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Overview
This Canadian wallpaper design features diverse life on the sea floor, and would have decorated a bathroom in the 1950s-60s.
It came from the collection of Wellington residents Ray and Betty Weeber. Ray and his father Gordon worked independently as interior decorators in Wellington during much of the twentieth century. Gordon Weeber started the business around 1919, and it was carried on by his son Ray into the 1970s. The colourful and attractive designs of the wallpapers belie the hours of hard graft in gluing and hanging them, at times perched on ladders and planks.
Wallpaper had been popular in New Zealand homes since the nineteenth century, but increased in availability and colourful design in the 1950s. Papers were both imported and made in New Zealand, with locally-made papers becoming increasingly available in the 1960s. Wallpaper was either installed by experienced decorators such as the Weebers, or as DIY (do-it-yourself) projects.