BY JAN FRANS VAN DER BORGHT, FIRST HALF 18TH CENTURY, AFTER DESIGNS BY JAN VAN ORLEY

Psyche was so beautiful that she even aroused the envy of Venus. Venus ordered Cupid to make Psyche fall in love with something worthless but Cupid himself fell in love with her. He brought her to his palace but only visited her after dark, forbidding her to see him. Curious, one night, Psyche lit a lamp to take a look at Cupid but let a drop of oil fall on him and he awakened. His palace vanished and he disappeared. Psyche wandered the earth in search of him, performing near impossible tasks set by Venus. Ceres and Juno intervened in vain with Venus and finally Jupiter took pity on Psyche and carried her up to heaven where she married Cupid.

Jan Frans van der Borght (d. 1774) belonged to a large dynasty of tapestry weavers and received his privileges in 1726. Jan Frans initially worked with his father Jasper (d. 1742), and later with his younger brother Pieter (d. 1763).

A set of six tapestry panels bearing the signature 'F.D.V. Borght' from The History of Psyche series are recorded with the Duke of Montrose, Buchanan Castle (W.G. Thomson, A History of Tapestry, Menston, Yorkshire, 1973, pp. 479 and 480). Two tapestries with identical borders, signed 'F.V.D. Borght' and further inscribed 1, 2, 3 and 4 Psiche, probably from the same set and from the property of La Comtesse d'Aubigny and from the collection of the late Sir Alfred Chester Beatty, were sold in these Rooms, 1 July 1976, lot 112.