Before treatment
Condition Before Treatment
The wool textile was in fair structural and aesthetic condition, with losses likely caused by pests along the central crease and overall surface grime. The linen support was in good condition with overall creasing.
Textile Document
France (est.)
18th century
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Wool with linen support
This is an irregular quadrilateral shaped textile document made of worsted wool damask with a pink-red ground and white flowers. Selvedges are present on both the top and bottom. The document is attached to a rectangular, plain weave linen support with hand-sewn running stitches of white thread on all four sides. The top and bottom edges are also stitched down using machine stitching.
The support is undyed and hemmed using machine-stitches. The verso of the support is stamped in all four corners with a black ink crest. The center of the crest is indiscernible. The perimeter reads “MARQUE DEPOSEE/ LYON-PARIS/BRUXELLES,” which acts as a trademark.
Valuing Historic Stitching
In order to stabilize and aesthetically compensate the losses in the wool, it was necessary to access its verso. The stitching used to attach the wool to the linen support along the proper left edge was temporarily undone to allow access to the verso of the document by cutting the thread at the knot in the upper left corner. Prior to pulling the thread out, a Mylar template of the original stitching was created.
Rectangular areas of loss in the wool textile were bridged using nylon bobbinet underlays and aesthetically compensated using silk habotai patches dyed to match the pink ground. These were stitched in place using hair silk running stitches. The thread along the proper left side was restitched in the original pattern using the Mylar template and secured at the end using hair silk couching stitches.
Restitching the undone stitches using the original thread, following the Mylar template
After treatment
Condition After Treatment
The textile is in good structural and aesthetic condition. Surface grime has been reduced, and creases were relaxed using localized humidification. The central loss in the wool is now stabilized and is no longer visually distracting.
The document was rolled to prevent further creasing.
Images courtesy and copyright of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation