Feather frieze is touched up

This will tickle you

A fragile feather frieze at a Devon National Trust property has been touched up after being in place for more than 200 years.

The unusual decorative display, created with the help of hundreds of eighteenth century birds, is in the drawing room of A La Ronde in Exmouth.

A specialist conservation team took around 150 hours to spruce up the frieze in the 16-sided house.
  
It may have had a wash and brush up since the 1790s, but the recent work is the first since the National Trust took the property into its care in the 1980s. Hundreds of individual feathers make up the frieze, each carefully placed in an intricate pattern over 200 years ago.  

And where there's a quill, there's a way. The feathery frieze is back to its 1796 glory.

The house was built by two cousins, Mary and Jane Parminter following a Grand Tour of Europe. They decorated the house with imaginative interiors, including natural but fragile materials such as feathers.  
  
The work on the frieze is just the start. The house also has an internationally-significant shell gallery and grotto staircase and work is underway to conserve both. 
  
Kate Berlewen, conservator at A la Ronde for the National Trust said:  “Over hundreds of years the intricate surfaces of the feather friezes had gathered dust particles and other matter such as spiders’ webs. They had also attracted pests which feed on the protein in feathers, and the glue used on the feathers had deteriorated too, leading to increased fragility.
  
“The friezes therefore needed both cleaning and consolidation, using small paintbrushes and specialist sponges, to improve the visibility of the intended colours and patterns and to prevent future losses. We’re really pleased to see it fully conserved.”  

Salli Carr-Griffin, Property Operations Manager at A la Ronde said, “Due to many years of deterioration caused by inside and outside forces, the Shell Gallery is now extremely fragile and physical access is not possible in order to ensure its survival for the future. However, we're really pleased to have the opportunity to make the gallery more accessible digitally, so we can share its unique features with as many people as possible.” 

The video report on this page is from BBC Spotlight.