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Abstract
Textiles occupy a paradoxical position in historic house interiors. Once one of the most significant elements in many decorative schemes, they have slipped down the hierarchy of decorative art objects, partly because of modern perceptions of textiles, partly because of their dual aesthetic and functional roles and partly because, if not properly cared for, they become faded, dingy, holey, unstable, ‘unworthy’ echoes of their former selves. This article examines the impact that degradation has on textiles and how they are perceived, focusing on colour, surface, texture, lustre and completeness, previous interventions and conservation strategies. It explores changing attitudes to visible degradation — fading, losses, holes, alterations, repairs — and considers how curators and conservators may engage with these complex changes and their implications when planning interpretative and interventive strategies in historic interiors. It considers how recent developments in conservation theory and practice can contribute to this ongoing challenge for display and interpretation.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Tara Hamling and Catherine Richardson for inviting me to join the AHRC network ‘Ways of Seeing the English Domestic Interior 1500–1700’, and colleagues in that network for stimulating inter-disciplinary discussions. Thanks are also due to the anonymous peer reviewers for their thoughtful and constructive comments and to the editors for their helpful feedback.
Notes
1 Sir Richard Sullivan (1752–1806) made a tour of England, Scotland and Wales. He became an MP and a Fellow of both the Society of Antiquaries and the Royal Society; T. Cooper, revised R. Mills, ‘Sullivan, Sir Richard Joseph, first baronet (1752–1806)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Online, 2008). Available from: http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/26778 [Accessed: 22 October 2015].
2 R. J. Sullivan, Observations Made during a Tour through Parts of England, Scotland, and Wales, in a Series of Letters (London: Becket, 1780), p. 111. Topographus’s scathing review, claiming that Sullivan had not visited all the places he described and listing many inaccuracies, should be noted; Topographus, ‘Critique of the second edition of Sullivan’s Tour’, The Gentleman’s Magazine, lvi, part 1 (1789), pp. 45–48.
3 J. Austen, Pride and Prejudice (London: Oxford University Press, 1948, first published 1813), p. 232.
4 Ibid., pp. 239–40.
5 Ibid., p. 235.
6 B. Jacobs, Axminster Carpets (Hand-made) 1755–1957 (Leigh-on-Sea: F. Lewis, 1970), p. 38 and pl. 43.
7 S. H. Anderson, The Most Splendid Carpet (Philadelphia: National Park Service, 1978), p. 26.
8 The Story of Abraham tapestries were woven in the workshop of Willem Pannemaker, possibly after designs by Pieter Cocke van Aelst; The Story of Abraham Series, 1540–1543, 770 × 482 cm, Royal Collections Trust, London, RCIN 1046 (Online). Available from: http://www.royalcollection.org.uk/ collection/1046/the-story-of-abraham-series [Accessed: 24 March 2014].
9 M. Miers, ‘Balmoral: a Highland paradise’, Country Life (Online, 8 March 2012). Available from: http://www.countrylife.co.uk/countryside/article/529681/Balmoral-A-Highland-paradise.html#R7rAKdjmb3d8goG5.99 [Accessed: 25 March 2014].
10 Ninian Home bought Paxton House from his cousin Patrick Home in 1773.
11 The Paxton House invoice of 7 June 1774 also includes 36 yards of lace billed at £6 and 24 yards of fringe billed at £1 12s; C. Gilbert, The Life and Work of Thomas Chippendale (London: Studio Vista, 1978), p. 274.
12 Nostell Priory Dolls’ House, attributed to Thomas Chippendale, c. 1735–1745, 212 × 191.7 × 76.2 cm, Nostell Priory, West Yorkshire, inv. no. 959710; G. Jackson-Stops ed., The Treasure Houses of Britain: Five Hundred Years of Patronage and Art Collecting (New Haven and London: National Gallery of Art, Washington and Yale University Press), pp. 661–63.
13 Letter 59A/B to Sir Andrew Sinclair, 1607, ms Harleian 7003, fol. 45, British Library, London; S. J. Steen ed., Letters of Lady Arbella Stuart (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994), pp. 52 and 239.
