CONSERVATION

CONSERVING THE CHINESE WALLPAPER

These dazzling works of art, printed and painted by hand in remarkable detail, are now in urgent need of repair and conservation.

Belvoir Castle has five beautiful rooms of Chinese paper, most dating from the very late 18th and early 19th centuries. The one room of painted Chinese silk is more rare and probably dates to around 1760-70. All are in very poor condition with historic problems such as damp from outside walls, water ingress, mould, losses, surface dirt and damage which is getting significantly worse as time passes.

Conservation of this increasingly fragile silk panels in the Chinese Room, these are exquisitely beautiful but the silk is deteriorating and needs immediate attention and the cost for doing this work in excess of $70,000. Fortunately work is commencing from a kind donation from the American Friends of Belvoir Castle in January. The second project is the to deal with the damaged paper in the Kings Bedroom, in situ repair of the rest of the room as well $24.000 then we will move on to the further three rooms.