Arts and Crafts chair c1900: conserving upholstery in situ

Description

The chair is thought to have been commissioned by Liberty and Co. The chair designer is unknown (as yet) but is attributed to Walter Cane. 

The carved wood chair has a sprung seat and back and is trimmed with close nailing.  The top cover is a Jacquard woven cotton with a design of flowers and leaves. The dyed threads have faded over time; many of the brown and cream tones were originally subtle shades of blue and green.

Given the age of the chair and the fact that it has been repaired in the past, it is quite remarkable that such a large proportion of the original upholstery has survived.

Client brief/role of object

The chair is a recent addition to the collection at Lakeland Arts. The client’s overall objective was to make the chair sufficiently stable for long-term open display at Blackwell, a large Arts and Crafts house in the English Lake District.

Condition before treatment

The front edge of the seat, the top covers and the support layers were severely damaged. The damage was disfiguring, distracting and left the chair too vulnerable for open display.

Skills required for treatment

Conserving furniture with original upholstery is not a regular occurrence.  This is because upholstery conservation projects often demand advanced skills in textile conservation and upholstery conservation, in equal measure, as well as in furniture conservation.  In addition, upholstery conservation projects demand an ability and willingness to think differently, that is, to apply established principles in novel ways.  This Art and Crafts chair was no exception.

Treatment

The exposed sections of the concealed seat upholstery, including the springs, and the worn elements of the top cover, were preserved intact.  All materials used were conservation-grade and custom-dyed where necessary.  All treatment procedures followed test results. 

The springs were re-compressed and individually tied so as to reduce strain on surrounding materials, and to re-establish the seat crown profile.

The missing front seat was re-built and the profile re-established without removing any of the surviving upholstery.  Consequently, the area requiring treatment, was accessed through pre-existing holes in the fragmented and worn front section of the original top cover.  The first of three key elements of the reconstruction comprised a fine carbon-fibre rod.  The rod provided a stable foundation onto which all other components, both conservation support materials and original elements, could be attached.  The second element was a panel of linen-faced Nomex® (a flame-resistant meta-aramid sheet material). The combined qualities of the linen cloth and the Nomex® provided a support that was thin enough to sit between the seat frame and the top cover, and rigid enough to provide a stable foundation onto which all other elements could be attached using stitching techniques. The final element was a padded roller of the same diameter as the seat’s original roll edge. The roller was aligned with the surviving roll edge end sections, then stitched to the foundation rod.

Areas of loss in the top covers were stitch-supported onto patch inserts of dyed cotton. Tangled threads were re-aligned, lightly consolidated with an adhesive, then protected with a layer of dyed net. 

Condition after treatment

The objectives of conserving the chair’s upholstery were successfully realised, fulfilling all original treatment aims: the upholstery was stabilised and the original seat profile re-established using techniques which minimised disruption to the original upholstery structure and top covers.

Further information

A public engagement strategy was developed alongside the conservation treatment, as it was anticipated that the project would generate public interest.  Therefore, two events were planned from the outset, a public engagement event, ‘Conservation in Action’ [9-11 April 2019], and an exhibition about the conservation of the chair, ‘Liberating History, Conserving the Liberty Chair’ [23 March – 9 June 2019].  Both events were held at Blackwell, where the conserved chair is now on long term display. A link to an interview with Kate Gill at Blackwell about the project is as follows: https://lakelandarts.org.uk/items/the-liberty-chair/

Acknowledgements

Reproduced courtesy of Lakeland Arts; Kate Gill Textile and Upholstery Conservation Services © 2021.

Treatment competed April 2019.