#textile-conservation

#textile-conservation

The project was part of the £23m redevelopment of the Norman keep at Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery in the east of England. Working with Norwich Cathedral and Gainsborough Silk Weaving in Suffolk, with the support of Norwich's Costume and Textile Association, the Castle Museum planned to display the newly recreated fabric to show the splendid colour and pattern of the original silk vestments alongside some of the fragments, on rotation to avoid their deterioration.

After Napoleon's 1798-1801 Egyptian campaign, his publications of its scholarly findings, including engravings of Egyptian styles, were widely disseminated. A fashion for Egyptian styles and military camp furnishings swept Europe and inspired Friedrich's architect, Nikolaus Friedrich von Thouret. "This is probably the only palace in Europe to have a drapery room remaining to this extent of completeness, including fabric, trimmings, and furnishings to match," says Anu-Susanna Ventelä, a textile conservator at the State Palaces and Gardens (SPG) of Baden-Württemberg. Exposed to years of soil, dust, sunlight, pollution and even insect retardants, the silks, originally turquoise and now a faded blue-green, needed cleaning, she says.