The Japanese folding screen of Grand Admiral Anton Haus and its restoration

Museum artefacts hide numerous stories and narratives inside them. They are part of the past and a link between them. This could also be said about the Japanese folding screen, which was purchased by the Maritime Museum in 2018.

The four-part double-sided silk screen contains silk embroideries with floral luck bringing motifs on one side and Indian ink and bright-coloured silk paintings with bird and plant motifs symbolizing the four seasons on the other side,. The author of the paintings is the Japanese painter Yamada Ōsai (1821–1846). Although the paintings are older, the folding screen was made between 1900 and 1902. The approximate date of its making was determined on the basis of Anton Haus's voyage to East Asia and a newsprint dated February 1900, which was discovered inside the screen during its restoration in 2025. Paintings of the four seasons that were originally intended to be hung on the wall were most probably used. It is possible that Anton Haus himself selected them and had them made into a screen. The shape of the frame, with a semicircular convex upper side and a leg at the bottom, suggests that the folding screen was adapted to the use and taste of Europeans.

 

The screen is of great significance to the Piran Maritime Museum and the Slovenian and former Austro-Hungarian territories not only owing to its age, artistic value and origin, but particularly due to its connection with the Grand Admiral of the Austro-Hungarian Navy Anton Haus (Tolmin 1851 - Pula 1917), who was born and resided for a long time on Slovenian soil.

 

The screen recounts the story of intercultural contacts between Europe and East Asia, as well as of the attitude of Europeans towards Japanese culture and, above all, of Anton Haus's voyage to East Asia, of his attitude towards Japanese culture and of his interconnectedness with his relatives at the Draškovec Manor near Šentjernej and in Šentjernej itself, where the screen was utilized and kept for several generations. For this reason, it also bears witness to their culture of living and way of life.

 

Grand Admiral Anton Haus made history mostly as a superb strategist and commander of the Austro-Hungarian Navy in the period from 1913 to 1917 and who directed military operations during World War I primarily for the good of his homeland’s defence. As a child, he moved with his family from his native Tolmin to Novo mesto, where he attended primary school and the first couple of grades of high school, and eventually completed the last grades of high school in Ljubljana. After marrying, he resided with his family for some time. His wife was his cousin Ana (Netty) Trenz from the Draškovec Manor near Šentjernej, where he and his family had often made visits already during his childhood.

 

Upon the suppression of the Boxer Rebellion in China, Anton Haus served as commander of the Austro-Hungarian armoured cruiser Kaiserin und Königin Maria Theresia from May 1901 to December 1902, and of the entire Austro-Hungarian East Asia Squadron from 22 June 1901 to December 1902.

 

In May 1900, Haus set off on a voyage to America as the commanding officer of the corvette Donau. In Argentina, however, he received a telegram ordering him to sail to East Asia due to the Boxer Rebellion in China. As a consequence of attacks on foreigners, the Austro-Hungarian embassy in China requested its Navy for military support. As soon as he docked in Nagasaki, he had to board the armoured cruiser Kaiserin und Königin Maria Theresia; with it he visited, as its commander, a few ports in China and Korea in East Asia, apart from Japan. He also travelled by train to several places in the interior of the countries. It was in this time that he bought a folding screen in Japan where the ship stopped in Nagasaki, Hakodate, Yokohama and Kōbe. After returning to his homeland, he gave it to his relatives - the Trenz family from the Draškovec Manor near Šentjernej, where the screen was kept and used for few generations. In 2018, it was bought from his heirs by the Maritime Museum Piran.

 

Inv. No.: P18440 / EP4051

 

Where it was made: Japan

 

Dated to: Meiji period (1868-1912), 1901 – 1902

 

Materials: silk, paper, wood

 

Measurements: height: 170 cm, width: 55 cm + 55 cm + 55 cm + 55 cm, thickness: 2,5 cm

 

 

 

Conservation-Restoration of the Japanese folding screen

 

When purchased, the screen was found to be badly damaged. The endeavours to carry out the best possible conservation-restoration of this and many other East Asian screens held in the Slovenian Ethnographic Museum, the Celje Regional Museum and few other museums led to the organization of the international symposium and workshop Japanese embroidered screens: restoration problems (in marth 2024 at the Slovenian Ethnographic Museum and the Celje Regional Museum), as well as to the five-day workshop on the conservation of Japanese folding screens at the Restoration Centre of the Archives of the Republic of Slovenia in Ljubljana in April 2025. The symposium and workshop were part of the project Orphaned artefacts, treatment of East Asian artefacts outside organized collecting practices (J6-3133; 2021–2025), led by the Department of Asian Studies of the Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana in cooperation with the Science and Research Centre Koper and the Regional Museum Celje. In it, the National Museum of Slovenia and the Maritime Museum also took part. Both restoration workshops were led by Howard Sutcliffe - an experienced textile conservator and Director of the River Region Costume and Textile Conservation based in Arley, Alabama and Nashville, Tennessee, USA. In 2025, the workshop was organized, apart from the Department of Asian Studies of the Faculty of Arts of the University of Ljubljana, by the Centre for the Restoration and Conservation of Archival Materials of the Archives of the Republic of Slovenia, the Association of Restorers of Slovenia and the Maritime Museum Piran.

