Garland and Tassel Frieze

Combinations of floral garlands arranged in festoons were very popular from 1790 until about 1820. The tassel motif appears in many French patterns, especially the lambrequin papers of the 1770s and 1780s. Boston printers Appleton Prentiss manufactured a “Festune” border very similar to this one in the 1790s.
This particular frieze has been found in two installations: a neoclassical grey colorway was hung along with Adelphi’s Arabesque Pigeons in the 1794 Lazarus LeBaron House in Sutton, Massachusetts. Another version, on a buff ground and hung with a plain green paper, was hung in the Pendleton House in Morehead City, North Carolina.