14 Anon., Guide to Ladies, Gentlewomen & Maids ... (London: Dorman Newman, 1668), p. 14. Attributed, probably incorrectly, to Hannah Woolley; see E. Hobby, Virtue of Necessity: English Women’s Writing 1640–88 (London: Virago, 1988), pp. 166–75.
15 R. K. Marshall, The Days of Duchess Anne: Life in the Household of the Duchess of Hamilton, 1656–1716 (East Linton: Tuckwell Press, 2000), p. 252.
16 N. Mander and K. Mander, Owlpen Manor. Gloucestershire (Owlpen: Owlpen Press, 2006), p. 21.
17 The note was possibly written by Anne Brookes who may have been a descendant of the embroiderer; see M. M. Brooks, English Embroideries of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries in the Collection of the Ashmolean Museum (Oxford and London: Ashmolean Museum / Jonathan Horne Publications, 2004), pp. 41–43.
18 Walpole’s appreciation of textiles is shown by, for example, his 1781 purchase of a large tapestry map of Warwickshire commissioned in the late 1580s by Ralph Sheldon for his house in Long Compton; Tapestry, wool and silk, c. 1588, 390 × 510 cm, Warwickshire Museum Service, Warwick. See J. Bate and D. Thornton, Shakespeare: Staging the World (London: British Museum Press, 2012), pp. 60–63.
19 Horace Walpole to Lady Ossory, 17 September 1785, in W. S. Lewis et al. eds, Horace Walpole’s Correspondence, xxxiii (London: Oxford University Press / New Haven: Yale University Press, 1937–1983), p. 500. A ‘sippet’ was a small piece of bread, sometimes toasted or fried, which was dipped into soup or gravy.
20 Horace Walpole to Reverend William Mason, 29 July 1773, in Lewis et al. eds, Walpole’s Correspondence, xxviii, pp. 101–02.
21 M. Girouard, Hardwick Hall (London: The National Trust, 1989), pp. 42–44.
22 Francis Lapierre (active 1683–d. 1714) was an émigré French upholsterer; Girouard, Hardwick Hall, p. 59.
23 Horace Walpole to George Montagu, 1 September 1760, in Lewis et al. eds, Walpole’s Correspondence, ix, pp. 101–02.
24 J. Mitford, Works of Thomas Gray. Letters, iii (London: William Pickering, 1835), p. 300, quoted in National Trust, Hardwick Hall, Derbyshire (London: National Trust, 2013), p. 66.
25 L. Boynton and P. Thornton, ‘The Hardwick Hall inventory of 1601’, Furniture History, vii (1971), p. 9.
26 Girouard, Hardwick Hall, pp. 40 and 73; National Trust, Hardwick Hall, p. 25.
27 National Trust, Hardwick Hall, p. 66. Marian embroideries survive at Oxburgh Hall, Norfolk, the Royal Collection Trust, Palace of Holyroodhouse, Edinburgh and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
28 The room’s name may derive from panelling bearing Mary’s coat of arms. This was possibly brought from Chatsworth and installed at Hardwick in 1690; Girouard, Hardwick Hall, pp. 73, 25.
29 The first Lord Edgcumbe, a friend of Horace Walpole, furnished Cotehele in ‘a consciously antique style’ in the 1730s; English Heritage Listing Summary (Online, 2001). Available from: http://list.english-heritage.org.uk/resultsingle.aspx?uid=1000648 [Accessed: 20 March 2014].
30 H. Tetley, ‘Underfoot and overlooked: conservation treatment of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century British carpets in historic houses’, Studies in Conservation, lvii, no. 1 (2012), pp. S295–S304.
