Stunning New Editions of Jane Austen's Books Feature Wallpaper From Her Hampshire Home

The new edition of Emma features Chawton Leaf wallpaper, a design which was found in Austen's dining room, where she handwrote her stories. (See the original pattern here.) According to Hamilton Weston, "This design has been recreated from fragments of wallpaper discovered behind cupboard panelling in the Dining Room. The leaf is thought to be inspired by a type of Dead Nettle or Lamium, such as Lamium Maculatum. Outlined in white, the focal colour is a bright 'arsenic' green, which was very popular in the early 19th Century."

Pride and Prejudice features the Chawton Vine design, which is now in the drawing room of Austen's home. As the Jane Austen House notes, the "fragments of historic wallpaper were discovered in the Drawing Room in the late 1940s, when Jane Austen’s House was being turned into a museum. They were found on the plaster covering a bricked-up window, now hidden behind Rev Austen’s Bookcase." (See original wallpaper here.)

The new edition of Sense and Sensibility uses the Apprentice Ribbon Trellis & Chawton Rosebud Moire pattern, which was found in the family room shutter boxes (see the original fragments here), which was likely featured in Jane's bedroom. "The Ribbon (Apprentice) Trellis wallpaper decorated Jane Austen’s bedroom and original pieces of this wallpaper can still be seen in the room’s window shutter boxes," Hamilton Weston explained. "We were able to faithfully recreate the original design for this room too. The Austen family was quite poor when moving to Chawton and Jane’s chosen bedroom wallpaper design was somehow incorrectly printed and therefore less expensive. Wallpaper was a costly item and heavily taxed in this period."