The Great Locust Grove Wallpaper Mystery

Long ago, in Paris, just before the French Revolution, the firm of Reveillon designed an elegant arabesque figured wallpaper, with a bluish gray background, four vignettes of dancing sprites and cupids in glilt, and all the flourishes, foliage, and ornamentation of the high French style.

Later, in America, an unknown firm of wallpaper printers obtained some of the Reveillon paper, copied it, made a few changes and modifications, and sold it to customers, including a William Croghan of Locust Grove in Louisville, Kentucky. Major Croghan had the paper hung on the walls of his largest room, the southwest room on the second floor.

At some point, this large room was subdivided, and a slice of the wallpaper was covered by the edge of the partition wall. The rooms created were repapered at some point in the 19th century, and the original wallpaper was no longer visible, until...

During the 1960s restoration the partition was recognized as a later addition and removed, exposing the vertical strip of early wallpaper. On a snowy night, the paper peeled from the walls, and was rescued by the site's caretakers, and taken for study. The decision was made to reproduce and replace the wallpaper on the walls of the room.

A New York wallpaper firm was contracted to do the work. They identified the paper as a Reveillon design by referring to a black-and-white image of a panel of Reveillon paper. The paper was reproduced using a different printing technique, silkscreen instead of woodblock, and a different paper. The color was based on the sample from Locust Grove, blue green, orange, gray, white, and blue.

When it was hung on the walls, Locust Grove staff knew that it was a little off. The texture was not right, it was printed in strips, not panels, and, mysteriously, the dancing girl was kicking the opposite way from the sample of the original.

So, in the current re-restoration, we took the opportunity to reproduce it again, right, and sent the samples off to Adelphi paper in New York.

They told us it was not Reveillon, but a copy. They told us that the original Reveillon paper had different colors, and included not two but FOUR different dancing girls - we'd been displaying only half of the original design. BUT - was this a flaw in the 1960s reproduction, or in the 1790s knockoff?

Stay tuned....

Auction Over!

The first ever Locust Grove Auction is over; the last items have gone home with their purchasers. The auction brought in $60,365 in total; minus the auctioneers' fee, that gives us $54,328 to use for the development and preservation of the collections.

Thanks to all the collections donors through the years whose contributions will continue to work for the good of Locust Grove; thanks to all the Board and committee members who assisted in this process.

"Dr. Short's Cabinet" was the star of the show, going for $14,000 to Transylvania University. We're very glad that this important piece found a home where it should be. Several other pieces went to Locust Grove friends, volunteers, and supporters.

Now we move on to fill the gaps in the House's furnishings. We've got a list.

On Monday, we start prepping the walls for the wallpaper installation.

Waiting for Wallpaper

Locust Grove is in a holding pattern right now, waiting for the wallpaper that's on order from Adelphi Paper Hangings, the firm that hand block-prints authentic historic wallpaper patterns. Once the papers arrive, the House will begin to look much more as it did in the Croghans' day. Right now we have bare walls where no bare walls should be!

In preparation for the upcoming Auction, most of the furniture and other items to be sold have been removed from display, and are confined to the Dining Room. This leaves some rooms a bit bare, but our Acquisitions Committee has a wish list of replacement items, and they have begun the search for appropriate new furnishings.

Auction

We're holding our first public auction, as part of re-thinking the furnishings of the House. Here's the announcement:

Locust Grove
Auction of Selected Items from the Collection
Tuesday, September 29th, 7:00 pm
Locust Grove Visitors Center Auditorium

Preview: Sunday, Sept. 27th, 10 am to 4:30 pm; Tuesday Sept. 29, 5 pm to 7 pm

For the first time since the Locust Grove collection was assembled in the 1960s, a portion of the late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth century collection will be deaccessioned and sold at public auction on September 29th, 2009. Proceeds from the auction, in accordance with the museum’s policy, will be used only for the purchase, maintenance and repair of the National Historic Landmark’s collection of furnishings, documents, and paintings.

The auction is the result of a plaster, paint and woodwork study conducted in 2008 by historic paint analyst, Matthew Mosca, whose report indicates that the interior of Major William Croghan’s Kentucky home was more similar in appearance to the great Federal homes of the East than previously thought. With wall and floor covering renovations now underway, the site’s Acquisitions and Collections Committee is making recommendations for the deaccession of approximately 6% of the collection.

The items to be sold have been selected because they are dated outside Locust Grove’s period of interpretation (after 1822) or were made in regions that were not likely to have provided furnishings for this house. Other pieces are considered to be of inappropriate quality for the relatively wealthy Croghan household, and some have deteriorated to the point that they do not represent their appearance at the time they were made.

Following our Collections Policy, which states: "Out of scope material, items that have been replaced by more appropriate samples or items whose condition has deteriorated beyond museum quality may be deaccessioned, or removed from the collection, by recommendation of the committee and approval by the Board of Directors," items to be considered for removal from the collection were first reviewed by the Collections and Acquisitions Committee before being voted on by the Board of Directors.* The items to be sold include furniture, ceramics, silver, textiles, and decorative objects.

The auction will begin at 7:00 pm in the Locust Grove Visitors Center, with previews on Sunday, September 27, from 10-4:30 as part of our Antiques Market event (admission to the site is $6 on that day); and before the sale on the 29th from 5:00 to 7:00 pm, with no admission fee. Auctioneer Walt Robertson, of Swinebroad-Denton of Lexington, will conduct the sale.

*In accordance with the Ethics Policy of the Historic Locust Grove Board, our Board members, staff, and committee members from the Collections and Acquisitions Committee and the Restoration Committee will not be eligible to purchase any de-accessioned items at this auction.

New rooms open!

We're through the plastering stage, almost fully re-painted, and we've been able to get more rooms furnished and open to the public. The walls still need wallpaper, which will be ordered soon; the floors need rugs, which are being chosen; and we are de-accessioning (removing from the collection) the furnishings that have not been chosen for the new furnishings plan, but we have not yet acquired their replacements.

Our docents proceed on, with great flexibility and imagination. Visitors seem to enjoy this process, however messy.

As of today, the only first floor room that isn't on the tour is the dining room, which is being used to store the furniture that has been moved. Clark's room is only partially furnished, since we need to acquire some new pieces such as a more appropriate bed. On the second floor, the bedrooms have been repainted and are brighter and finer.

The room formerly called the ballroom (now the "great parlor" - get used to it!) is getting its final coats of verdigris paint (it takes 4-5 coats in all). The wallpaper has been removed, and will be replaced by a newly, authentically reproduced paper done by woodblock process in horizontal sheets. It's fine custom work, and it may take a while. All these rooms are open.

The third floor is much the same, but the "nursery" is not accessible - furniture storage again.