Cleaning embossed leather wall coverings

Given the 1920's time period mentioned, it is unlikely that the wall
covering is leather.  It was popular to put up a thick wallpaper,
embossed to resemble leather with gilt and colors.  Check around an edge
or under a piece of molding to learn whether or not the "leather" is a
coated layer on top of a thick paper layer.  If it is, begin with normal
paper cleaning methods (whatever that may mean) and slowly proceed, with
much testing, to solvents such as VM&P naphtha.

Following dry cleaning, it may be useful to consider applying a varnish
such as Soluvar (from Liquitex; soluble in naphtha) and then removing the
varnish which will remove a certain amount of the tars and nicotine.

Jack C. Thompson
Thompson Conservation Lab.
Portland, OR

                                  ***
                  Conservation DistList Instance 8:17
                Distributed: Thursday, September 1, 1994
                        Message Id: cdl-8-17-001
                                  ***