Step 1 of 5

The first deception

Wallpaper in archive of Erfgoed Leiden en Omstreken - BHG00017

Wallpaper in archive of Erfgoed Leiden en Omstreken - BHG00017

Hanging from the easel here is a wallpaper fragment. It’s the first form of deception in this story: the wallpaper looks like it’s made of marble, and it looks like it’s really there.

Except it’s not marble. And, we didn’t hang the fragment from the easel: it was the magic of Photoshop. When we took this picture of the space, the wall paper was safely tucked away in the paper archive of Erfgoed Leiden en Omstreken (Leiden Area Heritage). The wallpaper was made around the year 1850, the marble wall in the background dates from around 1650. Real or artificial, marble’s popularity seems to be remain timeless.