31 A. Vickery, Behind Closed Doors: At Home in Georgian England (London: Yale University Press, 2009), pp. 121–22.
32 G. S. Seligman, ‘Unidentified English embroideries in the Museum Cinquantaire’, The Burlington Magazine, xli (1922), pp. 75–76. For a further discussion of authenticity in the museum, see M. M. Brooks, ‘“Indisputable authenticity”: engaging with the real in the museum’, in R. Gordon, E. Hermens and F. Lennard eds, Authenticity and Replication: The ‘Real Thing’ in Art and Conservation (London: Archetype Publications, 2014), pp. 3–10.
33 M. Berkouwer, ‘A forgotten restoration: the 19th century restoration of the 17th century Queen’s antechamber wallhangings at Ham House’, in M. Buyle ed., Het Onzichbare Restauren / Restaurer L’Invisible (Brussels: Flanders Heritage Agency, 2012), p. 80.
34 Ibid., pp. 79–89.
35 D. Eastop and K. Gill, ‘Introduction: upholstery conservation as a practice of preservation, investigation and interpretation’, in K. Gill and D. Eastop eds, Upholstery Conservation: Principles and Practice (Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann, 2001), p. 4.
36 C. Stevens, ‘Evidence from artefacts and archives: researching the textile furnishings of a Victorian bedroom at Brodsworth’, in Gill and Eastop eds, Upholstery Conservation, pp. 144–73.
37 Ibid., p. 145.
38 National Trust, Newsletter, Autumn 1973, quoted in T. Knox, ‘Peter Thornton’, obituary, The Guardian (Online, 12 March 2007). Available from: http://www.theguardian.com/news /2007/mar/12/guardianobituaries.artsobituaries [Accessed: 20 March 2014]. See also P. Thornton and M. Tomlin, The Furnishing and Decoration of Ham House (London: Furniture History Society, 1981).
39 Fowler used his characteristic combination of shaded paint tones, varied furnishing fabrics and complex curtaining. National Trust Treasure Hunt, ‘Fiction and Truth’, National Trust Collections (Online, 28 February 2013). Available from: nttreasurehunt.wordpress.com/2013/02/28/fiction-and-truth/ [Accessed: 20 March 2014].
40 C. Rowell and J. M. Robinson, Uppark Restored (London: National Trust, 1996), p. 173.
41 T. Worthington, National Trust Treasure Hunt, Responses to ‘Fiction and Truth’ (Online, 1 March 2013). Available from: nttreasurehunt.wordpress.com/2013/02/28/fiction-and-truth/ [Accessed: 20 March 2014].
42 E. de Bruijn, National Trust Treasure Hunt, Responses to ‘Fiction and Truth’.
43 The definition of ‘magical thinking’ is generally considered to be a blurring of the boundaries between subjective experience and objective reality with a consequent conviction that mental beliefs can influence physical phenomena. For a further discussion, see M. Hutson, ‘Magical thinking’, Psychology Today (Online, 1 March 2008), especially section 7, ‘The world is alive’. Available from: www.psychologytoday.com/article/200802/magical-thinking/ [Accessed: 20 March 2014].
44 N. Wang, ‘Rethinking authenticity in tourism experience’, Annals of Tourism Research, xxvi, no. 2 (1999), pp. 349–70; G. Busby, R. Hunt and H. Small, ‘“This magical Tudor house”: Cotehele and the concept of authenticity: a chronological review’, Cornish Studies, xvii (2009), p. 208.
45 S. Jones and T. Yarrow, ‘Crafting authenticity: an ethnography of conservation practice’, Journal of Material Culture, xviii, no. 1 (2013), p. 24.
46 For a fuller discussion of the causes of degradation, see Canadian Conservation Institute, Ten Agents of Deterioration (Online, 2013). Available from: www.cci-icc.gc.ca/caringfor-prendresoin des/articles/10agents/index-eng.aspx [Accessed: 20 March 2014].
47 D. Eastop, ‘Textiles as multiple and competing histories’, in M. M. Brooks ed., Textiles Revealed: Object Lessons in Historic Textiles and Costume Research (London: Archetype Publications, 2000), pp. 17–28.
