China wallpaper graces Irish home

"The restoration is a big project but it'll be worth it because the paper is incredible," says the house's chief guide, Kathryn Connolly.

"First we're making the whole house watertight, then there's lots to do because of the damp and water ingress.

"There were holes in the stonework big enough to put your hand in, so in April 2021, conservator David Skinner and his team spent a week taking down the paper. It's in storage upstairs, laid flat, on breathable material to let air run through it and dry it, and to prevent it getting mouldy."

The last residents of Westport House were Jeremy Browne and his family, who moved out in 1969.When he died, it was left to his five daughters, who fell victim to the financial crash of 2008, and after years in legal limbo, in December 2015, it was put up for sale.

"It's the gem of the town, but for that year it was on the market, someone could have bought it as a private residence and we'd all have been shut out," says Connolly. "But since the Hughes brothers, whose grandfather was once a tenant farmer in a cottage on the estate, bought it, there's been no looking back."

Skinner, who is overseeing the paper restoration, says the way Chinese wallpaper is made ensured it had lasted well.

"Western paper is usually made out of linen and cotton fibers but Chinese paper is made from tree bark fibers, certain varieties of mulberry, and is in many ways better," he says. "It comprises a very thin top layer, almost like cigarette paper, with the design painted on it, then two more coarse layers behind it, which made it strong and easy to handle and apply to the walls."

The contrast between repeated-pattern Western wallpaper and the hand-painted Chinese artwork would have been "startling" to 19th-century European eyes, he says, and the robustness of the paper ensured its colors are still vivid.

"There wasn't a sudden calamitous event that spoiled the paper, it was just time taking its toll," he explains.

Once removed, the paper undergoes a carefully controlled washing before the old backing papers are removed, and once dry, replaced. There is one section over the fireplace where the design has faded, but Skinner says it would be wrong to try to fill in any gaps.

"That area will go through the same relining process but it will be left rather washed-out looking, not reconstructed," he says, adding that it would be fascinating to have a Chinese social historian view the finished restoration to explain the significance of its details.