Restoration of a tapestry chair cover

This detail is that of a tapestry woven chair cover belonging to the Portuguese Embassy. Seat covers are often severely damaged due to the functional use of the object and the mechanical constraints inflicted. The weave was severely damaged, in particular in the areas woven in silk, a fragile thread: the loss of the silk thread in the feathers of the centrally positioned birds was almost total; the warps were bare of weft and at breaking point.
The chairs were sent to our workrooms in Madagascar to be restored: the two birds were almost completely rewoven.