Tapestry Conservation

Tapestry Conservation: Principles and Practice explores current practice and recent research in tapestry conservation, promoting awareness of recent developments among conservators and custodians of tapestries. The book facilitates more informed conservation practice and decision-making, and helps custodians to select the most appropriate method of intervention.

Tapestry Conservation: Principles and Practice explores current practice and recent research in tapestry conservation, promoting awareness of recent developments among conservators and custodians of tapestries. The book facilitates more informed conservation practice and decision-making, and helps custodians to select the most appropriate method of intervention.

From the Middle Ages, tapestries with figurative or other ornament were used by royalty and aristocrats to furnish their palaces and houses. While often observed as two dimensional art, they are three dimensional structures requiring specialist skill to maintain and conserve them. Since the vast majority of tapestries are on open display in historic interiors they pose particular conservation and interpretation challenges.00This publication aims to help conservators carry out assessments in order to arrive at appropriate options for treatment by focussing on: the techniques of tapestry manufacture; agents of deterioration, and current practice of methods of cleaning, methods of support and repair.

Supported by dozens of magnificent illustrations, this volume demonstrates the variety of ways in which ongoing research and the development of new technology can serve to revive the splendour of fragile tapestries kept in European and American museums. As the Royal Manufacturers of Tapestry, De Wit has been a leading force in undertaking the most pioneering and impressive restoration and conservation campaigns for more than a century. The enterpreneurial and artistic strategies that marked the beginning and subsequent development of De Wit, are extensively discussed in the first part of this book. Koenraad Brosens provides an in-depth analysis of the roles played by the three directors of the Royal Manufacturers - from founding father Theophiel De Wit, to Gaspard De Wit, to current director Yvan Maes De Wit. Each of these individuals' choices have been closely linked to the increasingly rapid and significant developments in the European and American tapestry landscapes. The second part of this volume, by Yvan Maes De Wit, surveys the most pioneering and impressive restoration and conservation campaigns undertaken by the Royal Manufactory. Through its original and creative scope of investigation, this book aims to make an invaluble contribution to art-historical discussion and research on nineteenth- and twentieth-century tapestry production, restoration and conservation.

Contributors discuss current research, new findings, and specific problems, innovations, methods, and materials.

Textile Conservation: Advances in Practice demonstrates the development in the role and practice of the textile conservator and captures the current diversity of textile conservators’ work. The book focuses on four major factors which have influenced development in textile conservation practice since the 1980s: the changing context, an evolution in the way conservators think about objects, the greater involvement of stakeholders, and technical developments. These are all integral to effective conservation decision-making. • Includes case studies from the UK, USA and mainland Europe and Asia • Assesses the conservation of objects in some of the world’s major cultural institutions • Highly illustrated in full colour to show the effect of conservation in practice Textile Conservation is a reference manual for textile conservators, textile conservation students and museum and heritage professionals.

'Chemical Principles of Textile Conservation' provides must-have knowledge for conservators who do not always have a scientific background. This vital book brings together from many sources the material science necessary to understand the properties, deterioration and investigation of textile artefacts. It also aids understanding of the chemical processes during various treatments, such as: cleaning; humidification; drying; disinfestation; disinfection; and the use of adhesives and consolidants in conservation of historical textiles. Textile conservators will now have ready access to the necessary knowledge to understand the chemistry of the objects they are asked to treat and to make informed decisions about how to preserve textiles. The combination of a chemist and a conservator provides the perfect authorial team. It ensures a unique dual function of the text which provides textile conservators with vital chemical knowledge and gives scientists an understanding of textile conservation necessary to direct their research. The many practical examples and case studies illustrate the utility of the relatively large chemical introduction and the essential chemical information which is included. The case studies, many illustrated in colour, range from the treatment of the Ghandis' clothes, high-altitude flying suits and a Mary Quant raincoat, to the Hungarian Coronation Mantle.

Jean Pierre Larochette is a renowned top-level artist, making this opportunity to learn from him a treasure for all levels of weavers.