17th Century 11×13 Antique Mortlake English Tapestry

Description

The Mortlake Tapestry Manufactory was established by King James I of England in 1619, modeled on the great Flemish workshops of Brussels and the royal manufactory at Arras that had supplied Europe’s royal courts with the highest form of woven art for two centuries. At its height under Charles I — among history’s most discerning collectors of decorative arts — Mortlake produced works of extraordinary beauty and artistic ambition that today hang in Windsor Castle, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the world’s greatest private collections. This exceptional 11 by 13 foot 17th-century example from the Mortlake tradition presents the rich visual complexity characteristic of the workshop’s finest period: layers of allegorical imagery woven in silk and wool with a chromatic sophistication requiring dozens of individually controlled dye baths to achieve.

With four centuries of age, the natural dyes have deepened to a palette of remarkable warmth and complexity — the dense reds, warm ochres, forest greens, and ivory whites of genuinely old tapestry weaving — and the woven imagery, once vivid narrative illustration, has acquired the quality of a painting seen through very old glass: details emerging and receding as the light shifts. Authentic Mortlake English tapestries of this scale and condition are extraordinary rarities at private sale; museum acquisition programs absorb the finest examples as they appear. An irreplaceable piece of English cultural heritage, available through Ashly Fine Rugs.

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