Literature

Nigel Henderson & Eduardo Paolozzi
Hammer Prints Ltd, 1954-75
p.92

One of the four original designs, Coalface is similar to an early wallpaper design that was illustrated in The Architectural Review in October 1952. As with several Hammer Prints wallpapers developed in 1954 or early 1955, the design bears a close relationship to the semi-abstract close-up photographs that Henderson took on the streets of London in early 1950s. According to Paolozzi, the imagery described a 'lid of a tea chest engraved and worked upon with red-hot wires to form a design which would evoke the world of geological stratifications and form a background to modern living.