PRESERVATION OF WALLPAPERS AS PARTS OF INTERIORS

Historic types of wallpaper and decorative schemes of interiors
a panelling at the height of the chair-rail. 155 The rest of the wall
should be either painted, stuccoed or covered by a wallpaper.
With very few exceptions, the public rooms were either
painted or covered with stucco or marble. Similarly to in Central
European countries, in Estonia, decorators implemented the
principal of “wise choice”, apparently determined by international
trends. This meant that every room could be decorated in
a different style, for example a study in “old English” style or as
a workshop of Faust, a lady’s boudoir à la Marquis Pompadour,
a bathroom influenced by the Venetian or Turkish style, and a
dining room in Renaissance style or Zopf-style. 156 For example,
according to the available photo material, the walls of numerous
masculine rooms, such as studies and smoking rooms, were
covered with wallpapers depicting ethnographic patterns. The
gentlemen’s smoking- room of the Lustivere manor (Fig. 49),
as well as the salon of the Paunküla manor (Fig. 50), were covered
with busy Moroccan patterns. The fragments found in the
study of Count von Manteuffel in the Puurmani manor depict
segments of colourful American Indian textiles.
Not much information about the production of wallpapers
in Estonia has been found. However, according to an archival
document dating back to 7 April 1878, the enterprise “Thomas
Clayhills and Sons” was given permission to open a wallpaper
factory in a villa belonging to Baron Arthur Girard de Soucanton
in Pärnu Road in Tallinn. 157 (Fig. 51)
Despite thorough research, not much has been discovered
about the products of the wallpaper factory. However it is certain
that two methods, printing with manually controlled machines
and block-printing, 158 were used to produce wallpapers.
In documents dating back to 1880–1883, the name of the
factory Revaler Tapeten Fabrik appears for the first time. The
155
Ibidem.
156
Hein, Eesti mõisaarhitektuur. Historitsismist juugendini, 117.
157
Eestimaa kubermanguvalitsuse luba 7. aprillil 1877. a. Tallinna kaubamajale “Thomas
Clayhills & Sons” avada Pärnu mnt. Artur Girardi villas tapeedivabrik, Estonian
Historical Archives (thereafter EAA), coll. 4924, inv. 1, no. 5499.
158
Eestimaa kubermanguvalitsuse luba 7. aprillil 1877. a. Tallinna kaubamajale “Thomas
Clayhills & Sons” avada Pärnu mnt. Artur Girardi villas tapeedivabrik, EAA coll. 4924, in
v. 1, no. 5499.
91