Getting the balance right
Window drapery (detail), silk damask c1885-1890 in large plan drawer. Photograph Paolo Busato
Access versus conservation: new solutions for storage
Over the past twenty years the HHT has assembled a rich and diverse collection of material that documents the history of house and garden design in Australia. Established as the Lyndhurst Conservation Resource Centre in 1984 at the former HHT head office in Glebe, the collection includes soft furnishings – valances, loose covers, curtains, bed furnishings, trimmings; wall papers, garden ornaments, floor coverings and light fittings. Until recently, storage of the growing collection was constrained, making access to the material limited.
The HHT’s move to the new head office at The Mint provided an opportunity to review the way the collection, now known as the Caroline Simpson Library & Research Collection (CSL&RC), was stored. At the same time we began to provide improved public access to collection information through the HHT website.
The collection rehousing project, a collaboration with external consultants, involved balancing the priority of protecting the physical integrity of collection objects with facilitating safe access to them for researchers.
One of the biggest challenges has been to find solutions for the storage of larger, more fragile objects. In addition to the storage area in the CSL&RC in The Mint, the so-called ‘Judges Common Room’ area on the Hyde Park Barracks site was allocated for conversion into a storage area for large objects – mainly textiles, larger pieces of wallpaper and floor coverings.
The balancing of access and conservation requirements resulted in the need to develop solutions for specific problems. Special concerns included options for soft furnishings that were too large and fragile to be folded, light-fittings, the large number of flat textiles that had previously been stored many to one box and wallpaper rolls. In developing the solutions for storing these formats, research, including visits and correspondence with conservators and collection managers in other institutions both nationally and internationally, was undertaken.
Fundamental in the design of this space was the concept that researchers needing access to larger items would view them in the store, rather than having to move them to the CSL&RC. The space needed to be converted to be suitable as a collection store by blocking the windows to reduce light and minimise heat exchange, and the installation of extremely large plan drawers, wide and deep shelving and a custom-designed mobile rack system for hanging and rolled textiles.
One of the first decisions taken was to remove as much ‘wrapping’ as possible to enable the objects to be clearly identified with minimal handling. Rolls of wallpaper that had previously been stored in individual boxes were covered in clear, polypropylene wrappers with a coloured image of the pattern on the outside. Cradles made from conservation-quality foam were custom-designed to hold the rolls securely when the compact storage shelving is moved. The improved visibility allows for quicker retrieval, and removing them from boxes reduces the potential for damage when taking them in and out for researchers.
Light fittings and light shades were the next objects to be housed. The objective was to design a structure that would enable the object to be suspended while providing a mechanism for safe transport and storage. After some research, it was decided that frames of square aluminium tubing with plastic corner joints could be constructed to serve storage, transport and interpretation needs. The same model has been used to store other objects that meet similar criteria.
Textiles including pieces of fabric, loose covers, curtains, valances and bed coverings were sorted into categories based on their size, embellishments, condition, interpretative potential and anticipated research traffic. Options for storage included: those that could be rolled, those that could be folded, those that had to be stored flat in a box or drawer, and those that could be hung. Larger flat pieces were rolled onto a onto a padded tube. The rolled textile is then covered with a conservation material called Tyvek, and a coloured label is secured around it to facilitate easy identification and retrieval. Each roll is placed on a pole in the mobile rack.
Textiles that could not be rolled were assessed to determine whether their significance and condition warranted flat storage in one of the few large plan drawers. The example illustrated of the window drapery is supported on a padded board, which is then used to transport the item. If they are robust enough the objects are folded in textile boxes and placed on shelves.
The alternative for a number of soft furnishings that could not be rolled, folded in plan drawers or textile boxes was to be hung. Hanging was selected as the preferred option for a number of curtains and valances where their interpretation would be aided, in that the objects could be viewed easily – their method of construction, the fabric and its pattern repeat, the way the object was designed to be seen etc. – without compromising its physical integrity. This is a rare example of hanging storage for domestic textiles.
These innovative storage solutions mean that we can now provide research access to our object collections for the first time.
Tamara Lavrencic
Manager, Collections Management Unit
Joanna Nicholas
Curator, Caroline Simpson Library & Research Collection
First published in Insites, Spring 2007
The Caroline Simpson Library & Research Collection is open to anyone with an interest in the history of house and garden design and interior furnishing in New South Wales.
