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Handmade Wallpaper.
Griffen Mill has worked with wallpaper conservators in Europe, America and England to provide a variety of handmade papers for wallpaper restoration projects. Here are some of the places you can spot some of our handmade paper wallpaper.
Strawberry Hill, London.
BACKGROUND TO THE PROJECT
Horace Walpole (1717 - 1797) discovered Chopp'd Straw Hall in 1747 when it was one of the last remaining sites available on the banks of the Thames in fashionable Twickenham. He set about transforming what was then a couple of cottages into his 'little gothic castle' with pinnacles, battlements and a round tower set in meadows and gardens. In creating Strawberry Hill, Walpole inspired a new fashion for gothic in both architecture and literature.
THE AWARD-WINNING RESTORATION
Strawberry Hill is the best documented house in the country.
Not only did Walpole leave a description of Strawberry Hill (1784) but he also described it in numerous letters to his friends and commissioned a set of drawings & paintings to record its changing appearance.
Specialist paint and fabric analysis in the house itself has revealed further evidence and it was very exciting to uncover large areas of gothic trompe l'oeil decoration on the stairs and landing dating from the 1750s and the 1790s.
Every aspect of the restoration has been informed by in depth research which was initiated in 2004 by Kevin Rogers at the World Monuments Fund, Britain and continued with the conservation architects, Peter Inskip & Stephen Gee who, with Michael Snodin, Chairman of the Strawberry Hill Trust are leading the project.
In 2010 Griffen Mill was appointed as the supplier of archival handmade paper for the wallpaper restoration. Most of the handmade papers hung in the first phase were decorated using a traditional soft distemper The paper was made on a Royal size laid mould.
The second phase, involved the recreation of the patterned wallpaper decoration schemes. Successful pattern matching depends on the physical properties of the paper such as stretch, elasticity when dampened.
A larger size of paper was chosen for the Phase 2 papers & this meant the commissioning of a new Elephant size paper mould. Whilst this was being made a completely new paper was designed & tested for performance. The first use of the new paper was in the Tribune Passage shown below. The paper was jointed & printed by Adelphi Wallhangings in America & hung by Mark Sandiford of Sandiford & Mapes in the UK.
One of the papers that was recreated was the purple wall hanging in the Holbein Chamber.
Original Fragment New Paper
The depth of colour had been achieved, in part, by selecting a fairly common
blue flecked paper as the base paper
A new indigo dyed paper was made with allowances made in the brightness for the yellowing of the original sample with age.
Other projects we have supplied paper for have included
Queen Charlotte's Boudoir at the Royal Palace at Kew, London.
(Wallpaper Consultant - Allyson McDermott)
Various wallpaper restoration projects for Geert Wisse.
The Print Room at Woodhall - we supplied paper for the top border
(Wallpaper Consultant - Allyson McDermott)
ORDERING WALLPAPER & LINING PAPER.
Please contact the Mill to discuss your requirements. Prices and volume discounts are similar to our standard papers & we are happy to provide a quotation free of charge.
Please note that we only provide the plain base paper. The customer must organize printing & hanging.
Click here for a guide
to some of the considerations, time constraints & crafts involved in the restoration & conservation of historic wallpaper schemes.
Finally a Suggestion
If you are relatively new to historic wallpaper restoration & conservation, a newly published book by Robert Kelly provides an easy to read guide to most aspects of historical wallpapers. Manufacturing methods, paperhanging & installation techniques, paper sellers, Chinese scenic papers, screens, Papier - Mache ornamentation & leather hangings are all covered in an authorative manner.
A great price and all the information you need in one place. We know because it is one of the Mill's reference books.
