Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-gb8f7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-20T17:36:46.729Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Tapestries once at Chastleton House and Their Influence on the Image of the Tapestries Called Sheldon: A Reassessment

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

Hilary L Turner
Hilary L Turner
Affiliation:
E-mail: .
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The intentions expressed in William Sheldon's will of 1570 suggest an attempt to introduce tapestry weaving at Barcheston, Warwickshire. Interpreted in the 1920s as resulting in a commercial venture – the only production centre in Elizabethan England – tapestries were attributed to it without documentary evidence, without stylistic comparison with continental work and without study of the records of émigré Flemish weavers settling in London from 1559 onwards. Their presence and more easily available comparative material, in both documentary and tapestry form, combine W question the previous picture, never revised. On re-examination, the historical evidence used to link tapestries found at Chastleton House with Sheldon's enterprise appears weak. Challenging the time-honoured belief that those tapestries should be regarded as key pieces in the Sheldon corpus also calls into question subsequent attributions made by association, and opens the way for a new exploration of the tapestry industry in sixteenth-century England.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Antiquaries Journal , Volume 88 , September 2008 , pp. 313 - 346
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

ABBREVIATIONS AND BIBLIOGRAPHY

BL British Library, LondonGoogle Scholar
Cal Pat R Calendar of Patent Rolls, 1232–1592, HMSO, London, in progressGoogle Scholar
Cal State P Dom Calendar of State Papers Domestic, 1547–1706, HMSO, London, in progressGoogle Scholar
Cal State P Ven Calendar of State Papers… in the Archives of Venice, 1553–8, ed Rawdon Brown, London, 1877Google Scholar
LMA London Metropolitan ArchivesGoogle Scholar
ORO Oxfordshire Record OfficeGoogle Scholar
RCHM Royal Commission on Historical ManuscriptsGoogle Scholar
TNA:PRO The National Archive: Public Record OfficeGoogle Scholar
V&A Victoria and Albert Museum, LondonGoogle Scholar
Apollo 2007. Grosvenor House Art Fair, 78–9Google Scholar
Arber, A 1986. Herbals, their Origin and Evolution, CambridgeGoogle Scholar
Avray Tipping, H 1929. English Homes: period 3, 1, LondonGoogle Scholar
Barnard, E A B (ed) 1938. Studies in Worcestershire History, Cornish Bros, Birmingham.Google Scholar
Barnard, E A B and Wace, A J B 1928. ‘The Sheldon tapestry weavers and their work’, Archaeologia, 78, 255–314Google Scholar
Bartsch, A von 1978. The Illustrated Bartsch (eds Strauss, W L and Soikes, J T), XX, New YorkGoogle Scholar
Bedford, W K 1896. ‘The Weston tapestry maps’, Geogr J, 9, 211–15Google Scholar
Birmingham 1888. Birmingham Midland Inst Trans Excursions Rep, 15, 78–82Google Scholar
Bornecque, H (ed) 1961. Ovid, Heroides, ParisGoogle Scholar
Burckhardt, R F 1923. Gewirkte Bildteppiche des XV und XVI Jahrhunderts im Historischen Museum zu Basel, LeipzigGoogle Scholar
Campbell, T P 1995–1996. ‘Problems of terminology’, Stud Decorative Arts, 3, 29–55Google Scholar
Campbell, T P 2007a. Henry VIII and the Art of Majesty, New HavenGoogle Scholar
Campbell, T P 2007b. Tapestry in the Baroque, New YorkGoogle Scholar
Chastleton, 1997. Chastleton House, National Trust Guide, LondonGoogle Scholar
Christie, and Ansell, 1781. A Catalogue of… Household Furniture… of the late William Sheldon Esq, dec. at… Weston…, August 27th and 13 following days, LondonGoogle Scholar
Clark, J 1983. ‘A set of tapestries for Leicester House in The Strand: 1585’, Burlington Mag, 125 (962), 283–4Google Scholar
Cole, A S 1911. ‘Tapestry’, in Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th edn, 403–7, LondonGoogle Scholar
Country Life 1919. ‘Chastleton House’, 01/02, 90–6, 116–23Google Scholar
Cust, L 1903. ‘Foreign artists of the reformed religion working in London c 1560–1660’, Proc Huguenot Soc Great Brit Ir, 7, 45–82Google Scholar
