Festoon Border

This neo-classical pattern is based on one found at the 19th century Pope Villa, a house designed by Benjamin Henry Latrobe in Lexington, Kentucky. A slightly different version, now in the collection of Historic New England was retrieved from Montpelier, Henry Knox’s home in Thomaston, Maine.
The imitation of fabric in wallpaper design was a common neo-classical device at the end of the 18th century. The festoon in this pattern is complete with a bottom fringe, gimp at the top, tassels between swags and embroidered motifs. This frieze would have been accompanied by a thin border outlining the other margins of the wall.