Dating and Identifying Wallpaper

We photographed our piece of wallpaper and sent it off to the Victoria & Albert Museum. They have a large collection of historic wallpaper and can cross reference patterns and manufacturers. With our piece they were not able to identify the pattern but could tell us it is block printed, in the gothic revival style, dating from around 1830, which is when this style was popular. Blue pigments were introduced at this time so this also helped date the piece. Chemical analysis could provide a more accurate dating. The Wallpaper History Society (wallpaperhistorysociety.org.uk) has also been incredibly helpful.