Hampton Court Palace, Surrey

This two-day conference was kindly hosted and supported by Historic Royal Palaces.

It reviewed the long history of the use of paint to imitate wood and marble. A wide range of papers discussed the history, aesthetics, materials and techniques of the painted imitations of these more exotic and expensive materials. The second day of the conference provided demonstrations of marbling and graining techniques and allowed delegates to try their own skills imitating several different styles of wood graining. Specialist guided tours led by palace curators and decorative finishes experts focussed on the wide range of extant examples of graining and marbling which can be seen within Hampton Court Palace.

Programme
7 November 2002
-Welcome and Announcements, Una Richards
-Faking It at Hampton Court: ‘Why we are here’, Jonathan Foyle
-‘The Lure of a Fine Figure’, Dr Ian Bristow
-Marbling in Medieval Wall Paintings, David Park
-Graining and Marbling in Renaissance England, Anthony Wells-Cole
-The Use of Graining and Marbling (and other imitative effects) in the Seventeenth Century, Helen Hughes
-The Investigation and Recreation of the Marbling in the Wren Library, Lincoln, Nigel Leaney
-The Late-eighteenth and Early-nineteenth Century – Changes in Materials and Techniques, Ian Bristow
-The Nineteenth Century – The Kershaw Panels at the Victoria and Albert Museum, Alan Gardner
-Grained and Marbled Wallpapers and Other Illusions, Allyson McDermott
-The Training of Grainers and Marblers in the Twentieth and Twenty first Centuries, Charles Hesp

8 November 2002
-Welcome and Announcements, Una Richards
-Practical Demonstrations, Frank Garbutt, Tom Greening, John Nevin
-Palace Tours, Jonathon Foyle, Susanne Groome, Richard Roberts