PRESERVATION OF WALLPAPERS AS PARTS OF INTERIORS

Discussing principles of conservation
research. To minimize the risk of misinterpretation, professionals
from various areas should be included in the research
and decision making. Regardless of how good the conservation
and management are, or how efficient the project systems and
procedures are, success depends upon the proficiency of expert
consultants. 261 In addition, conservators should be involved in
the initial design of any project in the same way as architects,
heating engineers and planning officers. 262
Since the use of wallpapers has not been thoroughly researched
in Estonia so far, numerous conservation decisions may ignore
the option of including them in a conservation project. This is
due to the lack of specialized professionals who could draw
more attention to historic wall covers.
Even if the importance of wallpapers is acknowledged, they
might be excluded from the conservation conception. It is sometimes
alarming that surfaces that have never been painted before
are puttied and painted; the final conception should depend
on the amount of surviving material as well as the function of
a room. Nowadays, historic layers are frequently exhibited as
fragments, instead of re-creating a historic whole. In the opinion
of the author, more effort should be put into interpreting the
signs left by various decorative means. If walls that have obviously
been papered before are painted instead, a completely new
perception of the environment is created. Such solutions lead
to misconceptions about the versatility of local historic interiors
and create a certain image of what is historically accurate
and what is not.
Although wallpapers are found, collected and basically
documented, the information is very seldom used to develop a
corresponding conservation conception. Despite the gradually
increasing inclination to integrate wallpapers into historic interiors,
consideration is seldom given to historic wall schemes or
to patterns characteristic to a certain period.
261
Edwards, “Conserving Cardiff Castle...”, 88.
262
Curteis, “Working Buildings:...”, 56.
147