Here are some pics of the Arabesque Hall. As you can see, it is being restored to Cameron's design-or at least to how Cameron's design was originally executed.
Here it is prewar. Note how much more elaborate the ceiling is, along with the upper wall treatment.
Here are Cameron's original wall and ceiling designs. They were not installed this way-no vines in the upper level and no classical stoves either. It is interesting to see Cameron's original designs as they almost always are different from what was put in. Sometimes he would even do more than one design for a room (quite different from each other) and then the final version would be different still. His drawings are really something and worth looking into. If anyone knows of a book of his complete drawings, let me know!
Here is the room as it looked in the mid 19th century. As you can see, it is quite different from the prewar pics. Even the arabesque designs on the lower level are not the same. Compare this to Vladimir's post a few posts back and you can see that this is what they are restoring the room to.
I got these pictures from several sources, primarily 'The Empress and the Architect' by Shvidkovsky and 'British Art Treasures from Russian Imperial Collections' by Allen. Sorry the pictures are a little distorted-if I scan the pages on a scanner, it's bad for the bindings. Sorry if this post is a little too big as well.
