PERCEIVING PRINT ROOMS: Commerce, Play & Display with Louise Voll Box

‘Print rooms’ - etchings, engravings, mezzotints, and ornamental paper borders adhered directly onto walls — were an elite eighteenth-century interior design trend. Queen Charlotte, Mrs Delany, Horace Walpole and the King of Poland all commissioned or created print rooms. Drawing on country house guidebooks, trade publications, and new archival research, this lecture examines the phenomena from the contexts of collecting, commerce, and craft practice; and explores how print rooms were perceived by 18^th century audiences.

LOUISE VOLL BOX is a doctoral candidate (University of Melbourne), studying the print collection of English duchess Elizabeth Seymour Percy (1716-1776). Louise has undertaken research in collections, archives and country houses in the UK, USA and Europe. In 2018 she was the Harold Wright Scholar (Prints and Drawings Department, British Museum).

unknown maker, “Print Room Style” wallpaper (originally hung in Doddington Hall, Lincolnshire) England, circa 1760, Colour woodblock print on paper, 406 x 225 mm. E.473-1914, Given by Mr G. E. Jarvis. Victoria and Albert Museum, London. ©Victoria and Albert Museum, London