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Lot Essay
This tapestry is very closely related to a large group of garden or pergola tapestries generally associated with the Brussels and Antwerp workshops. There is an extensive group in the Spanish Royal collection, illustrated in P. Junquera de Vega and C. Diaz Gallegos, Catalogo de Tapices del Patrimonio Nacional, Madrid, 1986, vol. II, pp. 199 - 242. It is particularly interesting to note the identical bouquet of flowers and a nearly identical vase on the right hand side of panel XIII of series 66, p. 211. It is nearly certain that this tapestry was thus executed in the same, unidentified weaver's workshop as series 66 in the Spanish Royal collection.
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 Antwerp workshop of Jacob Wauters' (d. 1660), who was active between 1619 and 1651, it had been regarded as a 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 8 October 1651, but cartoons of the Flower Pots 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 are at Skokloster Castle, Sweden.
A larger panel with double pergola and with nearly identical columns and vases was sold anonymously in these Rooms, 16 May 1996, lot 229, while another was sold anonymously Beaussant-Lefèvre, Paris, 24 November 1995, lot 231.
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 Antwerp workshop of Jacob Wauters' (d. 1660), who was active between 1619 and 1651, it had been regarded as a 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 8 October 1651, but cartoons of the Flower Pots 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 are at Skokloster Castle, Sweden.
A larger panel with double pergola and with nearly identical columns and vases was sold anonymously in these Rooms, 16 May 1996, lot 229, while another was sold anonymously Beaussant-Lefèvre, Paris, 24 November 1995, lot 231.