Ashlar

This is sophisticated and subtle wallpaper by Edward Bawden. The repeat pattern is based upon bricks and a retreating wall effect, which would give a room a rather surreal effect when applied. Bawden certainly played with many different influences in his wallpaper designs but they are all characterized by humour and a playful approach to decoration that comes out of his illustrative work the Curwen Press and others. Most contemporary homes in the 1930s would have been wallpapered with a floral or geometric pattern, or with a raised Lincrusta paper and a brightly coloured border. It is interesting that despite the modernists' love of minimalist spaces, they approved of 'artistic' wallpapers and textiles like Bawden's.