Calke Abbey

Calke Abbey, Derbyshire.

Calke Abbey is a Grade I listed country house near Ticknall, Derbyshire, England, in the care of the charitable National Trust. The site was an Augustinian priory from the 12th century until its dissolution by Henry VIII.

The present building, named Calke Abbey in 1808, was never actually an abbey, but is a Baroque mansion built between 1701 and 1704. The house was owned by the Harpur family for nearly 300 years until it was passed to the Trust in 1985 in lieu of death duties. Today, the house is open to the public and many of its rooms are deliberately displayed in the state of decline in which the house was handed to the Trust to illustrate the decline of the English Country House.

The Drawing Room

The restoration of the Drawing Room festoon curtains.

Pure silk narrow width tissue for curtain restoration in the Drawing Room, in yellow and cream.

Reproducing the original narrow width Spitalfields woven cloth required 13,000 Jacquard cards to be cut by Derek Chatten at deVere Mill Castle Hedingham Essex.  The design is in an isometric layout and to weave the design a new harness was built for the 19th Century hand loom. There is a sample of this fabric held in the Warner Textile Archive.

Project reference: 971 / 986

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