IN THE MANNER OF JOHN VANDERBANK, POSSIBLY BERLIN, LATE 17TH/EARLY 18TH CENTURY

John Vanderbank, 'yeoman arras-maker' of the Great Wardrobe, supplied Seven pices of Tapistry hangings with India figures 9 foot deep for King William III's use at Kensington Palace, London in the 1690's, and these are recorded there in the 1697 Inventory. At least fifty tapestries of this genre are extant, most with dark grounds, exotic Courtly figures and stylised shrubs and buildings placed on floating islands. Related tapestries include that in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, illustrated in E. Standen, 'English Tapestries After the Indian Manner', Metropolitan Musem Journal, 1981, 15, p.120, fig.1, and two further examples at Yale (op.cit, fig.2). Interestingly, the Yale tapestries are thought to have been commissioned by Yale's founder, Elihu Yale (1648-1720) on his return from the East Indies in 1692. Another related example was sold from the collection of Mrs. Robert Tritton, Godmersham Park, Kent, Christie's House sale, 6-9 June 1989, lot 78.