Lot Essay
This tapestry is related to a large group of garden or pergola tapestries generally associated with the Brussels workshops. There is an extensive group in the Spanish Royal collection, illustrated in P. Junquera de Vega and C. Diaz Gallegos, Catalogo de Tapices de Patrimonio Nacional, Madrid, 1986, vol. II, pp. 199-242. It is particularly interesting to note the almost identical vases and flowers illustrated op. cit., pp. 200, 201, 205, 210 and 216. Unfortunately none of these bear a weaver's mark.
A further set of five tapestries of this design is in the Royal Collection at the palace of Holyroodhouse (M. Swain, Tapestries and Textiles at the Palace of Holyroodhouse, London, 1988, pp. 17-19, fig. 3). Until the weaver's mark was identified and the tapestries could be ascribed to the Jacob Wauters (d. 1660) workshops in Antwerp, it had been regarded as Mortlake manufacture. Mortlake had indeed produced variations on this design, for not only do several sets appear in the sale of the King's Goods during the Commonwealth, many of which were sold to Mr. Houghton on the 8 October 1651, but cartoons of The Flower Potts with ye Philast were reserved for the state in 1651. Further two, which are thought to have belonged to Sir Paul Pindar (d. 1650), are at Westminster Abbey and a set of six similar panels at Skokloster Castle, Sweden.
A related pair of panels, then identified as English, probably Mortlake, were sold from the collection of Sir Algernon Osborne Bt., in these Rooms, 21 May 1936, lot 115.
A further set of five tapestries of this design is in the Royal Collection at the palace of Holyroodhouse (M. Swain, Tapestries and Textiles at the Palace of Holyroodhouse, London, 1988, pp. 17-19, fig. 3). Until the weaver's mark was identified and the tapestries could be ascribed to the Jacob Wauters (d. 1660) workshops in Antwerp, it had been regarded as Mortlake manufacture. Mortlake had indeed produced variations on this design, for not only do several sets appear in the sale of the King's Goods during the Commonwealth, many of which were sold to Mr. Houghton on the 8 October 1651, but cartoons of The Flower Potts with ye Philast were reserved for the state in 1651. Further two, which are thought to have belonged to Sir Paul Pindar (d. 1650), are at Westminster Abbey and a set of six similar panels at Skokloster Castle, Sweden.
A related pair of panels, then identified as English, probably Mortlake, were sold from the collection of Sir Algernon Osborne Bt., in these Rooms, 21 May 1936, lot 115.