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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.
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