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As the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen's birth approaches in December 2025, there is an array of tributes and events being planned to celebrate. It is perhaps particularly fitting that an author whose work revolved around the domestic sphere should be celebrated with a wallpaper collection, and this new collection by Hamilton Weston, which brings back to life antique designs found at Austen's family home. Many of her greatest works, from Pride & Prejudice to Persuasion, were written at the dining table of this modest family cottage in Chawton, Hampshire, which now exists as The Jane Austen House Museum.
The team at Hamilton Weston specialise in the recreation of historic wallpapers, and have recreated period designs for TV and film productions including Bridgerton and The Gilded Age. Investigating the walls at the Jane Austen House Museum led them to develop three designs. Each was carefully preserved, collected and reproduced from sections of the original prints found at the cottage. The discovery of the three prints is made yet more special by the fact that wallpaper was heavily taxed and very expensive at the time. Wallpaper was a rarity for households like the Austens, who lived off the income of Jane's father, Reverend George Austen.
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The first of the three wallpapers, ‘Chawton Leaf’, is based on a pattern dating from around 1812, originally glimpsed through the paintwork in the dining room. Once the team began peeling back the layers of paintwork, a skilled conservator was able to reveal a print reminiscent of a nettle plant coloured in the bright ‘arsenic’ green shade popular in the 19th century. Faithfully reproduced, it is a small scale but strikingly graphic pattern that still looks just as glorious in a dining room as it did 200 years ago.
Then came the ‘Chawton Vine’ design, a botanical print inspired by a yellow and burgundy pattern meticulously redrawn from a pattern discovered in the house. The final design, ‘Chawton Rosebud Moire’ was based on a print known as the ‘Apprentice Ribbon Trellis,' an unfinished floral motif discovered by the Hamilton Weston team. The assumption is that the Austen family may have bought it at a reduced rate because of the error. In its fully resuscitated form, the Rosebud Moire is an elegant print comprised of an intricate trellis design, dotted with delicate rosebuds.
We're especially thrilled to see these designs go on sale because we're constantly fascinated by the wallpapers and other interiors choices on display in Jane Austen adaptations on film and TV. As a way to get inside the author's world, this is particularly charming.
