Textile Conservation Studio
Page 3
Continued from page 2

ABOVE: Conservators from HRP's Textile Conservation Studio use wet cleaning to remove dirt from a royal tapestry.

Textiles and conservation services

The Textile Conservation Studio at Hampton Court Palace cares for a variety of textiles, including:

State beds and canopies for Hampton Court Palace, Kensington Palace, and other historic houses or museums in Britain and abroad.

Furnishing textiles, which can include upholstered furniture, wall panels, quilts, and cushions.

Costume, including the Royal Ceremonial Dress Collection and the dresses of Diana, Princess of Wales that are on display at Kensington Palace. The studio's conservators recently worked on the Queen Elizabeth II Wedding Dresses and Hats and Handbags exhibitions at Kensington Palace and did minor conservation work on the Queen's coronation dress.

Tapestries. The Textile Conservation Studio reports that "work on the extensive tapestry collection at the palaces includes researching and preparing condition reports, taking down, packing, transportation, wet cleaning, conservation, rehanging, and ongoing aftercare." During my visit, tapestries under conservation included several of the Abraham Tapestries (commissioned by Henry VIII to hang in the Great Hall) and the 16th Century Romance Tapestry that usually hangs in the Holy Day Closet of the Chapel Royal.

Wet cleaning. The Textile Conservation Studio can clean everything from tiny archaeological specimens to large pile carpets. Objects are washed in trays, on a specially built washing table, or in a web-cleaning facility that can handle carpets and tapestries up to 30 x 20 feet in size. The studio explains: "In each process, the amount of handling and physical manipulation is kept to a minimum. Aggressive and energetic cleaning processes have been avoided; instead, we use gentle agitation and diffusion for the removal of soiling. There is as much emphasis on the chemical stabilization of objects as on cleaning. The aim is to treat the largest carpet with the same care and attention as the most vulnerable archaeological fragment."

Laboratory. The laboratory offers scientific advice backed up by testing with a variety of tools, including high-performance liquid chromotography for dye analysis and microscopes for fiber identication.

Back to: Hampton Court Palace State Apartments

Home

Copyright © 1996-2008 Durant and Cheryl Imboden and their licensors.
All rights reserved.

Privacy Policy