Wallpaper might be an interior design trend that is coming back into style, but no matter how big it gets, wallpaper will never be as popular as it was in England in the 19th century. In fact, it's fair to say that during the Victorian era, Great Britain went wallpaper mad. Between 1834 and 1874, sales of wallpaper rose by more than 2,600%, resulting in more than 32 million rolls being sold every year. From the lower middle class to Buckingham Palace, everyone was covering their walls in garishly colorful rolls.
The technical innovation that gave rise to England's wallpaper fever? Arsenic. Or, rather, arsenic-based pigments that had suddenly made uniquely colorful wallpapers not just possible, but affordable to almost anyone. But such wallpapers could come at a far deeper cost than money: vomiting, diarrhea, convulsions, and even death. No one knows for certain how many people died because of arsenic poisoning in wallpaper, but thousands of possible cases were reported. A new book from Thames & Hudson, Bitten by Witch Fever, examines the uniquely beautiful—and uniquely deadly—wallpaper designs of the 19th century.