48 See, for example, M. M. Brooks and D. Eastop, ‘Matter out of place: paradigms for analyzing textile cleaning’, Journal of the American Institute of Conservation, xlv (2006), pp. 171–78; S. Doyal and D. Eastop, ‘William Burges’ mermaid chair c.1870: conserving both original materials and later adaptation’, in Gill and Eastop eds, Upholstery Conservation, pp. 44–50.
49 Dennis Severs House, 18 Folgate Street, Spitalfields, The Plot (Online). Available from: http://www.dennissevershouse.co.uk/ [Accessed: 20 March 2014].
50 Ibid., The Tour.
51 Rowell and Robinson, Uppark Restored, p. 146.
52 E. C. Gaskell, Cranford (London: Oxford University Press, 1944, first published 1851), p. 20.
53 M. Swain, ‘Loose covers, or cases’, Furniture History, xxxiii (1997), pp. 128–33; Henry Walton, attributed, c. 1775, A Gentleman at Breakfast, Toledo Museum of Art, Ohio.
54 Gilbert, Chippendale, p. 209.
55 M. Meade-Fetherstonehaugh and O. Warner, Uppark and its People (London: Century / National Trust, 1988), p. 108.
56 M. Berkouwer and V. Marsland, ‘Peeling back the layers at Ham House’, National Trust ABC Bulletin, October 2010, p. 11.
57 Brooks, English Embroideries, pp. 50–51.
58 W. Morris, The Lesser Arts of Life, paper given 21 January 1882 before the Birmingham and Midlands Institute in Birmingham, published in Lectures on Art delivered in Support for the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (Online). Available from: http://www.marxists.org/ archive/ morris/ works/1882/life1.htm [Accessed: 20 March 2014].
59 W. Morris, The Art of Dyeing, paper given 29 October 1889 at a meeting sponsored by the Applied Art Section of the National Association for the Advancement of Art at the Museum of Science and Art, Edinburgh (Online). Available from: https://www.marxists.org/archive/morris/ works/ 1889/ dyeing.htm [Accessed: 20 March 2014].
60 Crepeline is a light-weight, loosely woven silk organdie. Kysnia Marko, the National Trust’s Textile and Conservation Advisor, discusses the use of crepeline and nets as in situ first aid treatments in K. Marko, ‘Maintenance and first aid’, in F. Lennard and M. Hayward eds, Tapestry Conservation: Principles and Practice (Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann, 2006), p. 204.
61 M. Takami and B. Roberts, Dress to Impress: Reinstating the Patterned Velvet of Large Scale Bedhangings with Digitally Printed Nylon Net. Presented at ICOM Conservation Committee Triennial, Lisbon, Portugal, 19–23 September 2011 (Online, 2011). Available from: www.google.co.uk/#q=+bh1.fpc.pt%2Fwinlib%2Fwinlibimg.aspx%3Fskey+takami [Accessed: 20 March 2014].
62 Ibid., pp. 7–8.
63 Ibid., p. 1.
64 P. Redgrove, Tapestry Moths, 1977, The Argotist Online (Online). Available from: www.argotistonline.co.uk/Regrove%20poem.htm [Accessed: 20 March 2014].
65 R. Brathwayt, Essays upon the Five Senses, revived by A New Supplement; with a pithy one upon Detraction. Continued with sundry Christian Resolves, and Divine Contemplations (London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme and Brown, 1815, first published 1625), p. 19.
66 See E. Pye, The Power of Touch: Handling Objects in Museum and Heritage Contexts (Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press, 2007), pp. 16–17.
67 Quoted in Hayward, ‘Fit for a king? Maintaining the early Tudor tapestry collection’, in Lennard and Hayward eds, Tapestry Conservation, p. 15.
68 M. Jordan, ‘Changing Attitudes to Access and Care: the Impact of Touch on Textiles on Open Display (Unpublished diploma report, Textile Conservation Centre / Courtauld Institute of Art, 1986).