 

During the workshop, which was envisaged for textile and paper restorers and conservators, two wings of Anton Haus’s four-part screen were restored, thanks to the experienced female textile conservators under the leadership of Howard Sutcliffe. They ardently restored silk embroidery, while paper conservators worked on conserving a painting on silk that was glued onto newsprint. They also conserved the newsprint inside the screen. Some time later, conservator and restorer Ajda Purger from the Maritime Museum Piran also conserved the screen’s red-lacquered wooden frame with black leaf patterns.

 

 

 

Prepared by Bogdana Marinac

 

 

Literature:

 

Vampelj Suhadolnik, Nataša: Pohištvo, Kanček Vzhodne Azije, Spominski in okrasni predmeti v zapuščinah pomorščakov na Slovenskem, Ljubljana 2025, pp. 197-212.

 

Marinac, Bogdana: Zgodbe pomorščakov in njihovih predmetov, Kanček Vzhodne Azije, Spominski in okrasni predmeti v zapuščinah pomorščakov na Slovenskem, Ljubljana 2025, pp. 43-97.

 

Marinac, Bogdana: Spominjajo me na Daljni vzhod, Predmeti v novem okolju, Kanček Vzhodne Azije, Spominski in okrasni predmeti v zapuščinah pomorščakov na Slovenskem, Ljubljana 2025, pp. 145-155.

 

Kanček Vzhodne Azije, Spominski in okrasni predmeti v zapuščinah pomorščakov na Slovenskem (Ed.: Nataša Vampelj Suhadolnik, Maja Veselič, Bogdana Marinac), Ljubljana, 2025

 

 

 

Conservation of the textile part of the embroidered Japanese folding screen

 

The silk fabric of the Japanese screen with embroidered floral motif was badly damaged, particularly at the bottom and top. The fabric was glued to a wooden subframe, inserted into the screen’s wooden frame. Initially, the entire subframe with the fabric was removed from the frame and the fabric sucked up on the front and back with a vacuum cleaner with adjustable air suction to remove surface dirt, dust and small particles. By moisting the edges, the silk fabric was removed from the subframe, with the damage on the back stabilized with a new silk fabric, dyed in the corresponding original shade of greenish colour. This fabric was fixed to the original fabric with small stitches.

 

During the dying procedure, synthetic metal complex dyes with high light and moisture durability were used. After all floating or freely lying damaged threads were straightened on the front, a transparent polyamide mesh, also dyed in a green shade, was placed on them. A 12% solution, a mixture of Lascaux 303 HV and 498 HV acrylic adhesives in a 50:50 ratio had previously been applied to this mesh fabric. The fabric was then left for a few hours for the adhesive to dry. Then it was cut into pieces that were adjusted to the size of the damage and activated the mixture of adhesives on the polyamide mesh fabric with a heated spatula, with its temperature adjusted to the adhesive efficiency. The silk fabric with stabilized damage was then re-glued to the original wooden subframe inserted into the wooden frame of the screen. Upon the carried out conservation procedure, the silk fabric of the embroidered screen once again gave the appearance of an aesthetically unified surface.

 

During the conservation of the textile part of the folding screen, led by Dr Howard Sutcliffe, Eva Ilec, Hermina Golc and Monika Kuharič from the Ptuj-Ormož Regional Museum took part.

 

 

 

Text by: Eva Ilec

 

 

 

 

Conservation of the newsprint of the folding screen

 

Conservators-restorers, who specialize in the conservation-restoration of newsprint, restored the paper part of the screen. We are talking about two halves of newsprint, which served as additional support for two parts of the textile. Both parts were stretched on a wooden structure in the form of the mesh; one on one side, the other on the opposite side.

 

After the removal of the more damaged textile part (silk), it turned out that the newsprint and silk were not glued together, but that the silk was glued to the support only on the outer frame, with the newsprint pasted to the entire wooden structure with clayglue. After dry cleaning with a restoration vacuum cleaner, we disassembled the very dirty and damaged newsprint from the wooden structure with warm water and a spatula to get access to the back of the second part of the screen. The story was different here. The textile and newsprint were glued together over the entire surface and stretched onto the wooden support. We repaired the damage without disassemblage. We restored the textile part from the back with a ready-made textile mesh, and the paper with thin Japanese paper and a mixture of starch-based glue and carboxy methyl cellulose.

 

The removed newsprint was straightened and wet-cleaned on a vacuum table with the aid of steam and wet blotting paper, and then reinforced with thin Japanese paper. A mixture of starch-based glue and carboxy methyl cellulose was used for reinforcement and bonding.

 

After thorough consideration, we opted not to return the restored newsprint to the folding screen. We replaced it with acid-free durable archival paper, which should secure better support for the screen. For further storage, we put the restored newsprint in a durable cardboard folder.

 

The paper part of the folding screen was conserved-restored by: Stanka Grkman, Marjana Cjuha, Tatjana Rahovsky Šuligoj, Anja Props, Blanka Avguštin Florjanovič and Darja Harauer from the Archives of the Republic of Slovenia and Meta Kojc from The National and University Library.

 

 

Text by: Stanka Grkman and Tatjana Rahovsky Šuligoj