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Bitten by Witch Fever
Bitten by Witch Fever: Wallpaper and Arsenic in the Nineteenth-Century Home | Lucinda Hawksley
10 posts | 6 read | 14 to read
'As to the arsenic scare a greater folly it is hardly possible to imagine: the doctors were bitten as people were bitten by the witch fever.' -- William Morris on toxic wallpapers, 1885. Bitten by Witch Fever presents facsimile samples of 275 of the most sumptuous wallpaper designs ever created by designers and printers of the age, including Christopher Dresser and Morris & Co. For the first time in their history, every one of the samples shown has been laboratory tested and found to contain arsenic. Interleaved with the wallpaper sections, evocative commentary guides you through the incredible story of the manufacture, uses and effects of arsenic, and presents the heated public debate surrounding the use of deadly pigments in the sublime wallpapers of a newly industrialized world.
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Linsy
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#SuperSeptember Goals:
🩸 finish The Book Eaters
☠️ start this lovely book!
🌿 read Nettle & Bone
📚 catch up on Arabian Nights

@Andrew65

rachaich Gorgeous cover 😍😍 2y
ShelleyBooksie Beautiful cover 2y
Andrew65 Good luck. 😁 2y
65 likes3 comments
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Redwritinghood
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#7Days7Covers #CoverCrush

Day 1

Seven covers in seven days with no explanation and tag someone new everyday. @marleed - do you have any favorite covers? Thanks for the tag @mklong !

mklong Love it! 5y
LeahBergen I love this cover (and have been sorely tempted by it at the bookshop 😆). 5y
Redwritinghood @LeahBergen The inside is gorgeous too. 5y
62 likes3 comments
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caitfish4311
Mehso-so

This book is good for what it is. A quick read about the presence of arsenic in everyday items during the Victorian period, especially in wallpaper. There are many examples of this wallpaper interspersed between chapters. It is a visually lovely book, but I guess I feel like it was more style than substance.

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jesslovestype
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Pickpick

So beautiful I might have to buy my own copy. 🌿 #wallpaper #patterns

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CherylDeFranceschi
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I'm still smitten with Bitten. #flowersonthecover #feistyfeb

Hobbinol Wow! That looks like an exquisite book...with an unnerving undertaste! 8y
LauraJ Gorgeous cover and it sounds like a great book. To the stack it goes! 8y
90 likes5 stack adds2 comments
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mwgerard
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So good

2 likes1 stack add
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Redwritinghood
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Pickpick

This was a really pretty and interesting book, containing bright, colorful reproductions of Victorian era wallpapers. Interspersed between the reproductions were chapters on the manufacture of arsenic and its use in medicine, clothing and home furnishings. Later chapters surrounded the controversy regarding whether arsenic was truly poisonous and should be banned, and then the rise of arsenic-free wallpaper. Pretty to look at and educational.

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CherylDeFranceschi
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A few flower covers. #FunFridayPhoto

RiotMom I have title dyslexia with this one and every single time I see "Written By Bitch Fever" ? 8y
75 likes2 comments
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Redwritinghood
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Pretty #bookmail!

LectricSheep That books sounds awesome! 8y
46 likes3 stack adds1 comment
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CherylDeFranceschi
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Why yes. This is my incredible new book by Thames & Hudson about Victorian wallpaper made with poisonous arsenic. It has samples of all the wallpapers with teeny tiny inset chapters and I can't even tell you how gorgeous it is! But I do feel awfully funny after running my hands all over the wallpaper samples...

MrBook Nice! 8y
readordierachel Pretty! 8y
Texreader Amazing! Very cool. 8y
See All 8 Comments
Redwritinghood This is how Litsy is sometimes bad for me. I just went and bought this book after seeing your post. It looks gorgeous! 8y
LeahBergen Wow! 😍 8y
CherylDeFranceschi @Redwritinghood It is so beautiful! If you don't love it, I'll make it up to you somehow! Everyone at the store was SO jealous! 8y
Redwritinghood @CherylDeFranceschi I'm sure it will be worth it. 8y
79 likes4 stack adds8 comments