Tragic beauty: the arsenic-laden wallpapers of the Victorian home

Lovers of aestheticism and pre-raphaelitism in the Victorian era were big fans of the vivid new hues being created for fashion and print design. Little did they know at the time that many pigments and dyes were created using the poisonous toxin arsenic.

The rich colours of the pigments were so popular that, by the mid-19th Century, manufacturers were producing millions of rolls of arsenic-laced wallpaper, which had tragic consequences for factory workers and those living in homes decorated with the deadly designs.

In Bitten by Witch Fever, writer Lucinda Hawksley explores the fascinating history of the use of arsenic in textiles and wallpapers. The book is beautifully made, with 275 wallpaper designs from the Victorian period printed full-bleed in all their glory, interspersed with half-width pages of text. It features designs by William Morris, Christopher Dresser, Jeffrey & Co (now Cole & Son) and Charles Knowles & Co. (now Sanderson). Every original wallpaper sample in the book has been laboratory tested by The National Archives, Kew, and found to contain arsenic.

Also the cover features an ornate botanical pattern, subtly debossed with the impression of a bottle of poison, and a skull and cross bones printed with gold foil.

Bitten by Witch Fever: Wallpaper & Arsenic in the Victorian Home is published by Thames & Hudson and The National Archives, Kew.