Conservation and restoration of upholstery.(Design notes)(Elizabeth Lahikainen and Associates)

In this issue Dean T. Lahikainen describes the fabrics and trims that his wife, Elizabeth Lahikainen, selected to upholster the stools, sofas, and the seats of the mahogany armchairs during the restoration of the east parlor in the Peirce-Nichols House in Salem, Massachusetts. Elizabeth Lahikainen and Associates specializes in the conservation and restoration of the upholstery of objects in museums and private collections.

Elizabeth Lahikainen became affiliated with the Peabody Essex Museum in 1990. Her firm concentrates on interpreting the historical evidence presented by a piece of upholstered furniture and then selecting accurate fabrics for its restoration. In some cases most of the original materials survive on the frame, as was the case with the settees in the east parlor of the Peirce-Nichols House (see p. 95). Very often there is but scant information. For example, only fragments of the original fabric remained on the sofa shown in the detail at the right, but Lahikainen was able to determine that it was a wool moreen that had been installed in a sideways fashion called railroaded.

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Sometimes there are no original materials or evidence on the frame, making it important to select fabrics and trims stylistically appropriate to the piece and period. Elizabeth Lahikainen and Associates has experience with a wide variety of fabrics that are suitable for antiques as demonstrated by the following examples. The scroll-arm neoclassical sofa illustrated above (right), is upholstered in a luxurious damask made of cotton and rayon in a satin weave. Its colors combined with the scale of the medallions make it an exceptional fabric choice for this sofa. In the eighteenth century, moire, which refers to the "watered" look of a fabric's surface, ...