Context
We studied a set of tapestries woven at Mortlake to find out more about British tapestry craftsmanship. This work will inform our future guardianship of these important textiles, the first of their kind to be made in Great Britain.
The project is part of a broader research theme for Historic Royal Palaces’ conservation science team. Hampton Court Palace is home to an important collection of tapestries, many of which are hundreds of years old, and have been on display to visitors for decades.
We want to know how well have the tapestries survived and how their display has affected their condition and future preservation. We also want to know if the original manufacture techniques or materials influenced the current state of preservation.
Approach
To answer these questions, we chose three Mortlake tapestries to study in detail, from which we took tiny fibre samples. We analysed them using state-of-the-art techniques.
Our external partners in this research are the Royal Collection; University of Manchester; National Museums of Scotland; KIK-IRPA, Belgium; and Birkbeck College, University of London.
Getting results
We took samples from the selected tapestries during September and October 2006. The results of the analysis will be available in April 2007.
We will use the conclusions of this study to help our conservators in planning future conservation treatment. We will also publish our results so that others can benefit from our research.
More conservation science research
