Szilágyi András (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 27. (Budapest, 2009)
Györgyi FAJCSÁK - Andrea FÜZES: Chinese Embroidered Screen from the Turn of the 19th and 20th Centuries
has the same base fabric, embroidery and embroidery thread (fig. 10). The border and the round appliqué were first folded over to a width of 5 mm and then attached to the tunic neck opening and the blue silk fabric by gluing and sewing. Rice starch was probably used to attach pieces of fabric before sewing, enhancing the fastening of the folded-over edges and making for neater and straighter sewing-on. The fabrics were embroidered on a frame. This made the horizontally-stretched fabric accessible from both sides, so that it could be stitched made by inserting the needle up and down. The narrow embroidery was also made on a large piece of fabric stretched on a frame, and later cut out to the required size. The frame of the screen is garden walnut, 16 stained black and varnished. The four curved, turned legs are fastened by screws covered by decorative knobs. The top of the frame is adorned with mandarin buttons. 1' Three of the metal-set glass spheres are made of translucent (colourless, red and blue), and two of opaque (pink and blue) glass. 1 8 The spheres were cast in a mould which left a hole in the middle, smoothed by polishing, and lacquered. The metal settings were made by the filigree technique, from silvered copper and gilded silver. The pins soldered to the centre of the upper and lower metal settings fasten the spheres by a screw thread. The mandarin buttons are attached to the top of the wooden frame by copper nails soldered to their metal bases. The textile sections of the screen most sensitive to environmental effects have weakened over the years. When it was restored during the 1980s, the fabric was removed from the frame and the tunic fragment, the braid, the appliqué and the border were detached from the blue silk fabric. The tunic fragment was sewn on to black silk with black thread, but the border was not restored. The strengthened tunic fragment was not reassembled with the border, and so remained in the Museum in two pieces until the restoration of 2008. No record remains as to the location of the blue silk base fabric (fig. 11). Earlier conservation failed to halt the deterioration of the tunic fragment. Because it has become dried-out and fragile, the fabric was broken and incomplete in many places, and the old repairs did not provide sufficient reinforcement as well as being aesthetically unsatisfactory. There was substantial damage to the worn or deteriorated embroidery threads on the smaller surfaces, particularly the cut end of the front of the tunic (fig. 12). The more robust base fabric of the braid and the border was broken and incomplete in some places. The threads holding together the pieces of the border had loosened and, in a few places, broken. At some points on the embroidery, the fastening strand of the metal threads adorning the scholars' attire had detached, leaving small sections of the metal thread hanging. Apart from surface soiling on the fabrics, the rice starch adhesive layer remained on the folded-in edges. The dusty and soiled varnished surface of the frame had gone matt, and was scratched and damaged in several places. The screws holding on the legs had loosened, a factor in the breaking of one leg of the frame (fig. 13). Two of the decorative buttons covering the screws were missing. The fastening of the settings holding the mandarin button sphere, and the pins holding the buttons to the frame had loosened. The red glass mandarin button had at some time fallen off and been restored to its place with string (fig. 14). An important consideration in planning the restoration of the screen was that it should be presented in its original form, by 178
