Finding Fabric for the Schuyler's Fashionable Furniture

by Rebecca Kurtz

The Best Parlor in its furnished state

In last week’s blog, we discussed the restoration of the papier-mache ceiling in the Best Parlor, the most formal room in Schuyler Mansion. Considering that the primary purpose of this parlor was once to advertise the Schuyler family’s wealth, it now appears astonishingly unfurnished. The suite of furniture belonging in the Best Parlor, which includes eight chairs and a settee, has been displayed to visitors in previous years. The reason for its absence this year is it is being reupholstered with a fabric that is more accurate to the way it appeared in the eighteenth century.

The suite of furniture that occupied the Best Parlor is in the Sheraton Style (also called ‘Hepplewhite’ for the furniture designer who put out a catalogue on the style) which is a neoclassical style of furniture defined by clean, straight lines, lattice work,

A Sheraton style chair

tapered legs, and fluting. The chairs and settee are original pieces of furniture that once belonged to Philip and Catherine Schuyler. They were last upholstered in 1979. However, Deborah Trupin, the textile conservator at Peebles Island State Resource Center from 1980-July 2015, felt that the fabric was not historically accurate.

Kirsten Schoonmaker, an intern in Deborah Trupin's textile lab during the Fall of 2014 and Winter of 2015 set about deconstructing the chair seat covers to try and find evidence of previous upholstery fabric, as well as original padding, undercovers, and upholstery tacks. After many of the chair seat and arm covers had been deconstructed, a 1” by 1.5” piece of 1700’s fabric was finally discovered on the arm pads. When examined under a microscope, it was revealed that the threads found were silk and had been woven in different ways to create a pattern. The fabric was an unblemished yellow, since it remained in a protected area on the underside of the arm pad.

Kirsten studied eighteenth century paintings and furniture design books that showed examples of the style of chair in Schuyler Mansion's collection to determine the correct seat and back profiles. The new profile created for the chairs is significantly different from the one previously on display at Schuyler Mansion.

The Best Parlor with furniture in the mid-twentieth century

The conservators and curator traveled to New York City to look at available fabrics for recovering the chairs and settee. Unable to find a true eighteenth century fabric, the three found the best match at a factory in Gainesborough, England. The fabric found there, a neoclassical motif that precisely fits on both the seat and the shield back of the chair, blends with the neoclassical elements of the Sheraton Style of the furniture. Currently, David Bayne, a furniture conservator at Peebles Island, is hoping to fund an intern who can work on the suite of furniture, cleaning it throughout the winter of 2015-2016. We plan to return the finished chairs and settee to the mansion during the 2016 season so the Best Parlor can once again be enjoyed in its fully furnished splendor. 

Papier-mâché for the Parlor

by Rebecca Kurtz

The Best Parlor at Schuyler Mansion in its current state

After passing through the elegant center hallway, the first room that you enter on a tour of Schuyler Mansion, just to the left of where you entered, is the Best Parlor. The Best Parlor was the most formal and elegant room in the mansion, and it was where all major family events took place, from weddings to funerals, and everything in between. It was in this room that Philip and Catherine’s second daughter, Elizabeth, was married to Alexander Hamilton in December of 1780. The Schuyler’s used this parlor to display their extravagant wealth to their

Alexander Hamilton married Elizabeth Schuyler in the Best Parlor

esteemed guests, including George and Martha Washington, Benjamin Franklin, the Marquis de Lafayette, Jon Jay, and Aaron Burr. In the Best Parlor, these guests enjoyed activities such as drinking tea, engaging in conversation about politics and military activity, and listening to music performed by the Schuyler daughters.

 Today, however, it is difficult to believe this room was ever the Schuyler’s most sumptuous space. The floor,once covered with an imported Brussels carpet, is now bare. The walls, most likely covered by luxurious blue wallpaper, are now paperless. The room is sparsely furnished, and the ceiling is plain. However, based on Philip’s receipts, as well as letters written by guests, we know a papier-mâché design graced the ceiling of the Best Parlor. Naturally, as part of our hundredth anniversary restoration project, the Best Parlor will be returned to its former glory.