69 Some houses are experimenting with enabling touch in certain recreated interiors. At Avebury Manor, the National Trust allows visitors to ‘touch and use everything in the manor — kitchen artefacts, hand-blown glasses and huge hanging tapestries. There are no red ropes, no “do not touch” signs’. See National Trust Annual Report (Online, 2011–2012), p. 20. Available from: https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/document-1355769401432/ [Accessed: 10 May 2015].
70 ‘My Most Treasured Pieces’ Textiles from the Henry Ginsburg Collection. An Exhibition at Temple Newsam House (Leeds: Temple Newsam House, 2008), not paginated.
71 J. E. Panton, From Kitchen to Garret: Hints for Young Householders (London: Ward and Downey, 1893), p. 133.
72 Gaskell, Cranford, p. 20.
73 See Temple Newsam House, Leeds, Countryhousereader, Yorkshire (Online, 2011). Available from: https://countryhousereader.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/p10308411.jpg [Accessed: 20 October 2015].
74 Lady Meade-Fetherstonhaugh was advised by Miss Symonds (Mrs Guy Antrobus in private life) from the Royal School of Needlework. See Rowell and Robinson, Uppark Restored, pp. 139–41.
75 Meade-Fetherstonehaugh and Warner, Uppark and its People, pp. 109–10.
76 Rowell and Robinson, Uppark Restored, pp. 139–41.
77 Girouard, Hardwick Hall, pp. 45–46.
78 Personal communication, Christopher Gilbert, then Director, Temple Newsam House, 1986, conversation.
79 M. M. Brooks, ‘The Conservation of a Textile Covered Bed Cornice from Harewood House TCC 0668c’ (Unpublished diploma report, The Textile Conservation Centre / Courtauld Institute of Art, 1986); M. M. Brooks, ‘The conservation of a textile covered bed cornice from Harewood House’, in A. French ed., Conservation of Furnishing Textiles (Glasgow: The Scottish Society for Conservation and Restoration, 1990), pp. 49–57.
80 Samuel Popplewell (c. 1713–1780) was Edwin Lascelle’s steward for thirty years. See Harewood Servants’ Database (Online). Available from: http://servants.harewood.org/popplewell-samuel-senior/ [Accessed: 28 October 2015]. His name is recorded as Popelwell in Gilbert, Chippendale, p. 196.
81 S. Popplewell to E. Lascelles, 24 February 1773, Steward’s Day Workbooks, Harewood MS 490/492, West Yorkshire Archive Service, Morley, Leeds.
82 According to the Steward’s Day Workbooks and the 1795 Inventory, the bedchamber had Indian wallpaper and ‘One Bedstead, with india Chintz hangings, One Window Curtain to suit Do ... One Chintz counterpane trimmed with fringe’, which suggests the dressing room might also have been in a similar style. Steward’s Day Workbooks, Harewood MS 492, 165–172 and Inventory, 1795 MS 490, 1–4, West Yorkshire Archive Service.
83 Personal communication, Christopher Gilbert, then Director, Temple Newsam House, 1986, conversation.
84 S. M. Levey, Embroideries at Hardwick Hall (London: National Trust, 2007), p. 62.
85 T. Edensor, ‘Waste matter — the debris of industrial ruins and the disordering of the material world’, Journal of Material Culture, x, no. 3 (2005), p. 317.
86 See, for example, E. Avrami, R. Mason and M. de la Torre, Values and Heritage Conservation (Los Angeles: Getty Conservation Institute, 2000); C. Caple, Conservation Skills: Judgement, Method and Decision-Making (Abingdon: Routledge, 2000); S. Muñoz-Viñas, Contemporary Theory of Conservation (Oxford: Elsevier Butterworth-Heinemann, 2005); P. Orlofsky and D. Trupin, ‘The role of connoisseurship in determining the textile conservator’s treatment options’, Journal of the American Institute for Conservation, xxxii, no. 2 (1993), pp. 109–18.
