the hangings on the walls should not do their part."
Dickens had more than a journalistic interest in the subject. From his time at 48 Doughty Street, his first house and now the Charles Dickens Museum, his firm views on interior decor were apparent. The drawing room, restored to its appearance during his tenancy from 1837-1839, shows the changes he made, with the then-new fashion of "new-papering" to the floor after removing the dado rail, and the shade of pink chosen for the woodwork.
He clearly enjoyed home-making – and shopping. Early in his relationship with Catherine, for example, he wrote with satisfaction of preparations for her visit to Furnival's Inn, his first independent home, describing his purchases of "a pair of quart Decanters, and a pair of pots, a chrystal Jug and three brown dittos with plated tops, for beer and hot water, a pair of lustres and two magnificent china Jars – all, I flatter myself, slight bargains".
Full story at The Guardian
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