Restoring Commissioner’s House: Wallpaper
Restoring Commissioner’s House: Wallpaper
Conservation volunteer, Mila discusses her role in helping to uncover the history and stories of the Commissioner’s House.
Mila’s Story
Whilst volunteering at the Dockyard, I have had the opportunity to work on the Commissioner’s House Restoration Project. During the works, small scraps of wallpaper were found behind modern plasterboard and picture rails. These have been removed with the utmost care and handed over to the Conservation Team.
I have been working with the Team to separate different layers of those pieces of wallpaper after years of one layer being applied on top of the other.
Painting a History
These samples paint a fascinating picture of the house’s history; new residents moved in and redecorated to their tastes and fashions of the period.
Most of the wallpaper I’ve been working on is very large and very fragile. Water and damp have a terrible tendency to find their way into buildings, in addition to decorators armed with buckets of paint, and the wallpaper is normally the first casualty. This means I am using delicate processes to try and peel these layers apart without losing any of the pattern or the paper disintegrating.
Peeling the Layers
To peel the layers apart, I use a process called ‘blotter washing’, which is where you damp pieces of (very absorbent) blotting paper, and then lay the wallpaper to be conserved on top; there are other protective layers in there as well, to create a cleaning ‘sandwich’ that pulls out imperfections whilst also weakening the glue holding the wallpaper together.
From there, it is just a case of not getting the shakes, whilst manually peeling the wallpaper apart. Very, very slowly!
About Mila, Conversation Volunteer
I am a former Graphic Designer who, after fifteen years working in packaging and print design, decided to retrain as a Book and Paper Conservator at the City and Guilds of London Art School. Based on my love of all things old, especially books, maps and charts, I chose to study Book and Paper Conservation. It’s important to be a part of the process that keeps the magic of these historical libraries and institutes alive.
I currently study at the City and Guilds of London Art School in Kennington, at their brilliant Conservation Department. I am currently about to enter my second year of study on the Book and Paper Conservation course, but there is also a fantastic Stone and Wood course that we work alongside.
The Dockyard were kind enough to let me come in for the summer to work in partnership with the Reading Room, carrying out some book conservation and restoration projects on volumes that had become too fragile to handle.
So far, I’ve worked on some beautiful 18th-century bibles, famous tales such as Gulliver’s Travels, and my personal favourite, two lists of Royal Navy Officers from 1809 and 1813, still with their original marble paper covers!
Working at the Dockyard
It has been an absolute privilege to spend my summer at the Dockyard. Kent has some real historical gems, and the Dockyard is certainly near the top of that list. The Conservation department has been very welcoming and has really given me the chance to showcase my skills on what is such an important historical project.
I will definitely be applying to come back next year!
