Object number
2008/98
Title
Trees and Cows,
Collection
Exhibition
Creator
Description
This is a sample of ‘Trees and Cows’ wallpaper designed by Edward Bawden in the 1920s and printed by the Curwen Press. Bawden originally made the design for lino-cut printing by hand, and it was one of several taken over by the Curwen Press for lithographic printing. The design is a symmetrical pattern of nine green hedged fields withe each of the corner fields having a tree in and the central one with five cows in.
Physical description
sample sheet of patterned paper; good condition
Archival history
Collecting 20thc Rural Culture blog [Monday, 8 December 2008] – Trees and Cows wallpaper, 1920s // This was one of a number of wallpaper designs produced by Edward Bawden (see earlier post) in the 1920s. At first laboriously hand-printed by Bawden himself using the lino-cut method, they were adopted by the Curwen Press in 1926 and became more widely available as lithograph printed papers. A sheet of the Trees and Cows design has been acquired for this project. A tranquil, if rather mesmerising, rural motif like this brought a touch of the countryside into urban and suburban homes of the pre-War era. // The Curwen Press was founded in 1863 in Plaistow, East London and was initially primarily concerned with printing music. The founder’s grandson, Harold Curwen, was joined by Oliver Simon in 1920 and together they breathed new life into commercial art and design of the period. Simon had connections at the Royal College of Art (his uncle was Principal) which enabled him to sign up artists such as Paul Nash, Eric Ravilious and Edward Bawden for a range of projects from book illustration to lettering to advertising posters. Bawden frequently worked for the Press and contributed in the later 1930s a number of illustrations for the You Can be Sure of Shell poster campaign, like the one of Blandford Forum below.’
Production place
Plaistow [West Sussex]
Production date
1926 - 1927
Object name
Material
Technique
Associated subject
External document
- L:\MERL\Objects\JISC 2012\Documents\Scans\2008_98_doc_01.tif - High resolution image
- L:\MERL\Objects\JISC 2012\Documents\Scans\2008_98_doc_02.tif - High resolution image
- L:\MERL\Objects\JISC 2012\Documents\Scans\2008_98_doc_03.tif - High resolution image
