Suzanne Lipschutz was, by some accounts, a crazy bohemian lady from New York who scoured the earth for forgotten wall coverings that nobody else wanted. In a 2012 interview with Nowness, Lipschutz said: “Finding wallpaper, there’s nothing I love more. I could sniff it out anywhere; I could ride through a strange town and tell by the building if it had wallpaper in it.”  We guess. Over her 50 year career, she discovered some 50,000 rolls of rare and antique paper.

A blog by MessyNessy talked about the remarkable Suzanne Lipschutz who opened her first New York store, “Secondhand Rose” in the 1960s. Her walk-in customers included John Lennon, Woody Allen, Barbara Streisand, Madonna, Martha Stewart and Peewee Herman, while her wallpapers were used in movies and television for decades. In 1991, she donated a large number of swatches from her collection to the Cooper-Hewitt Design Museum, and after 45 years, she closed her retail store. The good news is that all her vintage wallpapers are still for sale are available to view online. You can also make an appointment to look at the sample books at her New York apartment. What we most value are the “doggie” gems that Lipschutz found. Check out the blog here to see more (and don’t miss the Poodles in Paris).