Daly, P M 2005. ‘The Sheldon Four Seasons at Hatfield House: a seventeenth century instance of significant emblematic decoration in the English decorative arts’, Emblematica, 14, 251–98Google Scholar
Delmarcel, G 1999. Flemish Tapestry, LondonGoogle Scholar
Delmarcel, G (ed) 2002. Flemish Tapestry Weavers Abroad, LeuvenGoogle Scholar
Delmarcel, G and Tichelen, I van 1993. ‘Marks and signatures on ancient Flemish tapestries’, in Conservation Research Studies of Fifteenth to Nineteenth Century Tapestries (ed Stack, L), Stud Hist Art 42, Monogr Ser 2, 57–68, Washington DCGoogle Scholar
Dietz, B 1972. The Port and Trade of Elizabethan London, Port Book 1567–68, London Ree Soc 8, LondonGoogle Scholar
Donnet, F 1896. ‘Les tapisseries de Bruxelles, Enghien et Audenarde pendant la Furie Espagnole’, Annales de la Société Royale d'Archéologie de Bruxelles, 9 and 10, BrusselsGoogle Scholar
Dugdale, W 1730 (1656). A History of Warwickshire, 2 vols, LondonGoogle Scholar
Edmond, M 2008. ‘Droeshout, Martin (1565x9–0 1642)’, in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography: Online Edition (eds H C G Matthew and B Harrison), <http://www.oxforddnb.com/views/article/8054> (20 08 2008)+(20+082008)>Google Scholar
Elyot, T 1962, The Book named the Governour (ed Lehmberg, S), LondonGoogle Scholar
Forman, B M 1971. ‘Continental furniture craftsmen in London, 1511–1625’, Furniture Hist, 7, 94–120Google Scholar
Franses, S 2005. Giant Leaf Tapestries of the Renaissance 1500–1600, New YorkGoogle Scholar
Fry, E A (ed) 1904. Worcester Wills, Brit Ree Soc 31, LondonGoogle Scholar
Fry, E A (ed) 1910. Worcester Wills, Brit Ree Soc 39, LondonGoogle Scholar
Gill, D 2004. ‘Wace, Alan John Bayard (1879–1957)’, in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography: online edition (eds H C G Matthews and B Harrison), <http://www.oxforddnb.eom/view/article/74552> (12 06 2008)+(12+062008)>Google Scholar
Gill-Smith, K 1967. ‘E A B Barnard MA FSA FRHistS, Freeman of Evesham’, Vale Evesham Hist Soc Res Pap, I, 47–53Google Scholar
Godfrey, E S 1975. The Development of English Glassmaking, 1560–1640, OxfordGoogle Scholar
Goebel, H 1923. Wandteppiche, Die Niederlande, I, 2 vols, LeipzigGoogle Scholar
Goebel, H 1928. Wandteppiche, Die Romanische Landen, II, 2 vols, LeipzigGoogle Scholar
Goebel, H 1929. ‘Review of Archaeologia 1928’, Jahrbuch fur Kunstwissenschaft, 6, 195Google Scholar
Goebel, H 1933. Wandteppiche, Die Germanischen und Slavischen Landen, III, 2 vols, LeipzigGoogle Scholar
Gough, R 1780. British Topography, III, LondonGoogle Scholar
Graves, J 1852–1853. ‘Ancient tapestry of Kilkenny Castle’, Trans Kilkenny Archaeol Soc, 2, 3–9Google Scholar
Hanson, J A (ed and trans) 1989. Apuleius, Metamorphoses, 2 vols, Cambridge, MassGoogle Scholar
Harmon, A M (ed) 1921. Lucian, III: Judgement of the Goddesses, Cambridge, MassGoogle Scholar
Harte, N B (ed) 1997. The New Draperies in the Low Countries and England, OxfordGoogle Scholar
Hasler, P W 1982. Members of the House of Commons, 1558–1603, LondonGoogle Scholar
Hefford, W 2002. ‘Flemish tapestry weavers in England: 1550–1775’, in Delmarcel (ed) 2002, 43–61Google Scholar
Hefford, W 2004. ‘Thomson, William George (1865–1942)’ (ed L Goldman, Jan 2008), in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography: online edition (eds H C G Matthew and B Harrison), <http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/45717> (10 07 2008)+(10+072008)>Google Scholar
Henderson, M S 1902. Three Centuries in North Oxfordshire, LondonGoogle Scholar
Hessels, J H 1889–1897. Ecclesiae Londino-Batavae Archivum, Epistulae et Tractatus cum Reformationis tum Ecclesiae Londino-Batavae Historiarum illustrantes, IV, CambridgeGoogle Scholar
Hind, A M 1952. Engraving in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, 3 vols, CambridgeGoogle Scholar
Hollstein, F W 1993. Dutch and Flemish Etchings, Engravings and Woodcuts, c 1450–1700, Martin Heemskerck, 53 of 69 (ed Veldman, Ilja M), AmsterdamGoogle Scholar
Hollstein, F W 1996. German Etchings, Engravings and Woodcuts, c 1450–1700, 42 of 73, Hans Schaufflein (ed Falk, Tilman), RotterdamGoogle Scholar
