Zuber Wallpaper Restoration

This scenic wallpaper “Vues d’Amérique du Nord” (Views of North America) was first produced by the French firm Zuber et Cie in 1834. This scenic group contains 32 panels and shows some of the natural wonders of the continent: New York Bay, Boston Harbor, West Point, & the natural bridge of Virginia. Scenic wallpapers were introduced around 1804 and remained popular with new designs being introduced until 1865. Scenic wallpaper allowed the viewer to visually access a historical moment during the July Monarchy (July 1830- 1848) in which America was idealized as the future of France.

“Vues d’Amérique du Nord” offers an idealized view of Jacksonian America as conceived by its designer, Jean-Julien Deltil, who may never have visited the United States and based his work on the designs of Jacques-Géard Milbert, who designed the paper for Jean Zuber et Cie in 1834. Zuber crafted the paper using 1,700 hand-carved blocks and 223 different colors. The Frenchman’s scenes of free blacks engaged in trade, dressed in finery, and residing happily alongside their white counterparts presented an idealized (bordering on utopian) view of the newly born country, which may have been intended as a slight to the English as much as it was a glorification of the Americans’ nascent democratic nation.

Jacqueline Kennedy was so taken by the beauty and historical significance of these specific wallpaper block print panels that she had “Vues d’Amérique du Nord” installed in the Diplomatic Reception Room of White House in the 1960’s. They are still there today.

Bill was able to restore this original wallpaper in his client’s antique home.