History’s Textiles Conserved
Based in The Stable Courtyard of Burghley House, The Landi Company offers a full range of textile conservation services including research, conservation and presentation of textiles, tapestries and family heirlooms to the highest standards
The Landi Company, based at Burghley House, provides specialist textile conservation of both contemporary and historic costume and textiles for private individuals as well as heritage institutions across the country.
Founded in 1992, the company has transitioned under the directorship of Kelly Grimshaw, Louise Shewry and Melinda Hey, to become a leading private practice within textile conservation. The team are qualified experts with a broad range of global textile experience.
Amongst the hustle and bustle of the Burghley Horse Trials, the company’s conservators are hard at work, cleaning and consolidating precious textiles that capture moments across history.
Textiles can invoke technological progress and cultural symbolism, they are works of art and items of trade. Textiles are incredibly vulnerable to light, dust, and fluctuations in temperature and humidity. Textiles are often experienced through touch, resulting in wear and damage, and they provide an excellent food source for pests. Textiles that survive this multitude of hazards, especially historic textiles, deserve to be treasured.
The Landi Company works on projects from the very large to the very small in their environmentally monitored studios within Burghley’s Capability Brown designed courtyards. Tapestries and rugs, samplers, christening gowns, wedding dresses, cushions, sporting memorabilia and more flow through the historic gates of Burghley.
Recent projects have included custom storage for a christening gown passed down across three generations, cleaning and conserving a treasured Zandra Rhodes dress (sourcing original beads from the Rhodes studio), display solutions for cricket caps, conserving and framing an heirloom sampler, consolidating needlepoint on an inherited upholstered stool, treating a moth damaged blazer, reinstating areas of loss in a family tablecloth, cleaning and lining a tapestry bought at auction, the list goes on.
These projects reflect the wide array of services the company provide, including custom storage, surface cleaning, full wet-cleaning, adhesive treatments, stitched supports, linings and consolidation stitching. These remedial treatments conserve damaged or degrading textiles for future generations.
All objects that come into the company’s care are researched, treatments are documented and final reports, including recommendations for future care, are provided.
Being responsible for precious items is both a privilege and a responsibility and the company pride themselves in taking the upmost care for objects in the studio.
Other services include revision or establishment of collections care and management, display and storage solutions, pest management and environmental control solutions, and condition assessments for clients and institutions.
In recent years conservation and restoration, practices once hidden behind closed doors, have gained media traction. Often equated in the public’s imagination, the two industries have separate objectives. Restoration aims to return items to their (assumed) original state. Conservation focuses on the significance an object has acquired over time, with the ultimate goal of stabilising and conserving evidence from the past for the future.
Burghley retains a remarkable collection of state beds, tapestries and textiles unique to the property and on open display to the public. Twice a year, before and after the house closes to the public, the team from The Landi Company can be found atop a scaffolding tower cleaning, assessing and protecting textiles.
Preventive conservation is key to protecting collections for the long-term and this practice of cleaning and covering textiles when a house is not in use continues an historic housekeeping tradition that can be evidenced back to the 16th century.
The Landi Company’s range of textile conservation services include research, conservation and presentation of textiles, tapestries and family heirlooms to the highest standards. In conjunction with Burghley Preservation Trust, The Landi Company also offer conservation tours and studio visits. If you have a loved item that you would like conserved visit www.landico.co.uk or email us at [email protected].
Based in The Stable Courtyard of Burghley House, The Landi Company provides specialised cleaning and conservation for your textiles and family heirlooms. For further information visit www.landico.co.uk or for advice about an item precious to you, call 01780 480188.