Ardmore Border was lifted from the parts of a vase most people overlook, the bands of ornament around a foot or a lip, painted to frame the figurative work above them. Isolated and printed as a strip, that detailing turns out to stand perfectly well on its own, with the repeated marks and stepped forms Ardmore's painters use to close a composition.
It was made to work with the other papers in the collection, and that is its most obvious use: run along the top of a wall it finishes an Ardmore scene the way the band finishes the pot. But it is also designed to hang either way up, vertically as well as horizontally, which opens up other possibilities, framing a chimney breast, dividing a wall into panels, edging a doorcase.
Used against a plain painted wall it does something quieter and rather good, giving a room a single line of ornament and nothing else. It suits a hall, a landing, a bathroom or a child's room, and it sits well over painted timber. Measure the whole run before ordering; horizontal work uses length quickly and the joins show more than they do in a drop. It is the cheapest way to give a plain room the look of something considered.
