Landscape (Fragment)
probably English
Category
Tapestries
Date
circa 1670 - circa 1690
Materials
Tapestry, wool and silk, 7 warps per cm
Measurements
1700 x 1190 mm
Order this imageCollection
Lyme, Cheshire
NT 500340
Summary
Tapestry, wool and silk, 7 warps per cm, Landscape (Fragment) from a set of four Landscapes with Thistle Borders, probably English, c. 1670 – 1690. A fragment of landscape tapestry with water at the bottom and plants growing over a muddy bank above. There are borders on the sides and the bottom of the tapestry composed of a variety of flowering plants on a dark brown ground, with a continuous pattern of large scrolling thistles crossing the entire border and extending slightly into the main field. There is a cartouche in the lower right hand corner and in the left-hand border, which is in fact a section of horizontal border that has been sewn on vertically.
Full description
The tapestry was formerly attached to the back of the portrait of Edward, the Black Prince that hangs in the Entrance Hall (inv. 499896), and originally formed the lower right hand corner of the ‘Landscape with Shepherds’ that hangs in the Morning Room at Lyme (500313.1). The set of four Landscape tapestries have no discernible narrative content. Each tapestry represents a developed landscape with woods and sometimes a lake or river, and a single figure or small group of figures, which may have been taken from prints. The figures in two of the tapestries, the ‘Landscape with Shepherds’ and the ‘Woman with a Jewel Casket’, are in classical dress whilst the flute player in the third tapestry is in late seventeenth-century dress. This suggests that the figures may have been taken from a variety of sources rather than designed especially for this tapestry series. One tapestry in the set, the ‘Woman with a Jewel Casket’, bears a maker’s mark which resembles an elongated fleur-de-lys, or perhaps three feathers united by a ring or crown. No comparable mark has ever been recorded, and it is not clear whether the mark indicates the place where the tapestries were made or the master weaver or entrepreneur responsible for their production. The borders, with their scrolling thistle leaves over a ground of flowering plants, relate to those found on tapestries of the ‘Story of Diogenes’ produced in England at the end of the seventeenth century. A number of surviving ‘Diogenes’ tapestries have borders with scrolling acanthus leaves in a very similar arrangement to the thistles on the series at Lyme, and with a similar background of floral swags on a dark brown field. In addition the landscapes in the Lyme tapestries bear some resemblance to those in the ‘Diogenes’ series. Examples survive at Holyroodhouse, Edinburgh, the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, and at Belton House, Lincolnshire (inv. 473003), (see Swain 1988, pp. 12-16; Hefford 2010, pp. 240-9). Some of the surviving ‘Diogenes’ tapestries with acanthus leaf borders are signed with a red cross on a white shield, a mark used at Mortlake and by a number of smaller tapestry workshops that sprung up around London in the late seventeenth century. It is therefore possible that the ‘Landscapes with Thistle Borders’ were made at one of these workshops, and that the mark of three feathers or a fleur-de-lys is an otherwise unknown English signature – possibly used by an immigrant French or Flemish weaver. A set of ‘Diogenes’ tapestries (probably the set now at Holyroodhouse) was purchased by Charles II in 1683, and the series can be dated to c. 1670 – 1690 on stylistic grounds. By analogy the Lyme ‘Landscapes’ can be dated to the same period. No other examples of the ‘Landscapes with Thistle Borders’ are known. Although ‘Diogenes’ tapestries with acanthus borders are common, the thistles found in the borders of the Lyme Park ‘Landscapes’ appear no-where else, nor do the curious devices of carved putti supporting what appear to be harps that appear in the corners of the borders. The use of an existing border type but with the distinctive thistle leaves and harps and may suggest a commission for a patron for whom these devices had some special significance. The unusual border, the uniqueness of the design and the otherwise unknown maker’s mark make the ‘Landscapes with Thistle Borders’ something of an enigma. (Helen Wyld, 2010)
Provenance
At Lyme Park since at least 1929; placed on loan from the 3rd Lord Newton to the National Trust in 1948. Now owned by the 5th Lord Newton and Hon. David Legh. Probably introduced in the 19th century, the set possibly being that reputed to have been moved to Lyme from Calveley Hall in west Cheshire, a house built in the 1680s by Richard Legh of Lyme’s aunt, Mary, Lady Calveley.
Marks and inscriptions
Left hand galloon, near bottom: Unidentified maker’s mark of a ring enclosing three feathers, or an elongated fleur-de-lys
Makers and roles
probably English, workshop possibly Flemish, workshop
References
Hefford, 2010: Wendy Hefford, ‘The English Tapestries’, in Guy Delmarcel, Nicole de Reyniès and Wendy Hefford, The Toms Collection Tapestries of the Sixteenth to Nineteenth Centuries, Zürich 2010, pp. 239-294 Swain, 1988: Margaret Swain, Tapestries and Textiles at the Palace of Holyroodhouse in the Royal Collection, London 1988 Thomas Sutton auctioneers, Lyme Hall, Disley, Stockport. Inventory of the Household Furniture, Pictures, Ornaments and Effects, July 1879 Messrs. Biffard, Robertson & Lucy, Inventory and Valuation of Structural Enrichments, Tenants Fixtures and Fittings, Tapestries, Oil Paintings, Silver, Sheffield Plate and Plated Goods, [...]. The Property of the Honourable Richard Legh, London 1929