Griffen Mill Handmade Paper

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.

Below are some of the places you can spot some of our handmade paper wallpaper.

 

Strawberry Hill,London.

       www.strawberryhillhouse.org.uk

Breaking News  

Strawberry Hill wins European Cultural Heritage Prize 

 in the Conservation Category for Phase 1 of the restoration & conservation of the house & garden.

 

                                   

           THE BACKGROUND

 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 with ‘cows and sheep studied for becoming the view’.   

In creating Strawberry Hill, Walpole inspired a new fashion for gothic in both architecture and literature. While houses like nearby Marble Hill were based on classic traditions, order and symmetry, Walpole chose the architecture of gothic cathedrals as the inspiration for his villa.  

Chimney pieces, doors and ceilings are based on gothic vaulting, medieval tombs and rose windows. Winding corridors and gloomy passageways open into the sudden splendour of rooms like the Gallery.

 

                        THE AWARD-WINNING RESTORATION

Strawberry Hill is the best documented houses 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 from John Carter and paintings by Heinrich Muntz, among others, 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.

See the presentation below for how the paper was made for the first phase of restoration.

 

 

 

The second phase, now on going, involves the recreation of the flocked wallpaper decoration schemes.

 Successful pattern matching is very important & this depends on the physical properties of the paper such as elasticity & the eveness of expansion when damp. Differential expansion at the horizontal joints as opposed to the vertical edges can also cause problems.

 

 

 

Turning a plain paper into a flocked paper places a different set of demands on the base paper. For example, it is important to use a paper with the appropriate sizing strength, compressibility & tensile strength. See for an old video of the handmade flocking process.The Mill has designed a completely new paper to be used as a flocked wallpaper.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The wallpaper in the Holbein Room will also be restored.This was originally a blue flecked paper over painted with a thin red glaze to provide a subtle purple colour. The image shows the 20th C. purple wallpaper in place before restoration.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Other projects we have supplied paper for have included

 

 

Queen Charlotte's Boudoir at the Royal Palace at Kew, London. 

(Wallpaper Consultant  - Allyson Mcdermott)       

 

 

                         

  

 Wallpaper Restoration projects (Geert Wisse) 

 

 

        

 

 

The Print Room at Woodhall ..we supplied paper for the top border 
                (Wallpaper Consultant  - Allyson Mcdermott) 

      

  

 

  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. Printing & hanging must be organised by the customer.

Contact Griffen Mill for further information.

 

Copyright Griffen Mill 2013