After restoration
Scenic Wallpaper was contacted to restore an antique folding screen featuring three panels from a very rare set of The Tiger Hunt, also known as Paysage Indien, Chasse au Tigre, Chasse Indienne or Vues de l'Inde. This panoramic wallpaper had previously been thought to have been made by Dufour, but has since been attributed to the Velay Manufactory, a contemporary of Dufour active in Paris after 1807. These panels are from a rare first edition print of 25 hand-blocked color panels, one of very few remaining examples of this wallpaper.
The scenes in this panoramic paper draw inspiration from the hunting traditions in Asia. They are thought to have been taken from William and Thomas Daniell's Oriental Scenery, published in London in 1795. The artwork depicts an island at the mouth of the River Ganges, with local rulers such as the Nawab and the Rajahs, and tigers being hunted on horseback. The scenes represent local customs, with costumes and monuments faithful to the drawings. Even in this small section, you can see the fine attention to detail in the hand blocked scenes.
The screen was in poor condition and needed careful handling and restoration. We first cleaned and stabilized the antique paper, then retouched damaged sections and paint that had flaked off. It was a meticulous job as the original artwork was so finely hand-blocked.
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After restoration
This was the third time that Scenic Wallpaper has restored a set of these very rare antique Tiger Hunt panels. Click here to see a previous restoration.
In addition to the Tiger Hunt panels that we have restored, there are three other documented examples of this wallpaper in private collections in France, Belgium and Sweden.
After restoration