Loreto Mandeville Hall
Loreto Mandeville Hall
Mandeville Hall is a splendid example of the fine villas built in fashionable Toorak during the late 1870s and early 1880s for Victoria’s wealthy pastoralists, business and professional men and their families. It is among the most lavishly decorated of these nineteenth century Toorak mansions. Its ornate façade and front portion with grand entrance hall and conservatory, Oak parlour, Indian Room and exotic bathroom were added in 1877 for Joseph Clarke, millionaire landowner, from the designs of the notable architect Charles Webb. Mandeville Hall is of particular significance for its remarkably intact nineteenth century interior.
The Centre for Cultural Materials Conservation has been associated with the conservation treatment and preservation of Mandeville Hall since 1994. Following an initial conservation analysis report by Timothy Hubbard Pty Ltd, a thorough condition report and documentation were undertaken to determine the extent of a scope of works and a list of priorities. The Oak Parlour and the Drawing Room were of prime significance and a priority. Extensive surface cleaning accompanied by the treatment of the silks in the Drawing Room were underway by 1996.
Drawing Room
Several losses in the ceiling and cornice ornaments were replaced and matched to the remainder of the room. This was followed by the Conservatory treatment project. This had a huge impact on maintaining the correct temperature and relative humidity in the drawing room. The conservatory was originally covered with a glass roof, since demolished and replaced with corrugated iron over a false asbestos ceiling. It was determined that a glass roof would be inappropriate if proper conditions were to be maintained in the Drawing Room. Thorough testing was undertaking to determine the original surface colors and the extent of any remaining original features, including the tessellated floor. Heritage carpenters and painters were appointed to reconstruct the conservatory under the recommendations and supervision of the CCMC.
The Entrance Hall is a lavish combination of gilded cornices and ceiling, painted wall murals, stencilled walls and embossed paper dados. The dado aside, most of these surfaces were well preserved under a coating of dust, smoke stains and tarnished shellac. These were removed to recreate the aesthetic intensity of the Entrance Hall. The dado had been painted over several times and unfortunately the paint layers had cross-linked with the original surface of paper, gold leaf and dragon’s blood staining. A decision was made to retain the accumulated layers and recreate the original surface of gilding and red shellac over the existing paint layers. Tests were undertaken to determine the color schema throughout and a professional heritage painter was appointed for the task of repainting.
The Indian Room had been used as a library for well over half a century. Bookshelves and several layers of grey paint had covered the original surface of painted arches and foliage. The task of removing these layers was extremely time consuming and expensive. However, two sections of overpaint have been removed to reveal a rich and colourful array of gold arches and green foliage of varying kinds.
As a result of the difficulty in trying to remove this overpaint without damaging the original, CCMC paintings conservator Jocelyn Evans developed her own paint removal system, based around a slow-acting paint stripper, called a dibasic ester.
Read more about Jocelyn's 'fine art of stripping' research
The conservation treatment at Mandeville hall is a long-term project that involves general maintenance, house keeping and disaster planning issues. Environmental monitoring is of prime importance and is undertaken at least three times every year. The Centre works in close proximity with the school’ s historic house committee to determine the next appropriate steps to be taken in the continuing treatment and preservation of this fine Victorian era mansion.