Zuber’s Hindoustan, first hand-blocked in 1806, is still in production using the original wood blocks in the original atelier in Alsace, France, near the border of Switzerland. This edition was first installed in a pre-war apartment on Lexington and 72nd St on Manhattan’s Upper East Side.

When the clients decided to leave the apartment, we carefully removed the paper, since it was installed in the traditional way over muslin and liner paper, a process that has been used for well over 175 years on fine wallpapers. Not knowing exactly where the paper would be reinstalled, it was put into storage for almost 10 years until the perfect location came up at our client’s home in Ridgefield, CT.

The reinstallation was carefully planned out and the panels were laid out in advance. Of course since it was a completely different room, the walls were different sizes from the original layout, the doors and windows and outlets were in different places, and this all needed to be accounted for.

In order to fit the space in a way that properly displayed the artwork, a mismatch was created in a corner and plain blue sky was installed above the doorways. The sky now varied in color because of the different dye lots, but we would correct the color.

This was all done purposefully and planned so that minimal restoration would need to be done on the original paper and in a way that the artwork wouldn’t be interrupted.

During reinstallation - planning mismatches

During reinstallation - inserting patches of missing paper

The paper also needed to be cleaned after years of dirt and smoke built up on the surface.

After reinstallation, before and after cleaning

Our artist then painted the sky over the doorways to match the original blue, filled in any missing leaves on the edges, and corrected the mismatches as well as general touch-ups.

We also had to insert patches where the original switch plates were located, and these were filled in with artwork to completely disguise the missing pieces.