Papers that aren’t as crisp
and precise as modern papers pose a dilemma. Adelphi’s Steve Larsen recalls a border he re-created years ago. “The original document was happy-hour printing. Nothing lined up.”
Concord, Massachusetts. On what was probably an inexpensive paper, the paint layer was thin and the print register wasn’t always accurate. That meant making a judgment call as to whether to make the block print as accurate as it should have been, or to give the museum curators a facsimile that looked as crooked and poorly printed as the original—something Larsen calls “sloppy authenticity.”
“There are all different ways of doing it,” says David Berman of Trustworth Studios. “I did papers for a house in New England where they wanted it to look like it hadn’t changed in 200 years. So I created the patterns, and then I distressed them digitally.”
A digital artist like Berman can add in as many layers for a paper as can a block printer. He just creates them on a computer in Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop, instead of pear wood. “You create a base layer. Then you build your layers on top. To suggest wear, you can abrade any layer. Each one is a separate working plate.”
Take ‘Blossom’, for example, a C.F.A. Voysey design Berman recreated for the Glessner House in Chicago. “When I drew this, I thought, there’s so much going on, I’m going to have to draw each element. Every color has a separate block.”
Berman can add different effects to each layer, including some surprising ones. For instance, he can make it look as though the design is printed on laid paper (a high-cotton paper with a mesh grid embedded in it to give it texture), or that it is embossed, or even flocked (a method of adding chopped fibers over the design).
Once all the layers are sandwiched together, Berman prints completed rolls on a digital printer, using latex inks. For most custom reproductions, the bulk of the extra cost is in the design work: the amount of time it takes to scan and manipulate the pattern, or to draw it from scratch. It usually costs between $500 and $2,000 to create a custom pattern, he says. Then the paper is printed at the same cost as other papers he offers: $210 per roll. “I usually estimate high and pride myself on coming in under estimate.”
At Adelphi, non-digital replication includes a custom pattern and block fee, plus the cost of printing, which varies with complexity. Each block costs $1,400 including transparencies. So a custom reproduction requiring three blocks would cost $4,200 before the first roll was printed.
Reproduction makes sense for historical institutions and clients with rare wallpapers, but not every paper made before 1950 is worth reproducing, Berman attests. “Just because it was once in your house doesn’t make it special,” he says; “there are lots of ordinary papers out there.” You might just look for a paper similar to yours.