MID-18TH CENTURY, IN THE MANNER OF JOHN VANDERBANK

細節

A SOHO TAPESTRY
MID-18TH CENTURY, IN THE MANNER OF JOHN VANDERBANK
Depicting a chinoiserie scene with an Emperor being borne under a palanquin within an extensive landscape with figures hunting and flowering trees on a chocolate brown ground, the border woven with trailing vines and urns of flowers, areas of reweaving to brown and pale silks
7 ft. 5 in. x 10 ft. 5 in. (226 x 317 cm.)

出版

H.C. Marillier, English Tapestries of the Eighteenth Century, London, 1930, pp. 33-37, pl. 13.

拍場告示

Please note the correct estimate for this lot is $30,000-$50,000 not $40,000-$60,000 as stated in the catalogue

拍品專文

Chinoiserie scenes of this type, with a whimsical use of scattered 'Chinese' figures and plants, are generally attributed to the John Vanderbanc (d. 1717) Soho workshop in Great Queen Street, London. They were woven between the 1690s and 1717 when Vanderbanc headed the workshop. The tapestries incorporate Turkish, Indian, but also European figures that were inspired by Oriental lacquer screens and are usually on a dark brown and rarely yellow ground. The first mention of these tapestries is in the 1690s when Vanderbanc supplied Kensington Palace with a set of nine tapestries 'after the Indian Manner'. Aside from Vanderbanc rare versions are also known by Joshua Morris and by the largely unrecorded weaver Michael Mazarind.

The skilled designer of these subjects was well aware of Oriental lacquer screens as he employed the same reduction of the sizes of figures towards the top. He also managed to combine figures from various cultures to form a unified 'Chinese' appearance. There were about forty differing small scenes that could be combined in any way and that could be adjusted to any size. This indifference to the subject and great adaptability appears to have greatly contributed to the success of the series.