Paper is present in many forms in National Trust houses. Rooms are decorated with very large numbers of works of art on paper, such as watercolour paintings, architectural drawings and pastels, and hung with historic wallpaper.
© National Trust / Andrew Bush
Photographs are displayed on furniture and hung on walls as well as mounted within albums and stored in offices throughout the National Trust as well as in the houses themselves.
Paper is also present in the many important country house libraries we own.
© National Trust / Andrew Bush
Paper
Many of our houses have well over 200 framed prints, drawings and watercolours on display.
Unlike most other national collections a significant proportion of these works of art on paper are still displayed in their original settings and retain their original historic mounts and frames.
© National Trust / Andrew Bush
Any paper conservation treatment needs to be sympathetic to the historic setting and should consider the framed object as a whole including the old glass, mount and backboard.
© National Trust / Andrew Bush
Remedial conservation often includes the removal of harmful acidity from within the paper, and the reduction of staining alongside improvements to the frame assembly.
Wallpaper
Hand painted and machine printed wallpapers, from as far away as China, and as old as 300 years, can still be found in their original positions in many of our houses.
Flaking surfaces, detachment from the wall and general wear and tear offer challenges of care.
© National Trust / Andrew Bush
Wherever possible local re-attachment and consolidation of the papers in situ is the preferred conservation approach.
Only occasionally is the original protected in situ and covered with an authentic copy. In this case original materials and methods of production are employed, as far as possible.
© National Trust / Andrew Bush
Photographs
Photographs in historic houses often depict the past life of the property where they are now kept. They may show former occupants of the house or reflect their owners’ tastes and interests.
The type of photographs most frequently seen during a visit are prints – photographs on paper that are framed and hung on walls or stood on surfaces.
However, early photographs such as 'daguerreotypes' - which are on metal – and 'ambrotypes' on glass may also be encountered, usually presented in their own, individual cases.
Although too fragile to have the actual originals on display, moving (cine) film and film negatives also exist.
In fact, many types of photographs are so sensitive to light and other environmental factors that they have to be preserved under archival conditions and reproductions exhibited in their place.
Books
Over 150 of our properties contain books, though the numbers may vary from fewer than a dozen to many thousands.
© National Trust / Caroline Bendix
Their conservation is not simply a matter of repairing them for use but also of preserving their historical integrity as physical objects.
Their repair also must take into account their contribution to often very fine historic interiors, which themselves regularly present problematic conditions for the books' storage, both in terms of shelving and environmental conditions.
© National Trust / Caroline Bendix
Conservation is under the guidance of two independent conservators with long experience of historic libraries, both within and outside the National Trust.
The work is divided between that which can be carried out on site, by teams of either trained volunteers or professionals, such as cleaning, minor repairs and protection, and the more complex treatments which need to be carried out in a conservation studio.
© National Trust / Caroline Bendix
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