Details
L'EMBUSCADEA BRUSSELS TAPESTRY woven in silks and wools with well preserved colours depicting the ambush at Wymondael, with supply wagons and a windmill beyond, within foliate picture frame borders, the cresting inset possibly at a later date with the arms and motto of Richard Temple, Viscount Cobham, the base with a conforming cartouche, coronet and crest, the outer border signed A Castro with the Brussels town mark -- 323in. x 127in. (820cm. x 323cm.)
Provenance
Lieutenant-General Sir Richard Temple of Stowe, created Baron Cobham in 1714 and Viscount Cobham in 1718. One of four panels, probably from the Old State Gallery at Stowe sold in the remainder sale, Jackson, Stops and Staff, 4 July 1921 and eighteen days thereafter, for 900 guineas.
The celebrated 'Art of War' tapestries comprise eight panels and were woven originally in the 1690's by Jerome le Clerc and Jacques Van der Borght to the cartoons of Lambert de Hondt for Prince Louis of Baden, Elector Maximilian of Bavaria and other German princes who fought in the Turkish War. The set was revised and adapted for the Duke of Marlborough and generals on both sides to commemorate the war of the Spanish Succession and enjoyed considerable popularity in various weavings early in the 18th Century.
The four panels from Stowe, L'Embuscade, Campement, Fouragement and L'Attaque were probably acquired by Temple to record the actions surrounding the capture of the great French fortress at Lille in 1708, as Sir Richard distinguished himself during these events. At the wood of Wymondael Major-General Webb defeated a superior French force and prevented them carrying off an English supply convoy and thus relieving the fortress.
Two of the other three panels dispersed form Stowe were sold at Sotheby's on 25 October 1963, lot 121. Among other sets of this series were those commissioned by Lieutenant-General Richard Lumley, the 1st Earl of Scarbrough, for Stansted Park, sold May 18, 1991, lot 102 and again Christie's, May 19, 1938, lots 94-101. On this latter occasion, L'Embuscade was bought back for Stansted by Lord Bessborough and the other panels returned to Stansted in 1961. Other examples of the series include three panels from the set ordered by the celebrated general, the Earl of Orkney, K.T., brother of James, 4th Duke of Hamilton, formerley in the collection of Viscount Astor at Cliveden and a fourth at Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island. Three panels, also including L'Embuscade, are in the Residenz Museum, Munich and six with elaborate armorial trophy borders were formerly at Schloss Bruschsal, Carlruhe. A single panel, depicting the supply convoy at Wymondael with wide armorial trophy borders hangs in the second state room at Blenheim Palace.
Jacques Van der Borght, who sometimes used the latin form of his name Jacques A Castro, as on the panel, was a weaver of great repute who declined Louis XIV's invitation to settle in France. His workshop had eight looms and he collaborated with other distinguished weavers such as Le Clerk and De Vos. Another 'Art of War' tapestry with almost identical folaite frame borders was sold at Christie's on December 13 1973, lot 156. A fine Brussels tapestry depicting the Triumph of Mars, woven by Urban Leyniers with the arms of Lord Cobham beneath a Viscount's coronet and therfore commissioned after 1718, was sold at Christie's on July 7, 1973, lot 111.
The celebrated 'Art of War' tapestries comprise eight panels and were woven originally in the 1690's by Jerome le Clerc and Jacques Van der Borght to the cartoons of Lambert de Hondt for Prince Louis of Baden, Elector Maximilian of Bavaria and other German princes who fought in the Turkish War. The set was revised and adapted for the Duke of Marlborough and generals on both sides to commemorate the war of the Spanish Succession and enjoyed considerable popularity in various weavings early in the 18th Century.
The four panels from Stowe, L'Embuscade, Campement, Fouragement and L'Attaque were probably acquired by Temple to record the actions surrounding the capture of the great French fortress at Lille in 1708, as Sir Richard distinguished himself during these events. At the wood of Wymondael Major-General Webb defeated a superior French force and prevented them carrying off an English supply convoy and thus relieving the fortress.
Two of the other three panels dispersed form Stowe were sold at Sotheby's on 25 October 1963, lot 121. Among other sets of this series were those commissioned by Lieutenant-General Richard Lumley, the 1st Earl of Scarbrough, for Stansted Park, sold May 18, 1991, lot 102 and again Christie's, May 19, 1938, lots 94-101. On this latter occasion, L'Embuscade was bought back for Stansted by Lord Bessborough and the other panels returned to Stansted in 1961. Other examples of the series include three panels from the set ordered by the celebrated general, the Earl of Orkney, K.T., brother of James, 4th Duke of Hamilton, formerley in the collection of Viscount Astor at Cliveden and a fourth at Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island. Three panels, also including L'Embuscade, are in the Residenz Museum, Munich and six with elaborate armorial trophy borders were formerly at Schloss Bruschsal, Carlruhe. A single panel, depicting the supply convoy at Wymondael with wide armorial trophy borders hangs in the second state room at Blenheim Palace.
Jacques Van der Borght, who sometimes used the latin form of his name Jacques A Castro, as on the panel, was a weaver of great repute who declined Louis XIV's invitation to settle in France. His workshop had eight looms and he collaborated with other distinguished weavers such as Le Clerk and De Vos. Another 'Art of War' tapestry with almost identical folaite frame borders was sold at Christie's on December 13 1973, lot 156. A fine Brussels tapestry depicting the Triumph of Mars, woven by Urban Leyniers with the arms of Lord Cobham beneath a Viscount's coronet and therfore commissioned after 1718, was sold at Christie's on July 7, 1973, lot 111.