In a room in which maybe three of the walls were more or less covered in large tapestries, quite impressive even in their presently degraded state. Perhaps there is some oligarch out there who would pay to have replicas made? Ideally somewhere in this country, but I suppose that even an oligarch might draw the line at the expense involved and get it done in China. Or in his home country. Replicas which might be installed alternating months so that we could get a better idea of what the place would have looked like at the time they were first made. Perhaps go the whole hog and put fires in the grates and candles in the candelabra? Dressed up luvvies doing something Stuart or Georgian?
However, that is all beside the point, which is the door behind the gap between two of the panels, designed to be more or less invisible when shut.
Should we infer that the tapestries were not made to order, with a door hole properly let into the design? Rather bought up from some bankrupt merchant?
I associate to the doors in Claremont House, where not dissimilar fake doors were added to some of the rooms to preserve the desired, Palladian symmetry. No tapestries, no hole in the wall, just a door stuck onto the wall.
PS: I wonder if the Russians go in for replica tapestries in the various palaces that they have restored? Guessing, it seems quite likely, that there would have been tapestries at one time or another. But perhaps fashion dictated import from France, along with the language, so there never was a native tapestry tradition.
Group search key: hcb.
No comments:
Post a Comment