PRESERVATION OF WALLPAPERS AS PARTS OF INTERIORS

Introduction
STRUCTURE OF THE THESIS
The introductory chapter presents an explanation of the structure
of the thesis, the conservation task, its aims and the choice
of research objects. It also gives an overview of the methodology
and sources used to compile the work.
In the first chapter, a closer look will be given to different
decorative wall schemes specific to particular eras, rooms or wallpaper
types. The thesis will not cover the entire history of wallpaper
or all possible decorative schemes, but rather the period during
which the eight chosen objects were created: from the middle
of the 18th century until the beginning of the 20th century. The
main focus is on the principles of wall decoration of trend-setting
European countries, such as England, France and Germany. They
represent fashionable decoration ideas implemented in Estonian
interiors, which will also be briefly discussed.
The second chapter addresses various materials and historic
methods of wallpaper production. The author will describe both
manual and automatic techniques applied to produce wallpapers
during the aforementioned period. For a better understanding
of applying wallpapers to walls, different historic mounting
methods are discussed.
Modern principles of conservation theory are analysed in
the third chapter. Various directions of conservation methodology
– preservation, conservation, restoration and reconstruction
– are discussed in relation to the preservation of historic
wallpapers.
The fourth chapter deals with practical issues concerning
the preservation of wallpapers in interiors. Firstly, various
damages and their causes are discussed. Secondly, different
stages of the conservation process are described. The thesis
aims to discuss all of the main methods of preserving historic
wallpapers in interiors. They include methods applied to wallpapers
preserved in situ and wallpapers treated in workshops.
To address the described conservation techniques, the author
consulted with one of her supervisors, Markus Krön, and other
experts working in this field.
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