Papier-mâché (which is French for “chewed paper”) refers to three dimensional objects created by molding paper pulp, typically seen today in art projects, and used for theatrical purposes. From the seventeenth through the nineteenth century, however, papier-mâché was utilized as an

Papier-mâché ceiling at Phillipse Manor Hall

architectural material. The practice of papier-mâché decoration originated in Ireland, and the trade was commercially developed in London during the 1740’s.

Papier-mâché was swiftly popularized as a decorative material. After all, it was extremely difficult to break, as well as inexpensive to install and easy to fix. Additionally, if papier-mâché was ever to go out of style, it could be removed without inflicting any significant damage to walls and ceilings.. The one major drawback concerning owners of papier mache decoration on ceilings and walls was water damage. Since most roofs leak at some point in the history of a home, many of these decorative details were damaged over time and very few exist today. 

 Papier-mâché adorned the homes of many prominent eighteenth century figures, such as George Washington and Benjamin Franklin. Naturally, Philip Schuyler required a papier-mâché ceiling in his home as well.

While we know that a papier-mâché ceiling did exist in the Best Parlor at Schuyler Mansion, we unfortunately lack any record of the ceiling’s design. Therefore, the papier-mâché ceiling that will be installed will not be an exact replica of the original. We do know that the papier-mâché ceiling in Schuyler Mansion would have been a design at the height of fashion in 1761, the year it was purchased. This knowledge can help ensure that the recreation, while not exact to the home, will be in keeping with the style and taste of the original.

Phillipse Manor Hall

Luckily, and extant papier-mâché ceiling exists in another New York historic house. Philipse Manor Hall State Historic Site in Yonkers, NY is an 18^th century Georgian Mansion owned by the Philipse family.  In the 1760s, during an expansion of the home, Philipse added an ornate papier-mâché ceiling to his home. Staff at Peebles Island Resource Center enlisted a team of experts from Ithaca College to 3D scan the decorative ceiling and then to experiment in printing a positive image of ceiling details.  Molds will then be made from the various details of the ceiling and it is from these molds that paper pulp sculptures, from an 18^th century recipe, can then be formed.

Scanning the ceiling After those are dried, they will finally be installed in the Best Parlor using glue and small brads.

There will still be plenty to accomplish in the Best Parlor to restore it to its previous splendor. As you read this blog, furniture for the parlor is being reupholstered. Additionally, carpeting and wallpaper will eventually adorn the room. Look for future blog entries on these details in weeks to come! Meanwhile, follow our blog by clicking the “subscribe” button at the bottom of the page to stay up to date with all of the restorations taking place at the mansion!

Reinstalling the Ruins of Rome

by Rebecca Kurtz

                                 

In last week’s blog, we talked about the floor cloth that once existed in the center hall of Schuyler Mansion, and the reproduction floor cloth that adorns the floor now. This week, we will talk about the other major piece with which Schuyler embellished that hall; the Ruins of Rome wallpaper. The Ruins of Rome was a hand painted English wallpaper featuring scenes of Rome’s ruins in shades of gray, based off an engraving of a painting by architect and painter, Giovanni Paolo Panini (1691-1765.) The scenes were surrounded by soft yellows and grays, and the wallpaper was hung up in sections. Schuyler Mansion was one of three houses in the United States to display the Ruins of Rome, the other two being the no longer extant Van Rensselaer Manor, which was also located in Albany, New York, and the Jeremiah Lee Mansion in Marblehead, Massachusetts (where the wallpaper still hangs.) Although the same wallpaper was present in all three of these homes,

each home had its own unique version. Despite the fact that the Van Rensselaer Manor no longer stands, the Ruins of Rome that once hung in the home are still exhibited to the public at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, in the American Wing.

