PRESERVATION OF WALLPAPERS AS PARTS OF INTERIORS

Historic types of wallpaper and decorative schemes of interiors
1.5. WALLPAPERS IN ESTONIAN INTERIORS
Although very few papered interiors in Estonia have been preserved
and thoroughly researched, a rather good overview of
19th-century room decoration can be gained from the photo
collections kept in the archives and museums of Tallinn, Tartu
and elsewhere.
Exemplary photo collections depicting local interiors can
be found, for example, in the Estonian National Museum (Eesti
Rahvamuuseum), the Estonian Historical Archives (Eesti Ajalooarhiiv),
the Photo Museum of the Tallinn City Museum (Tallinna
Linnamuuseum) and in the Photo Archive in Marburg, Germany
(Deutsches Dokumentationszentrum Bildarchiv Foto Marburg).
According to the available photographic material, local interiors
were mainly formed by influences from German-speaking
countries and Russia.
Almost all Estonian towns and rural areas were extensively
damaged during the Great Northern War (1700–1721). As Boriss
Šeremetjevil, a marshal of the Russian imperial army in 1702,
wrote, “there was nothing else to be destroyed; everything is broken
and demolished”. 129 As a result, no intact interior, especially
not with original wall covers, preceding the war has survived.
Although as a rule the construction of city residences did not
recover until the 1740s and 1750s, 130 there were a small number of
imperial buildings that were erected at the beginning of the 18th
century. The best example is the Palace of Kadriorg in Tallinn,
erected by the Italian architect Niccolo Michetti. Although no
original wall covers have survived in situ, it is known that the
walls were covered with green, striped and patterned textiles in
honour of Catherine II, who visited Kadriorg in 1764. 131 (Fig. 34)
According to a description, the textiles were mounted on the walls
with carved and gilded cornices and decorative corner pieces.
Since hardly any Rococo interiors have survived intact in
Estonia, it is hard to give an overview of the spread of the style,
129
Ants Hein,“Mõisaarhitektuur 18. sajandi algul ja keskpaigas” in Eesti Kunsti Ajalugu II
1520–1770, ed. by Krista Kodres (Tallinn: Eesti Kunstiakadeemia, 2005), 230.
130
Ants Hein, Eesti mõisaarhitektuur. Historitsismist juugendini, 15.
131
Kodres, Ilus maja, kaunis ruum, 110.
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