Previous | Next

In the Old Library a surprise discovery of an intact chair rail profile on the side of the chimneypiece led to the complete redesign of the room's rail. The new profile was much more elaborate than the one found by the paint conservators and so it dramatically altered the Team's understanding of the room's proposed chair rail. Initially the chair rail design consisted of a simple flat board capped with a small molding. What was found on the chimneypiece, however, showed that the chair rail was actually made up of two separate sections. The profile that had been found on the trim only represented the first section, or the "chair board." The second section of the profile, called the "surbase" was completely missing from the original profile found by the conservators. However, by digitizing the profile discovered on the chimneypiece, the Restoration team was able to produce a profile that exactly matched historic profile.

1k

The chair rail profile found on the mantelpiece in the Old Library.