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Lot Essay
WEAVERS
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, Léonard Chabaneix (d. 1743) and by the largely unrecorded weaver Michael Mazarind.
ORIGIN OF THE DESIGN
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. Interestingly a tapestry combining most of the figure groups to the right side of the offered lot but re-arranged and sometimes reversed, from the collection of James W. Barney, was sold Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, 8 May 1948, lot 134. A further tapestry identical to that but with borders identical to a version in the Toms Collection (G. Delmarcel et al., Collection Toms, exhibition catalogue, Renens, 1997, p. 31, fig. 4) which was woven by Léonard Chabaneix, was sold anonymously, Christie's, London, 19 November 1959, lot 143. A tapestry incorporating the elegant lady to the foreground to the left with her companions was with Mallett & Sons, London, while a tapestry with the same figure climbing a tree, the harpist and the angular building is at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, and another with that grouping plus the rounded building is at Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven.
(E. Standen, 'English Tapestries "After the Indian Manner"', Metropolitan Museum Journal, New York, 1980, pp. 119 - 142)
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, Léonard Chabaneix (d. 1743) and by the largely unrecorded weaver Michael Mazarind.
ORIGIN OF THE DESIGN
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. Interestingly a tapestry combining most of the figure groups to the right side of the offered lot but re-arranged and sometimes reversed, from the collection of James W. Barney, was sold Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, 8 May 1948, lot 134. A further tapestry identical to that but with borders identical to a version in the Toms Collection (G. Delmarcel et al., Collection Toms, exhibition catalogue, Renens, 1997, p. 31, fig. 4) which was woven by Léonard Chabaneix, was sold anonymously, Christie's, London, 19 November 1959, lot 143. A tapestry incorporating the elegant lady to the foreground to the left with her companions was with Mallett & Sons, London, while a tapestry with the same figure climbing a tree, the harpist and the angular building is at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, and another with that grouping plus the rounded building is at Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven.
(E. Standen, 'English Tapestries "After the Indian Manner"', Metropolitan Museum Journal, New York, 1980, pp. 119 - 142)