GP & J Baker Launches Wallpapers

GP & J Baker is fortunate to own an extensive archive that contains a wide range of fabrics and wallcoverings that have been collected over the last 150 years. The GP & J Baker Emperors Garden collection drew its inspiration from this rich resource, looking at the extensive collection of Chinese wallpapers for its basis.

The lead design for this beautiful collection is a lavish floral of peonies in full bloom with cherry blossom entwining fruit and birds of paradise. It owes it beginnings to a group of hand-painted Chinese wallpapers rescued by George Percival Baker from a residence in Kent. These beautiful hand painted panels dated back to the mid 1800’s.

‘Songbird’ develops this theme and has it’s origins in Chinese export papers which were very popular in the early 1800’s and were used in many historic buildings such as Brighton Pavilion, the summer residence of the British royal family during 1800’s, and Catherine the Great’s summer palace in St Petersburg. Showing songbirds perched in decorative cages amid climbing roses and bamboo, this enchanting version derives from a late nineteenth century paper in the G P & J Baker Archives.

‘Chinese Bridges’ was developed from a small hand drawn archive document that has its origins in chinoiserie imagery applied to transfer printed ceramics in the nineteenth century. A section of this small document was developed in our studio into a large scale monotone design with a coordinating fabric.

In the development of GP & J Bakers first wallpaper collection for 5 years every effort was made to work with manufactures to use modern innovations in a traditionally inspired collection. Our choice of non–woven paper for this collection gives a luxurious feel to the paper.

The wonderful collection offers a range of papers not only taken from the original colours but also desirable contempory finishes such as metallic and foil.