In the spring of this year, ‘Belfry Historic’ owners/operators,
Catherine Buscemi and Laurence Sansone spent an enchanting evening of fine
dining, beautiful music and lively conversation, seated between Abraham and
Mary Todd Lincoln.
The evening was a recreation of a pre-1860’s dinner party,
complete with period Lincoln reenactors exchanging polite banter as well as
some historically poignant political sparing (Stephen A. Douglas was also in
attendance). ‘Edwards Place Historic
Home’ in Springfield, Illinois hosted the gala to commemorate their recent
renovation, in which Belfry Historic Consultants played an integral role. Belfry restored the original wallpapers in
the Dining Room, Formal Parlor, Library, and Children’s parlor, working with David
Skinner and Sons. Belfry also supplied documented period patterns for
the Sitting Room, by David Skinner and Sons, and for the Front Hallway and Back Hallway, by Hamilton Weston.
Belfry Historic Consultants was
challenged to restore two document wallpaper fragments, discovered upon the
removal of dense layers of subsequent wall treatments. Through the painstaking efforts and expertise
of David Skinner and Sons (one of Belfry Historic’s prestigious wall covering artisans)
the patterns were restored and color matched to their original state with
exacting attention to detail.
Illustrated clearly in the
photos below, the pattern on the dining room fragment was washed out and sun-faded
beyond recognition, with most of the original pattern completely lost; or so we
at first thought. Suspecting that the original pigments would have left an
indelible trace on the original wallpaper ground, we held the paper up to a
window to illuminate the paper from behind.
Like magic, the sunlight, which had so greatly contributed to wearing
away the original print, revealed instantly the full pattern in all of its
original glory!
The formal parlor paper, also
expertly recreated by Skinner and Sons, was restored from fragments recovered
by Edwards Place by cutting through the wall of a cellar closet! You can read many more details about the
wallpaper recreation, as well as the rest of the very extensive and beautifully
executed Edwards Place restoration at the Edwards Place Blog: http://restoreedwardsplace.blogspot.com/
Our experience working with
Edwards Place was an adventure we will never forget, least of all toasting a
glass in the resplendence of perfectly reproduced antebellum wall coverings with
Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln!
Past
and present: Edwards Place left a portion of one Library corner unfinished for
comparison between the original wall covering (right) and the completed
restoration (left).
A
view of the paper installed in the Edwards Place Library
A masterpiece in the making: behind the scenes at ‘David Skinner and Sons'
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The
second of two wallpapers beautifully recreated by David Skinner and Sons
for
the Edwards Place formal parlor.
Faithful reproduction to the most minute detail: A close up view of the restored formal parlor
wallpaper,
with an original document fragment superimposed for side-by-side
comparison.
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was
installed in the Front and Back hallways.
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