18-MT-2014_Santena, Castello Cavour, Four poster bed à la duchesse

Facilitated description:

 

The four-poster bed is a bed with a fabric cover on the sides and above the bed. 
The four-poster bed was made towards the end of the 1700s. 
The bed is kept in Castello Cavour in Santena. 
The La Venaria Reale Conservation and Restoration Centre restored the bed in 2014. 
The restorers dismantled all parts of the bed. 
They transported the tissues to the lab in Venaria. 
They cleaned all parts of the bed from dust with a small vacuum cleaner. 
They removed the patches (pieces of fabric to cover the holes) of the old restoration.
They eliminated the folds from the fabric by placing the fabric under the weight of small slides or pulling the fabric with pins. 
They repaired the damaged parts with fabric of similar color or with seams. 
In the end they reinforced the bed blanket with the sandwich technique (they protected the blanket by placing it between two fabrics).

 

 

 

 

Abstract of the intervention: 

 

Restoration

The restoration of the imperial canopy bed à la duchesse (the abbey covers the entire bed cover) began with the dismantling of all parts of the bed and the separation of the individual fabrics from their binding system. In this way it was possible to pack the parts to be allocated to the restoration laboratory of Venaria. This was followed by the physical cleaning of the surface with a surgical vacuum cleaner and the removal of the patches of the previous restoration with a controlled contribution of humidity (gellano). The removal of patches made it possible to map more precisely the areas of degradation and gaps.
The tissue was then distended. In this way it was possible to recover the structural deformations thanks to entomological pins, surgical pliers and light slides, used to recover the orthogonality. 
Consolidation interventions were followed, calibrated according to the types of degradation present. In particular, on the front bank the textile unit of the trimmings has been restored with silk organza inserts, dyed in a slightly lighter shade to allow the recognition of the intervention. Consolidations were carried out both by needle and adhesion. 
For the aesthetic recovery of the numerous gaps of fabric in correspondence of the polychrome areas, color-dyed organza inserts have been inserted on the back in harmony with the shortcomings. 
Finally, the blanket required a separate consolidation with the sandwich technique, which included the insertion of a support in silk organza on the back and tulle on the front.

 

Bibliography

M. Cardinali, R. Genta, C. Tricerri, E. Cerra, P. Croveri, T. Cavaleri, P. Triolo, The four-poster bed in painted silk with chinoiseries motifs of the Cavour castle in Santena: a complex intervention of conservative recovery, in State of the art 13, volume of Proceedings of the 13th IGIIC National Congress (Centro Conservazione e Restauro La Venaria Reale, Turin, 22/24 October 2015), Florence, 2015