ARLINGTON HOUSE Historic Structures Report Phase II

WALLPAPER STUDY

Ann F. Clapp

December 1, 1980

Mrs. Agnes Mullins
Staff Curator
National Park Service
George Washington Memorial Parkway
Turkey Run Park
McLean, Virginia 22101

Dear Agnes:

At last these analyses come your way. I hope that you can make something out of them which will help in the restoration of Arlington House. There is a sameness to the findings which may be disappointing. All the papers, except Acc. No. 847, are handmade with block printing. One could not tell from the evidence of the papers whether they were mounted on the walls in 1804 or 1817. They all are of the same vintage, however. As you know, machines for making continuous rolls of paper were in use by the early years of the 19th century. But wallpaper makers were slow to adopt them. There are handmade wallpapers of the sort used at Arlington House which date even as late as the 1840's. One thing is certain, the papers of Arlington House date well before 1857-60 when General Lee made his improvements. The character of the design indicates the early 19th century.

The same dating problem exists for block printing of wallpapers. It lasted into the 1840's before the introduction of roller painting took its place. If larger sections of the paper can be uncovered, it might be of some value to try to determine the manner of applying the ground coat of paint. The earliest method was to brush it on by hand. In the first of the 19th century, application by machine was instituted.

The rough plaster which was applied over the papers is of no great help either. It too is nearly the same for all the specimens. The pleasing warm tone may be a clue that the plaster was made from very locally obtainable materials. If the plaster below the wallpapers has the same composition as that above, this possibility could be substantiated. If the use of a layer of finish plaster, as in the Custis Bedroom, can be found to be characteristic of a later renovation, the lack of it could indicate an earlier date. You will notice that the finish plaster from the Bedroom has several layers of paint between it and the paper. If, by pure guess, the finish plaster layering could be dated to the 1857-60 period, possibly 10 to 20 years may have intervened before the blue paper was applied, making its use around the time when the House was sold to the U.S. Government.

I am sending everything back to you, contrary to our suggestion on the telephone. You may need the samples while considering the comments upon them. Should your examination together with your knowledge of the history of the house find some facet which further examination of the samples could clarify, please do send them on and I shall search them for a possible answer. I am sure that they can be packed securely to travel safely, and thus save you a long trip under what could become troublesome road condition.

Do let me hear further from you. Inspite of the facts that it has taken me so long and that the results are not exciting, the examination of your specimens, drawings and photographs has been great fun.

Sincerely,

Anne F. Clapp
Print & Paper Conservator

AFC/fas

Enclosure

The Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum, Winterthur, Delaware 19735 Tel. 302 656-8591

Fragments of Wallpaper from Arlington House:

Acc. #839 — Fragments of paper found under the present top coat of plaster. The plaster layering at the point where this paper is found is from the outer surface to the brick:

1. Finish Plaster

2. Coarse Plaster (possibly 2 coats)

3. Paper

4. Coarse Plaster

5. Brick Wall

Most of the plaster above this paper remains in place awaiting the arrival of a paper conservator to remove it. Any suggestions you may have regarding possible techniques for removing the covering plaster from the paper would be most welcome. We have not yet found anyone who has worked with removal of plaster from the face of wallpaper. We wish to remove the plaster leaving the paper in place.

2 fragments of paper — unattached

3 fragments of paper — attached to plaster

Acc. #847 — This small piece of paper attached to plaster was found in the east wall of the Custis chamber in a hole near the window on its south side.

Acc. #842 — graining design and black and white

1 fragment attached to plaster

1 fragment removed from plaster

2 fragments like the first but not attached to plaster

2 fragments black and gray-white

The graining design is found on coarse plaster which is on the brick.

Acc. #846 — 1 fragment of graining not attached to plaster — found below the chair scar and above the baseboard scar.

1 fragment of circular frame found above the chair rail scar, 40" below the ceiling and 18" north of the south chimney edge.

