PRESERVATION OF WALLPAPERS AS PARTS OF INTERIORS

Methods of wallpaper production and mounting
2.5. CONCLUSION
The first thing we notice in a wallpaper is its aesthetic appearance.
However, besides its pattern, wallpaper has several additional
properties, which may not be noticed at first glance. The
used materials, method of production and mounting define the
main physical properties of a wallpaper, and therefore play
an important role in conservation planning. In addition, these
aspects may indicate the origin and age of an object.
The method of mounting connects a wallpaper with the
rest of an interior and helps to form a unity. Since a wallpaper
should be handled as an integral part of an interior, the method
of mounting forms a bridge between a separate object and an
interior.
As Cesare Brandi has emphasized, not only the material
form of a work of art is restored. 237 Besides maintaining the
values (e.g. artistic and historical) attributed to an object, the
conservator should evaluate the physical condition of an object
and consolidate it.
The type and properties of the original mounting method
indicate the safest way a wallpaper can be removed from its
original location. Commonly, the method of mounting depended
on the properties of the wall and the object itself. Several types
of damage might have been caused by a certain method of
mounting. To avoid the re-occurrence of the damage, the original
method should be changed or improved.
237
Cesare Brandi, Theory of Restoration, ed. Giuseppe Basile (Firenze: Nardini Editore,
2005), 51.
136