87 C. Brandi, Theory of Restoration (Firenze: Istituto Centrale per il Restauro / Nardini Editore, 2005), p. 50.
88 C. Brandi, ‘Theory of restoration, i. Theory of restoration, ii’, in N. Stanley Price, M. Kirby Talley Jr. and A. M. Vaccaro eds, Historical and Philosophical Issues in the Conservation of Cultural Heritage (Los Angeles: Getty Conservation Institute, 1996), p. 231.
89 I. Kopytoff, ‘The cultural biography of things: commoditisation as process’, in A. Appadurai ed., The Social Life of Things (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986), pp. 64–91.
90 M. M. Brooks, ‘Sharing conservation ethics, practice and decision-making with museum visitors’, in J. Marstine ed., The Routledge Companion to Museum Ethics: Redefining Ethics for the Twenty-First Century Museum (Abingdon: Routledge, 2011), pp. 332–49.
91 For example, English Heritage, Conservation Principles, Policies and Guidance (London: English Heritage, 2008); National Trust, Our Conservation Principles (Online). Available from: www.nationaltrust.org.uk/article-1356394365704/ [Accessed: 19 March 2014].
92 For example, the King James II bed in the Venetian Ambassador’s bedroom was first treated by the Rural Industries Board in the 1960s. Conservation on the King’s bed began in 1974 under the direction of Philippa Lawrence and was completed under Annabel Wylie in 1987 with input from over 200 volunteers; C. Rowell, ‘The King’s bed and its furniture at Knole’, Apollo, clx, no. 513 (2004), pp. 58–65. For the continuing treatment of the Spangled Bed (Inventory Number 129462.1) see Knole Conservation Team Blog, Conservation Trial for the Spangled Bed Continues (Online, 2014). Available from: knoleconservationteam.wordpress.com/2014/04/09/conservation-trials-of-the-spangled-bed/ [Accessed: 21 March 2014].
93 This exhibition ran from Uppark’s re-opening in 1995 until 2007.
94 D. Koutromanou, University of York, Department of Archaeology, Research Students (Online). Available from: www.york.ac.uk/archaeology/research/research-students/koutromanou [Accessed: 20 March 2014] and D. Koutromanou, Developing Evaluation Strategies for Engagement Projects in Conservation, ‘Conservation, Communities and Capacity Building’ conference, University of York, 11–13 July 2014 (Online). Available from: https://engagingconservationyork.wordpress.com [Accessed: 21 March 2014].
95 National Trust, Annual Report 2011–2012: Going Local, p. 21 (Online). Available from: http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/document-1355769401432/ [Accessed: 21 March 2014].
96 See, for example, J. F. Donnelly ed., Interpreting Historic House Museums (Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press, 2002); D. Baker and G. Chitty, Managing Historic Sites and Buildings: Reconciling Presentation and Preservation (London: Routledge, 1999).
97 The image was made by conservator Vicki Marsland and photographer John Hammond. See National Trust Treasure Hunt, ‘Time Regained’ (Online, 2010). Available from: https://nttreasurehunt.wordpress.com/2010/03/17/time-regained/ [Accessed: 20 March 2014].
98 R. Perkins, H. Owens, C. Carr, K. Hallett, I. Gibb and K. Frame, ‘Henry VIII’s tapestries revealed’, in J. Bridgland ed., ICOM-CC Lisbon 2011 Abstracts 16th Triennial Conference Lisbon, 19–23 September 2011 (Almada: Critério, 2011), p. 287.
99 M. Ponsonby, ‘Textiles and time: reactions to aged and conserved textiles in historic houses open to the public in England and the USA’, Textile History, xlii, no. 2 (2011), pp. 200–19.
100 National Trust, Calke Abbey (London: National Trust, 1989), p. 6.
101 Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed, ‘The research agenda for moveable heritage; programmes and projects’, in Knowledge for Moveable Heritage: An Overview of Knowledge Products of the Research Agenda for Moveable Heritage, the Netherlands (Amsterdam: Ministerie van Onderwijs, Cultuur en Wetenschap, 2011), p. 40.
102 W. Benjamin, The Arcades Project, trans. H. Eiland and K. McLaughlin (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1999), p. 23.