Bitten by witch fever
Beautiful to look at and compelling to read, this book is a highly original and captivating volume that interleaves facsimile sections of alluring, arsenic-laden wallpapers with thought-provoking narrative. It is tracing the arresting story of the use and effects of the toxic pigments ingrained in popular wallpapers of the nineteenth century. Hawksley presents the history of Scheele's green and schweinfurt green, pigments created using arsenic, which produced the vibrant shades whose brilliance made them instant favourites with wallpaper designers and householders alike. With the aid of contemporary case studies and reports in the press, she reveals how, by the middle of the century, manufacturers were producing millions of rolls of arsenical wallpaper, with devastating consequences for those working in their factories and for those living in rooms decorated with the deadly designs. The wallpaper sections display dazzling long- lost work from the great designers and printers of the age, including Christopher Dresser, Corbiere, Son & Brindle, Charles Knowles & Co. and Morris & Co.- whose owner was famously dismissive of the fatal effects of living with arsenic-filled wallpapers.
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What Hacker News says
- Book recommendation: Bitten By Witch Fever[0], which covers the subject in a lot more depth. The format of the book is interesting; the chapters are divided by (reproduction) samples of period wallpaper. Unfortunately, those are printed on different size leaves, which means that the text sections are all the same number of pages. To me, the book read more like a series of articles than a cohesive narrative, but it was interesting nonetheless.
Among other things, William Morris, who is today better known for his association with the Arts and Crafts movement (which is, in turn, best known for its furniture styles/designers (Stickley, Greene and Greene, Mission, and many more) and architecture (Gamble House, Riordan Mansion, and many more)) was involved in the production of a large amount of wallpaper containing arsenic-based pigments. He remained something of an arsenic denier, and the book takes its title from some of his comments about people who were arguing against the continued use of arsenic-based pigments[1].
Mentioned in that book, but not one that I've yet read is The Yellow Wallpaper[2], written in the period. The author of Bitten By Witch Fever interprets the protagonist's madness as being caused by arsenic-based pigments in the eponymous wallpaper, though I don't know that that interpretation is explicitly supported by the text. I suppose I'll have to check it out and read it to find out.
[0] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29082603-bitten-by-witch... [1] https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2388667617?book_show_a... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Yellow_Wallpaper
- This article is no better than a back-cover summary of " Bitten By Witch Fever".
Such a great and intriguing topic, and such a stilted article :/