The Ruins of Rome at the Jeremiah Lee Mansion

 Although the center hall at Schuyler Mansion is still quite picturesque today, the Ruins of Rome is conspicuously missing from the walls. For years, staff and preservationists working at Peeble’s Island State Historic Site in Waterford, New York sought an artist who would be able to recreate the historic wallpaper. However, such an arrangement never transpired. More recently, photographic reconstruction has become an accessible and effective technology. Therefore, as part of our 100^th anniversary restoration project, a digital reproduction of the Ruins of Rome will be installed in the center hall, as well as the upstairs hallway (called the “salon” by the Schuylers) where the wallpaper also hung.

The Ruins of Rome at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

           
The process of creating a digital reproduction of the Ruins of Rome is currently being undertaken by Rich Claus and Erin Moroney.  In 2013 and 2014, they journeyed to both the

Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Jeremiah Lee Mansion to study and photograph the scenes featured on both versions of the wallpaper. After their trips, Rich and Erin returned to their lab, where they utilized a special computer program to digitally “stitch” each scene together. After that, another computer program was able to edit the architectural elements out of the digital images and blend the images together in order to create a uniform color and feel.

At this point in time, we are anticipating that the digital reproduction of Ruins of Rome will be printed and installed in 2016. Until then, tours are still being conducted at the mansion, and going on one is a great way to get a sense of the before and after of our restoration project! To stay up to date with news of the restoration, don’t forget to follow this blog by clicking subscribe at the bottom of this page!

Philip's Floor Cloth

by Rebecca Kurtz

When taking a tour of Schuyler Mansion, the first room that you find yourself in is the center hall. The wide center hall provides a decorous introduction to Philip Schuyler’s eighteenth century home. Philip would have been very much aware that this hall was the first part of his house that guests would see, and he was determined to make a favorable impression. Therefore, Schuyler decorated his center hallway with two major pieces; a floor cloth, and a painted wallpaper known as the Ruins of Rome.

Today, the mansion exhibits a reproduction of the floor cloth that Schuyler displayed in the hall. During the eighteenth century, having any kind of floor covering, whether it be a carpet, floor cloth, or even just a small mat next to a bed, was a sign of wealth and refinement. In an English style Georgian mansion, like Schuyler mansion, a center hall would typically boast marble floors. However, little marble was being produced in the colonies at the time, and the price of importing enough marble to fill the hall at Schuyler Mansion could have cost more than the mansion’s actual construction! Schuyler, therefore, opted to decorate his hall with a floor cloth. This was still a major piece for a home, as it was massive and took nearly five years to manufacture.

This 1801 painting depicts a floor cloth

A floor cloth was also generally the most expensive piece in a house. The finest of these floor coverings were assembled in Bristol, England, where they were painted by hand, covered in layers of oils and lacquers, and hung out to dry. Floor cloths were thick and durable, almost like eighteenth century linoleum, which was of utmost importance in Schuyler Mansion due to the central location of Schuyler’s floor cloth, as it would have seen a substantial amount of foot traffic.

The floor cloth that currently lies in the center hallway of the mansion was produced in 2007 by Lisa Curry Mair, whose company, CanvasWorks FloorCloths, produces hand painted floor cloths for
private homes and museums around the country. Given a lack of period documentation, Mair had very little information to go on while creating the floor cloth for Schuyler Mansion. We do know that a floor cloth existed in the mansion in the eighteenth century thanks to documents, such as a letter written by Philip Schuyler’s aunt, which mentions a blue and white floor cloth designed to look like marble. However, no further information is known about the actual appearance of the original floor cloth. Therefore, Mair used her pre-existing familiarity with eighteenth century floor cloths to produce what we have today.

The Mansion's floor cloth being made

The reproduction certainly works to serve the purpose of more fully immersing visitors in Philip’s Schuyler’s home as it appeared in the eighteenth century, and adds an air of elegance to the already opulent home. So, come to Schuyler Mansion some time to enjoy our phenomenal floor cloth. Also, in not too long, visitor’s to the mansion will have the opportunity to behold the Ruins of Rome wallpaper, as a reproduction will be applied to the walls of the center hall as part of our restoration project. Stay tuned for more information about the wallpaper in next week’s blog, and don’t forget to follow us by clicking the 'subscribe' button below!