Business is personal. And our hunts for wallpaper are deeply, deeply personal.
Each load of wallpaper that we find is the happy result of a long list of miracles. Financial miracles, communication miracles, timing miracles...bizarre circumstances that somehow preserve these large collections of paper for half a century--it takes all of these for one wallpaper load to come into our hands. We've had whole collections of wallpaper that have survived fires and building cave-ins. We've seen collections that have changed hands countless times and been the focal point family feuds. Some of these wallpaper stashes have been long-forgotten and suddenly found again, while others have been carefully maintained by fellow wallpaper-lovers looking for just the right person to pass their treasures on to.
Oh, how we could fill a book with the stories!
At the end of February, we experienced another one of these miracle loads, only this one was special for a new reason.
20 years ago when we were just beginning our search for vintage wallpaper, a friend out in California told us about an antique store that she chanced into that had a whole backroom full of wallpaper. At the time, the idea of a "whole backroom" of wallpaper was daunting. We were only beginning our collection and were just purchasing patterns little by little to make handmade hatboxes.
When we called the store to ask about it and to see if our friend could go back and select a few patterns, the store owner refused. She said that too many people have gone back to that room without any respect for the paper, tearing it, stepping on it, and ruining it. She said that she wouldn't dare let another person back there. The paper was not for sale.
That closed the book on that story. A number of years later, we decided to call again, but the antique store had closed or moved or the number we had wasn't good anymore. Despite our final desperate attempts to figure out where it had gone, we couldn't find any clue or anyone who knew where the wallpaper went. As far as we knew, it had vanished into thin air.
Fast forward to this year: Out of the blue we were contacted by another friend on the West Coast in an entirely different state who said he had encountered a load of paper that we might want to take a look at. We were sent pictures; the wallpaper was beautiful. Naturally, we began to set up the process of going to get it. The funny thing was, as the details started to roll in (the wallpaper used to be owned by an antique store owner in California; she hadn't let anyone buy the wallpaper but decided to save it for use in her own home; the store had moved locations, etc...), it became apparent that we might be looking at the same wallpaper load we lost 20 years ago...
Sure enough! When we went to pick it up, our suspicions were confirmed. Names, dates, places, and facts were cross-checked, and they all agreed: this was the very same paper that mysteriously disappeared two decades prior. The timing today was perfect though. Whereas before, when we were just beginning our collection of wallpaper, we would not have been able to appreciate and love every pattern, now the whole gamut of patterns--kitchen, bath, geometric, marble, floral, etc--appealed to us. Another miracle!
Processing loads of wallpaper tends to take a while. Even so, slowly but surely, we are working our way through the fabulous patterns that make up this special collection, and we are enjoying every minute of it! We currently have added 60+ patterns to our Hannah's Treasures Website from this California load, but we're only half way done. Here's a look at some of our favorites so far:
I just love all of these patterns! How special that they get to be a part of our collecting journey twice, bringing a full-circle ending to a mystery we never expected to solve.
Keep checking back on our website for the newest additions to our collection. We still have more papers to sort, photograph, and add!
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