House Restoration

[nspwis]

I'm attaching an image that is important for my local historical society, which is restoring an 1867 house. The goal for restoring this photo is to be able to see at least some of the details of the wallpaper in this room. Getting this to the point of a perfectly restored photograph would be nice, but the information in the photo is more important at the moment. (In other words, even if the photo looks terrible, if we can see what the wallpaper looks like, we will be very, very happy.)
I've gotten it to the point where I can pick up a faint pattern of the paper on the slanting ceiling, but can't get the pattern on the wall. I'm a beginner at photo restoration so I'm hoping someone with more experience will have better results.
A scan of the original photo is attached.
Thanks!

[Cassidy]

I can find no pattern but maybe you need to post a much higher resolution of an area of the wall as opposed to the actual picture, as all I get when I zoom in on the wall is pixelation. Otherwise, maybe you could post the picture on a site and post a link to it

[DCobb]

I took the picture into a blow-up program and did get some type of pattern on the wall. Whether this pattern is wallpaper or an artifact produced as a result of the process, I don't know. If it is a wallpaper pattern it looks like a tone on tone pattern.

dc

Looking at the picture a second time I am more of the opinion that this may be an artifact and not wallpaper; however, I am not an expert on the paper patterns of that period.

[Swampy]

I'm gonna agree with DC. I too blew this up in Genuine Fractals and zoomed in on the upper left corner where the wall meets the archway. Looks like the artifacting extends into an architectural feature that normally would not be covered by wallpaper. The additional clue is, there is no repeat looking pattern that wall paper may have.

My guess... painted plaster for the wall which would be more typical in an entry hall.

[Kraellin]

no pattern that i can discern either. the noise/artifacting pattern is consistent throughout. looks like a normal plaster and lathe wall.

what's got me puzzled, though, is that 'thing' behind the picture on the wall.

[lurch]

I don't think there's any wallpaper there. Did a little 'forensic' photoshopping on the image to look for a pattern and couldn't really find one. Started by blending the red and green channels in linear light mode to increase contrast on the wall. Then took the resulting gray scale image and made a curve that was really steep in the wall area to boost contrast still more. On separate layers I copied pieces of image that should be featureless ( the front of the newel post on the stairway and a piece of the door frame) and moved the snippets over the wall. Changed those layers to difference mode, hoping that any systematic wallpaper pattern would show up. Result in both cases was an essentially black swatch with apparently random noise. Could do the same thing with the sloped ceiling and get a bigger comparison area, but that assumes the ceiling wasn't papered and we don't know that.

That growth behind the picture is the real mystery. Cracked plaster?

[Dave.Cox]

I have to agree, I don't think that there is any wall paper there either. I tried a forensics filter on it, and still didn't see anything. I think that that growth behind the picture is actually an arrangement of twigs fanned out and placed behind the frame of the picture. I can see a shadow in the same direction that the picture frame throughs, so I don't think that it is cracked plaster.

[CathyH]

Originally Posted by Kraellin

what's got me puzzled, though, is that 'thing' behind the picture on the wall.

I think they are palms, like some church's give out on a Palms Sunday service. People would save them until next year.
That is my guess.

[lurch]

Palms! Of Course!

[Kraellin]

i've never heard of the practice of putting palms up like that, but ok. it certainly looks like an object and not something goofed up by age or wear. if you look at the picture in front of it, it's skewed by the object.

[bcarll]

Well I think you all are right -- I too see no paper on the walls either. In a past life I used to paint and wallpaper old Victorian houses. Looks very similiar to a restoration project I did back in the 70's. In the foyer, and I believe this to be a foyer, we applied no wall paper and painted the ceiling pink. WOW is right. After getting the approval from the historical society and they saying that indeed that was a common color for ceilings in that period I started the job wondering what a pink ceiling was going to look like. After it was done it looked great and I'm glad someone was brave enough to try it. Several of my peers came by to check it out and soon it became a recommended color for ceilings. The local paint store kept the formula for others to have mixed. But really according those who know it was the practice to paint not paper foyers -- however I have papered many foyers and stair cases. I don't think yours was papered. Look under the switch plates and outlet covers. Usually this will give you great clues.

bcarll

[Dave.Cox]

Cathy, I think you are right about the palms.
I hadn't thought about it, but yes it used to be common for some churches to hand out palm fronds on palm sunday.

[nspwis]

I'm sorry -- I posted my request and then went away for several days and forgot it was there. Yes, the "growth" behind the framed picture is a palm frond. The people who lived in this house were Methodists, and I associate the palms on Palm Sunday thing with Roman Catholics, but apparently the Methodists did the same thing a hundred years ago.
I will try to repost a scan of this image at a higher resolution if anyone is interested. I do think the wall was papered. The original treatment was a tromp l'oeil type painting and we have photographic evidence of that -- not contemporary photos -- in the 1970's the historical society stripped all the wallpaper and found the original painted surface -- then repapered it! Why they didn't take photos of each layer of paper as they pulled it off -- or saved bits -- or even why they would cover an original painted surface is hugely lamented, now.
We have removed light switches, ceiling molding, etc and have found a scrap of an Art Nouveau paper which I think was the treatment after the one shown in this photo.
And yes this is a foyer/ front hall -- the newel post is still there and is black walnut, not painted, and does not have a pattern.
I hope that answers all of the questions that came up in the discussion of the image -- and thanks for all of the replies -- I appreciate it.

[Kraellin]

and for anyone interested or that may not know:

French for "fool the eye"; a two-dimensional painting designed to look like a three-dimensional object.
http://www.newportfurnishings.com/Re...e_glossary.htm

and thanks for the info, nspwis. sounds like a bit of architectural archaeology going on there.

[jannetie]

Originally Posted by bcarll

But really according those who know it was the practice to paint not paper foyers -- however I have papered many foyers and stair cases. I don't think yours was papered. Look under the switch plates and outlet covers. Usually this will give you great clues.

bcarll

I have to jump in here - not for photo restoration, but for painted/papered foyers. My house was built in 1840 and when I renovated some 20 years ago, I was very careful to scrape the paper off layer by layer. We could pretty much date when what was done that way. In the hallway (not really a foyer, my house is half of what was originally a double house) there were numerous layers of paper and the bottom layer of paper there, over the ROUGH COAT of plaster, was a hand stamped or stenciled design. Several friends who are history/antique buffs dated it to the 1840 time period. Just my two cents.