How a stitch in time saves old tapestries
Work is under way to restore 17th-century hand-woven Flemish tapestries at Groote Schuur in Cape Town, the residence of former prime ministers, writes Janine Stephen
Fibre "is not meant to last forever", says Louise Man-Nel. Yet, her job requires her to try and arrest time. She is probably the only experienced textile conservator in SA and her meticulous attention is focused on a 17th century Flemish tapestry that usually hangs in a staircase at Groote Schuur in Cape Town. The "Big Barn" was built by the Dutch East India Company around 1657 and four intricate tapestries were hung inside. In 1893, it was bought by Cecil John Rhodes. He hired a then unknown architect, Herbert Baker, to renovate the building. A beauty of a house with barley-sugar chimneys, gables and teak beams was the result. Rhodes filled it with beautiful things – including artefacts from the Great Zimbabwe Ruins, which no doubt Zimbabwe would like to have returned. The house was bequeathed to SA after Rhodes’s death and became the prime minister’s official abode. FW de Klerk was the last statesman to live there. Nelson Mandela chose to move the president’s residence to Genadend...
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