Conservation of the Damask Wall Coverings in the Boudoir at Arlington Court by May Berkouwer Conservation

Bulletin 1: Exciting Findings in April 2019

The conservation treatment of the beautiful wall coverings has been long in the planning, and finally started in April. We have always known that the fabric is extremely special, and this is the reason for the conservation treatment. Our work so far has revealed more interesting details that show just how exceptional these furnishings really are. We would like to share some of these findings with you.

The Fabric The silk fabric on three walls of the Boudoir is of exquisite quality and would, in its day, have cost an absolute fortune. The design is delicate and elaborate, and includes imagery of flowers, garlands, strings of pearls, pairs of doves, butterflies and maybugs.

Part of the design of the Boudoir silk wall coverings.

All this detail was woven into the fabric which superficially looks like a damask but is, in fact, a more complex weave called ‘’, which allows for more elaborate pattern details. The fabric has an unusually long design repeat, which extends the full height of the room without repetition. The fabric was probably woven in Lyon, France, around 1780’s on an 18th century handloom and just setting this up the design would have been a very lengthy process.

The Pattern Repeat The design continues over the joins of the fabric widths, which need to be joined up precisely. To assist with the cutting and alignment each pattern repeat starts with an area of plain pattern weave. We have found the base of this plain-woven area, but not the finish; meaning that the pattern repeat is longer than 365 cm!

The base of the pattern repeat is in pink weave, and a white horizontal line.

The Colours The fabric has been exposed to light for almost two hundred years and now appears pink with the design in white and a vaguely cream colour, . Examining the unfaded areas along the lower edges show that in fact it featured pale yellow details in the flowers and birds, and pale green in the leaves. This would have complemented the green and gold detailing on the columns perfectly!

A hint of yellow details can be seen in the birds

Pale green details in the leaves, in the unfaded lower edge

Beneath the skirting boards, the unfaded lower edge can be seen, with pale green tones matching the pilasters.

2 May Berkouwer Textile Conservation: National Trust, Arlington Court, Conservation of the silk in the Boudoir Previous Use of this Silk Fabric We found evidence to show that this fabric was used somewhere else before being installed in the Boudoir around 1831. There are pairs of tack holes spanning a fold which also shows a pattern of soiling unrelated to its current position. It is not yet known where it hung previously, but whoever installed here was highly accomplished and did so with great care.

Positioning the Fabric on the walls The wall covering is made up of twenty widths of fabric all joined together before application, by fine hand stitching. In order to get the coverings to fit the walls perfectly and symmetrically, the locations of the joins were carefully planned and marked out in pencil along the lower edge of the walls.

At the 28” mark is a small pencil mark as guidance to position the seam joins

3 May Berkouwer Textile Conservation: National Trust, Arlington Court, Conservation of the silk in the Boudoir

Fine stitching around the Jib Doors This room has two jib doors which are difficult to cover without distorting the fabric. The door opening was cut and secured on to red silk ribbon tape; the ribbon was then attached to the door returns. The outer cut edge of the silk fabric was secured onto the ribbon by the finest overstitching with tiny stitches which have successfully prevented any fraying since installation: they made approximately 20 stitches to the cm, that is 50 to the inch!

This is the edge finish of the jib door, showing the fine pink silk overstitching on the right outer edge; left of this is the vertical line of stitching holding the silk ribbon fixing.

We hope this background information and detailed findings will allow you to admire these beautiful wall coverings even more.

In the next instalment we will tell you about the support treatment of the damaged areas.

May Berkouwer ACR April 2019

4 May Berkouwer Textile Conservation: National Trust, Arlington Court, Conservation of the silk in the Boudoir