PRESERVATION OF WALLPAPERS AS PARTS OF INTERIORS

Task of conservation. Case studies
It was necessary to choose a matching method of reconstruction.
Screen-printing, linocut and digital printing were
considered as possible options.
It was decided to use the latter for the following reasons.
Screen-printing and linocut are both very laborious, time-consuming
and expensive means of printing: it is necessary to prepare
a frame or a linoblock for each separate colour, and mix and
test printing inks in matching colours. Furthermore, both of the
techniques leave a rather thick layer of paint and a fine relief on
the paper, which is characteristic to a block-printed wallpaper.
Digital printing, on the other hand, is less demanding in terms of
time and effort, and it can imitate the visual properties of patina
and decay, which makes it easier to match the reconstructions
with an original. However, in comparison to manually printed
wallpaper, digital prints appear flatter and more lifeless.
To prepare the reconstructions, a strip of damaged wallpaper,
border and corner-piece that had been removed from the
wall earlier were scanned in, retouched digitally, joined into a
repeating pattern and printed as separate parts onto a matte
paper with an inkjet printer. Since it was not possible to print
glossy metallic surfaces, golden highlights and details of the border
and corner pieces were stencilled by hand. The colour scale
of the reconstructions was left slightly colder to distinguish new
parts from the original.
The space between the original and the ceiling cornice was
filled with a beige wallpaper covered with a slightly checkered
pattern, which imitated the texture of a textile or embroidery.
The tone of the wallpaper was chosen according to the light
background tone of the original.
The monochromatic paper strips framing the borders had
been scratched and covered with splashes of lime paint. To bind
the composition of reconstructed and original pieces, a handmade
reconstruction of monochrome paper was placed on top
of the original. The original had previously been pasted over
with a Japanese paper 417 to protect the original from further
417
Gampi 36 g/m 2 .
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