Chippendale gave his name to a version of chinoiserie, all fretwork, pagoda roofs and latticework, that had very little to do with China and a great deal to do with what English cabinetmakers imagined China ought to look like. Chippendale China works in that tradition, reworking an old damask so that pagodas sit inside cartouches of grand scrollwork.
The structure is the interesting part. A damask cartouche is a formal European device and a pagoda is not, and setting one inside the other produces exactly the hybrid that eighteenth and nineteenth-century decorators were after. Printed tonally, one colour on a ground rather than in full colour, the design keeps the discipline of a damask while carrying a scene, which is a rarer thing than it sounds.
It hangs on a half drop with a 53 cm repeat on a 0.52 m roll, staggering the cartouches so no column of pagodas forms down the wall. Being tonal, it is easier to place than most pictorial papers, since it behaves as a textured background at a distance. It suits a dining room, a hall, a landing or a bedroom, and it sits well with painted furniture and lacquer. Below a picture rail with plain paint above, it becomes easier still.
