PRESERVATION OF WALLPAPERS AS PARTS OF INTERIORS

Methodological conclusions
If a well-preserved wallpaper needs to be dismounted and
cannot be returned to its original location, it can be preserved
either in an archive or in a new location.
The most common cause for reusing a historic wallpaper is
its significance: it may be considered significant for its design,
method of execution, history or origin, which means that it needs
to be exhibited. Reused wallpapers create a different unity with
other decorative details. It is not the original historic setting, but
a historicizing solution, which aims to imitate and transmit certain
information. Such wallpapers require a stylistically matching
environment. Thus, prior to developing a preservation concept,
it is necessary to research analogue wall covers and their use
in interiors. The new result should not create a stylistic conflict
between existing decorative details and the new wallpaper.
Both of the chinoiserie wall covers from the Esterhazy Palace
can be categorized as reused wallpapers. In the case of panels
depicting blooming trees and exotic birds, the wallpaper had
been used twice, in the 1960s and in 2012, to create a decorative
scheme. Although both of them could be considered new
decorative schemes, they sought to follow certain principles of
historic decoration and exhibit the significant wall covers in a
suitable environment. As mentioned above, if an object has a
history of relocation, it can be relocated again. Thus breaking
the setting from the 1960s should not be seen as a destructive
solution, since the original setting had already been broken.
That means that the existing scheme may have been an unsuitable
solution. Although altering an existing situation might
seem to be undesirable, situations have a certain tendency to
change.
Seven small painted silk wall covers found in the archive of
the Esterhazy Palace were used to re-create the chinoiserie writing
room of the Esterhazy princesses. Since the historical descriptions
of the room referred only to the themes depicted on the wall covers,
a new decorative conception needed to be created according
to available analogues. The solution helped to restore the original
function of the object, to emphasize its artistic and historical value
and to restore the original conception of the room. Similarly to
291