PRESERVATION OF WALLPAPERS AS PARTS OF INTERIORS

Preservation of wallpaper as a part of interiors
account for the frequency with which wallpapers are lined. 373
Materials used for lining should have a suitable thickness and
weight; most commonly thick long-fibred japanese papers (of
Kozo or Gampi fibres) are used. Wheat or rice starch paste are
the usually preferred adhesives. (Fig. 96)
Although there is more than one method of lining, the technique
applied to the wallpapers treated by the author under the
supervision of Markus Krön will be described. For this purpose,
the wallpaper was placed face down on a layer of Hollytex and
humidified with a hake brush or a pulverizer until the object
lay flat. To avoid possible tension in either the original or lining,
and to make the work easier on large format objects, the
lining was applied piece by piece, with maximum one-cm overlaps.
(Fig. 97) After a piece of lining-paper had been pasted, it
was brushed and taped to the verso side of the wallpaper with
a wide pasting brush, a noribake or uchibake, which are hard
Japanese brushes made from the fibres of a hemp palm tree.
(Fig. 98) The object was dried face up between a layer of Hollytex
and felt under weights. Such a technique is preferred for
large, unwieldy and fragile papers or when using several sheets
to make up the lining. 374
Lining has the following positive properties:
– it provides a severely damaged and fragmented wallpaper
with additional structural support, which allows
for transportation and further preservation treatments
(such as retouching, toning and mounting), storing or
exhibiting.
– it provides a protective layer between a wallpaper and
an additional material (the shoji system – discussed
later), canvas, lining-paper etc. used for mounting.
– it improves aesthetic properties by flattening the object
and reducing its dimensional movements.
– it reduces creasing, cockling and fill losses. 375
373
Ibidem.
374
Ibidem.
375
Ibidem.
200