Massingberd Blossom-Deep Blue
�Massingberd Blossom� (Gunby Hall) c.1905 The wallpaper from which this design is drawn, is most likely of British Edwardian origin, but stylistically is very representative of the era�s passion for oriental design, which � in a time of pre-modern artistic sensibility � was seen to retain a close connection to nature, simplicity and harmony. The trailing blossom and repeating birds are elements commonly found in early, hand-painted chinoiserie, and the use of traditional surface printing retains a tactile quality that subtly offers more to the discerning eye than a conventionally mass-produced paper. It once adorned the walls of the Grey Room at Gunby Hall in Lincolnshire, a large country house built some 200 years earlier for the Member of Parliament William Massingberd, that was bequeathed to the National Trust in 1944.
