not held up well over time, the CPWP believes that better treatment procedures need to be written. Consequently, the Center has gathered practitioners who work with paintdecorated plaster and homeowners who have walls needing attention, to share case studies and develop a set of best practices for the conservation and preservation of these painted icons of American decorative art.
PRESERVING WALLS
Preserving Painted Treasures By Linda Carter Lefko
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tenciled and freehand painted walls—found under plaster, wallboard, and even paneling during renovations—can be important pieces of folk art. If you live in an antique home, the work of some great American folk artists may have long been hidden in plain sight, painted on your walls. More of it is being discovered in Maine every month as homeowners remove paneling and scrape off wallpaper. Painted walls were perhaps slow to be appreciated for what they are, simply because they are not readily portable, nor are they easily displayed. As a consequence, they were not quickly recognized as important resources in the history of decorative arts in America. In fact, it was only about 60 years ago that scholars within the academic, antiques, and antiquarian communities started to 44 • MAINE SENIORS
fully recognize the artistic merit of such walls and begin documenting, recording, and writing about them. Now it is acknowledged that many 19th century American paint-decorated plaster walls are folk-art treasures, but preserving them properly is often a challenge. Unfortunately for the discoverers and owners of these folk-art murals, there has never been a universal “how-to” guide for preserving and restoring paint-decorated plaster. The Center for Painted Wall Preservation (CPWP) hopes to change that. The organization was founded in 2015 to save these cultural treasures from being destroyed or lost to the dumpster, destructive fresh coats of paint, or misguided attempts at conservation or preservation. After documenting many early conservation treatments that have
Each room of painted plaster presents different preservation issues because every mural is different, and each building creates its own unique environment. For example, one room might have had inconsiderate wallpaper removal, while another could have sustained water damage because the mural was painted with water-soluble distemper. Still another might have been damaged by something as simple as the build-up of 200 years of soot and smoke from woodburning heat. That said, the differences in materials—the plaster and paint—in homes are not as vast as you might expect. Most of the walls from the period 1800 to 1860 are lime-based plaster decorated with glue-based distemper paint. Currently the best way to deal with painted plaster is the “less is more” approach. The walls in a best state of preservation are often ones that have been left alone, even neglected. Ironically, poverty is often the best method of preservation. Light is a problem most people fear. Some people have reported that their families have kept the shades drawn and lights out for 140 years, only lighting the room when showing off the walls to visitors. Our research has shown such fears are unfounded.
