PRESERVATION OF WALLPAPERS AS PARTS OF INTERIORS

Methodological conclusions
enable a conservator to understand the architectural changes
carried out in a building and to create an appropriate preservation
concept.
Since a conservator might not be knowledgeable about all
the aspects of a conservation project, it is important to include
specialists from other fields. Depending on the object, issues concerned
with its preservation and its environment, the array of
specialists who should be included in the discussion may be very
wide. For example, to research the history of an object and its
relation to other decorative details, an (art) historian should be
included. In co-operation with an interior designer or architect,
an appropriate decoration scheme which takes all the decorative
details into consideration can be developed. While planning
the order of the work done by various specialists, consulting a
building-manager may be necessary.
Similarly to any other material, the conservation process
of historic wallpapers aims to consolidate their physical condition
and improve their aesthetic properties. Depending on the
conservation concept and its expected result, different conservation
methods and principles can be used. Most paper conservation
methods can be applied to conserve historic wallpapers.
However, since wallpapers form parts of interiors and should
be aesthetically appealing, it is sometimes necessary to implement
methods usually used in related fields, for example in the
conservation of painted surfaces. These methods most commonly
include the consolidation of printed/painted surfaces
and retouching.
To show the possibility of applying the methodological
guidelines to a very wide range of objects, the author chose
eight historic wallpapers in various stages of decay. Preservation
issues of each object were discussed in separate case studies
at the end of the thesis.
Six of the objects were conserved under the supervision of
Markus Krön from the Institut für Papierrestaurierug in Vienna
and two were conserved independently. A number of supplementary
wallpaper conservation projects carried out by other
conservators in Estonia, Finland, Croatia and Germany were
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