Old Time Wall Papers Part 16

_PLATE LVIII_

PLATE LVIII.

Bay of Naples.

This seems to have been the most popular paper of the early nineteenth century. It decorated the room in which the author was born--the library of Professor E. D. Sanborn of Dartmouth College, at Hanover, New Hamps.h.i.+re,--and is still in place. The house is now used as a Dartmouth dormitory. The same scenes are found in the Lawrence house, at Exeter, New Hamps.h.i.+re, now used as a dormitory--Dunbay Hall--of the Phillips Exeter Academy; on the house of Mrs. E. B. McGinley at Dudley, Ma.s.sachusetts, and on another at St. Johnsbury, Vermont, now owned by Mrs. Emma Taylor.

(p. 49, 108)

[Ill.u.s.tration]

_PLATE LIX_

PLATE LIX.

Bay of Naples.

Continuation of same scene. This paper is in neutral colors, and made in small pieces. It was imported about 1820.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

_PLATE LX_

PLATE LX.

Bay of Naples.

Detail. The monument has a Greek inscription which Professor Kittredge of Harvard University translates literally: "Emperor Caesar, me divine Hadrian. Column of the Emperor Antoninus Pius"--who was the son of Hadrian. The pillar of Antonine still stands at Rome. The statue of Antoninus which formerly surmounted it was removed by Pope s.e.xtus, who subst.i.tuted a figure of Paul.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

_PLATE LXI_

_PLATE LXII_

PLATE LXI.

Bay of Naples.

Another side of room.

PLATE LXII.

Bay of Naples.

Detail: Galleon at anchor.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

[Ill.u.s.tration]

_PLATE LXIII_

PLATE LXIII.

Cupid and Psyche.

Panelled paper in colors, designed by Lafitte and executed by Dufour in 1814. It consists of twenty-six breadths, each five feet seven inches long by twenty inches wide. It is said that fifteen hundred engraved blocks were used in printing. The design is divided into twelve panels, depicting the marriage of Cupid and Psyche, Psyche's lack of faith and its sad consequences.

The scene reproduced shows the visit of the newly-wedded Psyche's jealous sisters to her palace, where they persuade her that her unseen husband is no G.o.d, but a monster whom she must kill.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

_PLATE LXIV_

PLATE LXIV.

Cupid and Psyche.

While Cupid lies sleeping in the darkness, Psyche takes her dagger, lights her lamp, and bends over the unconscious G.o.d:

* * * There before her lay The very Love brighter than dawn of day;

O then, indeed, her faint heart swelled for love, And she began to sob, and tears fell fast Upon the bed.--But as she turned at last To quench the lamp, there happed a little thing, That quenched her new delight, for flickering The treacherous flame cast on his shoulder fair A burning drop; he woke, and seeing her there, The meaning of that sad sight knew too well, Nor was there need the piteous tale to tell.

WILLIAM MORRIS: _The Earthly Paradise._