PRESERVATION OF WALLPAPERS AS PARTS OF INTERIORS

Historic types of wallpaper and decorative schemes of interiors
During the conservation, the object was divided into smaller
and larger panels and pasted onto a layer of canvas stretched
on wooden frames. It is housed in the Estonian History Museum
in Tallinn.
The panoramic wallpaper “Renaud et Armide”, produced
by the French manufacturer Dufour starting in 1831, 146 used to
cover the walls of a room in the Meeri manor. It was detected in
a historical photo. (Fig. 48) Since the same design was reissued
by Desfossé and Karth in the second half of the 19th century, it
is not possible to say how old the panoramic wallpaper of the
Meeri manor is exactly. Unfortunately, no physical evidence of
the wallpaper has survived. It is possible that the wallpapers
and other decorative details were damaged during major construction
work in the 1950s.
As mentioned above, fashionable interior decoration in
Estonia was influenced by trends from Central Europe and Russia.
One of the most celebrated wallpaper manufacturers in the
Russian Empire at the beginning of the 19th century was the
Tsarskoje Selo wallpaper factory. Previously, it had been the
Imperial Wallpaper Factory and was located in Ropsha. 147 Its
wallpapers have been characterized as abundant and stylish.
Since the quality of its products fulfilled the high expectations
of architects, the wallpapers were often used in public and private
rooms. Besides the Tsarskoje Selo Wallpaper Factory, there
were a number of smaller wallpaper workshops. The Russian
wallpapers reached Estonia, especially Tallinn, at the beginning
of the 19th century. 148
In the first half of the 19th century, the number of different
styles within which historicism operated varied. In comparison
to other historicist styles, Neo-Gothic was the most directly
connected to the formation of new principles of room 149 and
interior decoration in Estonia.
146
Nouvel-Kammerer, French Scenic Wallpapers 1795–1865, 268.
147
“The Banknotes Factory” , Saint Petersburg Encyclopaedia, accessed June 21, 2013,
http://www.encspb.ru/object/2855743646?lc=en.
148
Софиа Пантелеева, Исторические бумажние обои – начала века в интерьере старого Таллинна.
бакалавская работа. (Таллинн,Таллинскии Педагогический Университет, 1997), 14–15.
149
Hein, Eesti mõisaarhitektuur. Historitsismist juugendini, 28.
88