Acc. #848 —

Plaster painted red found at the same level as the grained paper but in an adjoining room if contemporary with the old, no longer extant wall. Could this pigment be analyzed and compared with pigments used on the paper.

4 fragments of plaster with red paint

Scaled drawings:

Floor plan of the North Wing — First Floor

Floor plan and Wall Elevations — Inner Hall, North Wing

Elevation of chimney wall — locating wall paper fragments

Photographs: 10 photographs and 3 slides.

FRAGMENTS OF WALLPAPER—HOUSE, West Wall of Inner Hall, North Wing

Acc. No. 839 found under several layers of plastic half-way up the wall.

As submitted to the Winterthur Paper Laboratory:

A. Rough plaster

1) Some fragments crumbled into small grains.

2) Several small lumps some of which have fragments of paper clinging to them.

3) A large piece with a smooth surface to which a largish piece is attached (see B1 below).

It is assumed that all the plaster submitted was found on top of the paper fragments. However, the paper is reported as having been applied directly to older (est.) rough plaster without a layer of finish plaster between.

B. Paper — besides the small bits of paper clinging to the lumps of plaster, there is:

1) A largish piece of paper attached to the large fragment of plaster

2) An unattached piece of paper

Analysis of materials:

A. Plaster — it is a rough plaster with a distinctive warm color. It is composed of:

1) Particles of sand of a fairly fine uniform grit, some of which are nearly colorless, others vary from light gray to dark

2) Occasional translucent plates of silica

3) Calcium carbonate which has been given a warm tone (normally calcium carbonate is white)

4) A generous use of animal hairs, pale red-brown to a darker brown color

B. Paper — none of the paper fragments show on their reverse any traces of the material upon which they were mounted.

All of the paper is handmade laid paper whose fiber content is linen and cotton with considerable amount of scattered filling stock which is composed of shavings of dyed fibers.

Most of these fibers are blue, although a few red and yellow shavings are present. The blue fibers which were examined are cotton. Some brown flecks are bundled fibers like jute. There are also scattered wood chips present.

This kind of paper and its content are typical of wallpapers of the early 19th century

1) The paper still attached to the plaster is undecorated and could probably be the border of the decorated paper, or, less likely, a lining paper.

2) The unattached paper bore a printed decoration, but the paint has flaked so extensively that the design cannot be determined.

C. Paint on Paper B2

The paper was first covered with a wash of an aqueous base coat, deep warm cream in color. The specimen was too small to tell whether this coat was applied by brush or rollers. The printing technique was block printing.

NOTE: The attached paper could be tooled away mechanically from the covering plaster by careful manipulation with a spatula, without the use of water or heat. Perhaps for the clearing of the plaster from a large area of paper, the rough plaster, which is quite dry and friable, could be reduced to a thin layer mechanically. Then the thin layer could be gently lifted off by flaking it away with a spatula, provided, of course, the design is not injured. If dry removal does not work, a cautious use of moisture may be needed, working small areas at a time.

Acc. No. 842, found between baseboard and chair rail.

As submitted:

A. Paper with a design resembling wood-graining in black, pale orange and red-brown.

1) Attached to plaster

2) Unattached

3) Unattached to plaster but obviously fallen away from a piece of rough plaster (see C1 below). It undoubtedly was a paper used to cover the dado area of the wall.

B. Paper with a design in black and pale blue-gray that was the border strip along the baseboard.

C. Rough plaster which has the design of the grained wallpaper transferred onto its surface.

Analysis of materials:

A. Paper — the paper is handmade "wove" paper whose fiber content is linen and cotton with a generous sprinkling of filler stock most of which are dyed blue. Section 1 has traces of adhesive on its obverse and a continuous cover of adhesive with no trace of plaster on its reverse.

The same is true of Section 3.

Section 2 has residues of adhesive and plaster powder on its obverse. On its reverse, one-half shows traces of adhesive and the other half has adhesive plus some grains of plaster sand. The dividing line between the two conformations is straight as though the paper lay at a junction or a discontinuity, as overlapping another paper or at the edge of the plaster.

