Two rococo leather wallpaper panels. 18th century. 278...

Two rococo leather wallpaper panels. 18th century. 278 by 81 centimeters. Hallmarked leather with silver plating, polychrome painted. Fixed on canvas. Rest. senile Provenance: Private collection Wiesbaden. Formerly part of the famous Hubert Lüttgens sen. collection, Aachen (see E.G. Grimme, Die Sammlung Hubert Lüttgens Aachen, 1951). The two strips of leather wallpaper are arranged symmetrically to each other and show magnificent rocailles and tendril decoration, combined with flowers, small animals, vases and imaginative fountain figures. "One of the most luxurious wall coverings ever made is gold leather wallpaper. Not only is the material extraordinary - the leather has been entirely covered with silver leaf - but also the extremely attractive design of the leather: patterns with flowers and foliage, sometimes mixed with animals and cupidos or even mythological figures. The backgrounds of the gold leather wallpapers included a wide range of colours from red, blue, green, orange or white. Leather wallpapers were the typical wall coverings of the baroque period and were only replaced by the cheap paper wallpaper at the end of the 18th century. The leather wallpapers with their considerably higher costs could no longer compete with the paper wallpapers, especially since a desired frequent 'change of scenery' depended essentially on the financial possibilities. See: Gallery Glass, leather wallpapers, p. 5, with a similar leather wallpaper on the cover. See also G. Gall, Leder im eurpäischen Kunsthandwerk, p. 295 Automatically translated by DeepL. To see the original version, click here.