Today, a particularly wonderful treasure for vintage wallpaper lovers: Two, never installed, exquisitely-rendered Schmitz-Horning Co.wallpaper murals [Update: Out of Doors sold for $480, The Minute Men, for $110.49] currently listed for sale on ebay. We think that a wallpaper find like this is quite rare. Pam almost pulled this story — she was thinking of keeping these finds all to herself and bidding. Alas, her wallpaper hoard is already immense, she says, and she is currently exercising control. Who is going to go for them? They are treasures.
Schmitz-Horning “Out of Doors” wallpaper mural
The first roll up for auction is a collection of 15 sections of wallpaper in all — including 9 printed panels featuring wildlife, hunting, fishing, golf and vegetation and 6 other (background? – we’re not sure) papers. The design is called “Out-of-Doors.”
32-foot design, we estimate. Each panel is roughly 81.75″ tall and 43 inches wide. We we estimate that if you installed the 9 consecutively designed panels on one wall together, that would be about 32.25 FEET of wall coverage — NOTE, this is our estimate, not promised in listing. Pam says that with that many linear feet, she believes that these were meant to wrap around four walls of one room. Can you imagine? And we adore these colors! Fantastic!
From the eBay listing description:
There are 15 sections of this wallpaper mural, I believe there is one complete set and then 6 extra random sections. They are by, THE SCHMITZ-HORNING CO. CLEVELAND, OHIO MADE IN U.S.A. “OUT-OF-DOORS” is the name of the scenes, I believe circa 1950s/60s. They measure 81 3/4″ x 43″. We tried to take close up pictures so you could see detail, they have the picture part about 2/3s of the picture and then the sky scene above. These were rolled up in the attic and the ends are a little dog eared, there may be some tears but nothing that can’t be repaired. These have never been glued to a wall, they are unused. There are some tears on 5 or 6 and they do go up into the picture, but I believe if someone is good at this they can be restored. There are no soil marks in the picture area.
More about the Schmitz-Horning Co.
I did a little more digging for information about the Schmitz-Horning Co. and found that the company was founded in Cleveland, Ohio in the early 1900’s by Hugo Max-Schmitz, an artist and printmaker. The company focused on making large, wallpaper friezes (murals) for upper class homes and was the first company to develop a washable, color wallpaper printed with oils that could be cleaned with a damp rag without damaging the paper itself. See — wallpaper pioneers!
You can read more about the history of the company on Janet Dodrill’s personal blog. Janet is a graphic designer herself in addition to being the great granddaughter of Hugo Max-Schmitz.
I also found an article about the Schmitz-Horning Company’s wall murals on the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum’s website — and heck — if the Cooper Hewitt Museum takes note of Schmitz-Horning Company wallpaper murals, they must be historically important, right?
And maybe best of all Pam found this on archive.org (via Dodrill’s blog) — a catalog for what appears to be an early 20th century collection of San-kro-mura wall decorations — that looks like it was the market name, at the time, for the Schimtz-Horning line:
We do not see the two ebay murals in the San-kro-mura catalog. Pam surmises that the ebay murals came later. Their subject matter appears 1940s or 1950-era to her.
Schmitz-Horning wallpaper mural: The Minute Men
The second lot of Schmitz-Horning Co. wallpaper murals includes 12 sections with scenes of New England during the Revolutionary War era — men with rifles, men in battle, farmers, homes and trees — all part of “The Minute Men” series.
21+ feet of design: We estimate that the 6 design-printed sections of this wallpaper mural measure roughly 81.75″ tall by 43″ wide. We calculate that this would give total wall coverage for the complete, consecutively installed mural 21.5 feet. Again, NOTE: This is our estimate, not promised in listing.