B. Paper — handmade "laid" paper whose fiber content is the same as Paper A. It has two sections. One has clumps of rough plaster on its reverse with no traces on its obverse. The other has no traces on its reverse, but tiny residues of rough plaster clinging to two phases on its obverse. Both sections are crumpled. The crumples together with the mix-up with plaster could be explained if the paper lay at a junction as between the plaster wall and a wooden member.

Paint on the papers. Both papers have block-printed designs. Paper A has a red-brown base and Paper B a pale blue-gray. The pigments are consistent with early paints: the black is carbon black, the white is calcium carbonate and red-brown is red iron oxide, probably mixed with red lead.

C. Plaster — a thick piece of rough plaster whose composition is like that of Acc. No. 839.

It has the design of the grained wallpaper on one of its flat surfaces. When as a wet plaster it was applied over the paper, it must have acted as a poultice causing the top of the aqueous paint to transfer. Judging by the shape of the plaster's surface and the contours of the transferred design, it must originally have been on top of Paper A3.

On the face with the paint, the plaster surface is not smooth beyond the paint, suggesting that it could have been forced, or allowed to flow, into a crevice or corner between two surfaces.

It is very smooth on the surface away from the painted one and has an impression which could have been made by a metal object like a nail.

Acc. No. 846a, found below the chair rail and above the baseboard.

As submitted: a fragment of the wallpaper with the wood-grained pattern, roughly torn on all sides.

This paper is identical in all ways to Paper A of Acc. No. 842. Also, the Paper A section 2, half of its reverse has particles of plaster and the other half has not. Since the line of division is fairly straight, the conclusion could be that it too lay at a junction place between two building surfaces.

Acc. No. 846b, found above the chair rail and 40" below the ceiling.

As submitted: a tiny scrap of wallpaper which is designated as "circular frame."

It is a handmade paper whose fiber content is cotton and linen with a generous scattering of dyed fibers mostly blue. In other words, it is the same in content as the other wallpapers submitted (except that of Acc. No. 847). The fragment is too small to be certain, but it appears to be "laid" paper rather than "wove."

Acc. No. 848, found at the same level as the wood-grained paper but in an adjoining room.

Analysis of paint:

The paint pigment has a content of iron and is therefore probably a red-iron oxide. It is an aqueous paint.

All the paints on the wallpapers are also aqueous. The red pigment on the wood-grained paper has lead in its content as well as iron which could mean that it is a mixture of red lead and red iron oxide.

FRAGMENT from the east wall of the Custis chamber

Acc. No. 847, found in a hold near the south window.

As submitted: two scraps of rough plaster, one of which has a coating of finish plaster and is covered with a piece of blue paper.

Analysis of materials:

A. Rough plaster — although it is much thinner than the plaster found on specimens from the inner hall, it is the same warm color and composition. The mix seems a little richer in calcium carbonate.

B. Finish plaster — it is a layer of fine white plaster 2-4 mm thick composed of calcium carbonate.

C. Paint — there are about four layers of paint over the finish plaster which could indicate four separate painting episodes. The colors are well off-white, ranging from a pale pink-tan to a light yellow-gray. They appear to be aqueous. The white pigment in the mixture tests to be lead white.

D. Coating — on top of the paper is a brown unpigmented layer which probably is shellac since it is soluble in acetone but not in ethyl alcohol.

Comments on the Bell flower pattern

Judging from the photograph, it looks like the design that could occur in old paper. Like the fragments submitted it lies below the same layering of later plaster. It is hard to tell if it runs horizontally or vertically. If the former, its position 30 inches below the ceiling is confusing. Some old ceiling borders in the form of festoons often extend down some distance, but probably not as much as 30 inches. If it runs vertically, it could of course be part of a paper which had vertical stripes of ornamentation.