A BRUSSELS TAPESTRY DEPICTING WINTER FROM 'THE SEASONS OF LUCAS' SERIES

This lot has no reserve.

TWO TAPESTRIES FROM THE CANFORD MANOR SET OF 'THE SEASONS OF LUCAS' These magnificent tapestries are two from a complete set of four 'Seasons of Lucas' tapestries formerly owned by the Viscount Wimborne at Canford Manor, Dorset and sold as one lot at Christie's London, 6-8 March 1923, lot 148. These tapestries were almost certainly acquired in the 19th Century by either Josiah John Guest, 1st Baronet, (1785-1852) or his son Ivor, 2nd Baronet, (1835-1916), who was created Baron Wimborne of Canford Magna in 1880. Edith Stanton records only three further complete sets of the Four Seasons: one is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; a second from Balloch Castle, Scotland, woven with metallic threads and lacking borders, was sold from the Collection of Henry Simons at Anderson Galleries, New York, 27 January-3 February 1923, lots 1166-69, and was subsequently in the Frank H. Ginn Collection. It is now in the Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio. The fourth set is recorded as being in the Collection of Mme. de Pruynes in 1930 (see E. Standen, op. cit., p. 322). The designs for these tapestries must have been executed in the same workshop as the Mois de Lucas, the source for which were twelve Brussels tapestries belonging to Louis XIV woven about 1535 and destroyed in 1797. They were mistakenly thought to have been executed by Lucas van Leyden. As they have not been attributed to a specific artist, the designer of this series is accordingly called the Master of the Months of Lucas (ibid, p. 332). The border designs of fruiting floral garlands entwining hounds chasing hares are found in several other tapestries: a Brussels tapestry called The Riding Lesson, circa 1655, manufacture of Heinrich Reydams and formely in the Rosenfeld-Goldschmidt Collection (see H. Göbel, Tapestries of the Lowlands, 1924, fig. 284); a Brussels tapestry from the series The Four Elements: Earth and Fire by Jans Frans Van den Hecke, circa 1680 at the Residenz, Schloss Würzburg (H. Göbel, op. cit., fig. 507) and a 17th century Flemish tapestry from Bruges, The Twelve Months, now Austrian State Property (ibid, fig. 468a).

A BRUSSELS TAPESTRY DEPICTING WINTER FROM 'THE SEASONS OF LUCAS' SERIES

LATE 17TH CENTURY

Details

A BRUSSELS TAPESTRY DEPICTING WINTER FROM 'THE SEASONS OF LUCAS' SERIES
Late 17th Century
Woven in wools and silks and depicting an extensive frozen lake with various courtly figures skating, falling onto the ice and others on the banks of the lake fastening skates, carrying sticks and children hovering over a brazier, in the distance a burning village with figures dashing with ladders, the heavens with billowing clouds and putti blowing winds and surrounding Boreas, within a border densely woven with floral garlands decorated with grapes, pomegranates, apples and other fruit and hounds chasing hares, minor areas of reweaving and patching, with repaired cuts to the side border
15ft. 5¾in. x 20ft. 3¾in. (3m. 95.5cm. x 6m. 18.5cm.)

Provenance

The Viscount Wimborne, Canford Manor, Dorset, sold Christie's London, 6-8 March 1923, lot 148.
Mr. and Mrs. Ernest B. Dane.
The Brookline Trust Company, Massachusetts.
Anonymous sale (The Property of a New England Institution), Christie's New York, 26 April 1990, lot 7 ($99,000).

Literature

Edith Standen, European Post-Medieval Tapestries and Related Hangings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1987, pp. 322-323, no. 49 a-c
F.M. Ricci, Quelques chefs-d'oeuvre de La Collection Djahanguir Riahi, Paris, 2000, pp.66-72 (illustrated).

Exhibited

Cleveland, Ohio, 'ILoan Exhibition of Tapestries', the Cleveland Museum of Art, 1918, p. 22, n/p 29 à 34.
The châtau de Coppet, 'Les Gobelins, trois siècles de tapisserie Française', 1962, p. 133.
Bruges, 'Bruges et la tapisserie, Chefs d'oeuvre de la tapisserie brugeoise', n.d.

Special notice

This lot has no reserve.

Lot Essay

A further tapestry depicting 'Winter' from this series was offered at Ader, Tajan, Paris, 12 December 1990, lot 187.

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