Seafern is drawn from antique botanical prints of the late 1700s, when coral was still being classified as a plant. Staghorn and Ivory Tree are among the species represented, and they are rendered in the manner of the period: precise, specimen-like, arranged for study rather than for effect. The confusion was reasonable at the time. Coral was not settled as an animal until well into the nineteenth century.
Behind them runs Vermicelli, a block print from the Cole & Son archive whose fine worming line covers the ground completely. That background is what makes the design. It gives the corals a textured field to stand against, so they read as pressed specimens on old paper rather than as motifs on a plain wall, and it keeps the surface active where a flat ground would leave it empty.
Colourings divide between botanical and dramatic, soft greens, inky blues and faded reds on one side, deep charcoal and green with antique gold on the other, and the same drawing carries both. Dining rooms and studies take the darker versions well, particularly by candlelight where the gold catches. In a cloakroom or a small library the density of the ground makes the room feel lined rather than papered. It is one of the few papers that suits a bathroom without being obvious about it.