The eBay description for the second listing reads:
There are 12 sections of this wallpaper mural, I believe there is one complete set and then 6 extra random sections. They are by, THE SCHMITZ-HORNING CO. CLEVELAND, OHIO MADE IN U.S.A. “THE MINUTE MEN” is the name of the scenes, I believe circa 1950s/60s. They measure 81 3/4″ x 43″. We tried to take close up pictures so you could see detail, they have the picture part about 2/3s of the picture and then the sky scene above. These were rolled up in the attic and the ends are a little dog eared, there may be some tears but nothing that can’t be repaired. These have never been glued to a wall, they are unused. There are some tears on 5 or 6 and they do go up into the picture, but I believe if someone is good at this they can be restored. There are no soil marks in the picture area.
Just look at the artistic quality of these murals — amazing!
Mega thanks to eBay seller dad3640 for allowing us to feature his photos of these fantastic vintage wallpaper murals.
Link love — Bid for them here:
Rachel says
I have a wallpaper mural in the foyer/entry area of my 1910 house. I’ve looked all over the internet to try to find out what era it’s from. I suspect it’s from a later remodel and not original. Is there somewhere here I could post a picture and see if anyone know anything about it?
pam kueber says
You can post the photo to any photo sharing site and then post the link in a follow-up comment.
Laurel says
I own a Schmitz Horning Kindergarten cutouts panel that was laminated onto thick cardboard in tiles – perhaps a floor puzzle or perhaps tiles for a wall. It depicts animals, floating in space, just like the Cooper Hewitt one but the animals are different and it has an olive green background. I have been trying to reasearch it for some time but the only one I’ve found is the one at the Cooper Hewitt site. It’s womderful and I wish I had the house for it or a use for it.
pam kueber says
Wow!
Ed says
Graphics shops and vehicle wrap places are springing up all over around here… maybe I could get something like this printed on large panels to hang on the wall. Wallpaper just seems so fragile to me, and permanent, I’d want something I could take with me if I move, or sold at my estate sale if I don’t. 😉
pam kueber says
Sounds like an idea!
Anne Holland says
I love the Minute Man mural. Coming from Minute Man country where I participated in redact nets as a child, I can tell you these are massively inaccurate. It was mostly deeply wooded and it was NIGHTIME when everyone was rushing to battle. But hey, these are so fabulous, who cares? The trees Kiki a lot like Zuber wallpaper from France which is in the U.S. White House along with dozens of 19th century homes in New England. Zuber is still made, but it costs tens of thousands.
Ben says
I looked at these too. The Out-Of-Doors is such lovely colors. The length of the rolls wasn’t right for my uses, though – 81″ is just over 6 feet. It seems like they’re designed to be used above a chair rail, which would have been a traditional treatment – perfect for a foyer or dining room. Can you imagine how lovely they would look with dental molding and double doors?
pam kueber says
Yes, I agree — above molding… how about: Knotty pine!
toni says
Price wallpaper these days and $500 is a BARGAIN! I keep looking at the old kitchen paper on ebay but at nearly a hundred bucks a roll…….can’t do it no matter how much I want it.
Then if you really want to buy period wallpaper you had better be prepared to write a really big check! $500 wouldn’t do one wall.
pam kueber says
Agreed — $500 still a FANTASTIC price considering the rarity of this paper. I can only guess the printing is fantastic…
Katie says
Amazing: the Outdoors set sold for $480, far exceeding my maximum and my expectations for the auction. Really would have liked to hang this in my 1958 center split level.
pam kueber says
Yup! I saw that! Yup!
rue says
Those are wonderful! They remind me of my grandmother that had a dining room with a hunt scene that went around the room. I used to love looking at it.
Robin, NV says
Holy moly. Those colors are gorgeous. I love the Out of Doors set. You could put them up as a set or use individual panels (although it would be shame to separate the set). I have long considered buying this Asian inspired mural:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/custom-DIY-unique-home-Decor-artistic-art-mural-Deco-wall-paper-12FT-x-8FT-25A-/121123502473?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1c3385f989
It’s not vintage but I think it would be awesome in a formal dining room with Asian inspired décor. My grandmother’s best friend decorated her home in Chinoiserie with deep white plush carpet. It seemed so sophisticated and beautiful to my young eyes. It was like visiting a lovely, liveable museum – “take your shoes off and don’t touch anything!”