Hotson, L J 1937. I, William Shakespeare, LondonGoogle Scholar
Humphreys, J 1918a. ‘The Sheldon tapestry maps of Worcestershire’, Trans Birmingham Archaeol Soc, 43, 3–22Google Scholar
Humphreys, J 1918b. ‘The Elizabethan estate book of Grafton Manor’, Trans Birmingham Archaeol Soc, 44, 1–124Google Scholar
Humphreys, J 1920. ‘Some recently discovered Elizabethan Sheldon tapestries’, Country Life, 9 10, 463–4Google Scholar
Humphreys, J 1924. ‘Elizabethan Sheldon tapestries’, Archaeologia, 74, 181–202 (reprinted 1929 as a monograph with different pagination)Google Scholar
Hunton, W G 1930. English Decorative Textiles, LondonGoogle Scholar
Jelsma, A J and Boersma, O 1993. Acta von het Consistorie van de Nederlandse gemeente te London 1569–1555, The HagueGoogle Scholar
Jenkins, D (ed) 2003. Cambridge History of Western Textiles, 2 vols, CambridgeGoogle Scholar
Jones, J (ed) 2002. Stratford-upon-Avon inventories, 1538–1699, I: 1538–1625, Dugdale Soc 39, Stratford-upon-AvonGoogle Scholar
Jourdain, E M 1908. ‘The tapestry manufacture at Barcheston’, in Memorials of Old Warwickshire (ed Dryden, A), 30–8, LondonGoogle Scholar
Jourdain, E M 1924. English Decoration and Furniture of the Early Rennaisance, 1500–1650, III, LondonGoogle Scholar
Kemp, T (ed) 1899. The Black Book of Warwick, WarwickGoogle Scholar
Kendrick, A F 1912–1913. ‘The Hatfield tapestries of the Seasons’, Walpole Society, 2, 89–98Google Scholar
Kendrick, A F 1924. Victoria and Albert Museum Catalogue of Tapestries, LondonGoogle Scholar
Kendrick, A F 1925–1926. ‘Some Barcheston tapestries’, Walpole Society, 14, 27–42Google Scholar
Kendrick, A F 1928. ‘An English tapestry panel: the Sacrifice of Isaac1’, Burlington Mag, 53 (309), 287–8 and plGoogle Scholar
Kirk, E F and Kirk, R E G (eds) 1900–1988. Returns of Aliens dwelling in the City and Suburbs of London from the Reign of Henry VIII to that of James 1, 4 parts, Publ Huguenot Soc 10, AberdeenGoogle Scholar
Kuyper, A (ed) 1870. Kerkeraads-protocollen der Hollandische Gemeente te Londen, 1569–1571, Marnix Soc, UtrechtGoogle Scholar
Lamond, E (ed) 1893. A Discourse of the Common Weal of this Realm of England, CambridgeGoogle Scholar
Lang, R G 1993. Two Tudor Subsidy Assessment Rolls for the City of London: 1541 and 1582, London Ree Soc 29, LondonGoogle Scholar
Lara Arrebola, F 1982. Artes Textiles en el Palacio de la Casa de Viana en Cordoba, CordobaGoogle Scholar
Lees-Milne, J 2004. ‘Jourdain, (Emily) Margaret (1876–1951)’ (rev H Spurling, Oct 2007), in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography: online edition (eds H C G Matthew and B Harrison), <http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/37619> (10 07 2008)+(10+072008)>Google Scholar
Levey, S 1998. An Elizabethan Inheritance: the Hardwick Hall textiles, LondonGoogle Scholar
Lewis, S 1831. Topographical Dictionary of England, LondonGoogle Scholar
London Society 1879. ‘Some royal works for tapestry’, 35, 318–27.Google Scholar
Lucian, , Works, III: The Judgement of the Goddesses (ed and trans Harmon, A M), 1921, Cambridge, MassGoogle Scholar
Maeyer, C 1953. ‘Denijs van Alsloot (voor ca 1573–1625) en de Tapijtkunst’, Artes Textiles, 1, 3–11Google Scholar
Marsden, J 2000. ‘The Chastleton inventory of 1633’, Furniture Hist, 36, 23–42Google Scholar
McKendrick, S 1991. ‘The Great History of Troy: a reassessment of the development of the secular theme in late medieval art’, J Warburg Courtauld Inst, 54, 43–82Google Scholar
McKerrow, R B and Ferguson, F S 1932. Title Page Borders used in England and Scotland 1485–1640, OxfordGoogle Scholar
Meuter, I de 1999. Tapisseries d'Audenarde du XVIe au XVIIIe siècle, TieltGoogle Scholar
Moens, W J C 1884. The Marriage, Baptismal and Burial Registers 1571–1874 of the Dutch Church of London, LymingtonGoogle Scholar
Morant, V 1951. ‘The settlement of Protestant refugees in Maidstone during the sixteenth century’, Econ Hist Rev, 2nd ser, 4, 211–17Google Scholar
Nash, T 1781. Collections for a History of Worcestershire, 2 vols, LondonGoogle Scholar
Nave, F de and Imhof, D (eds) 1993. Botany in the Low Countries (end of the 15th century–c 1650): Plantin-Moretus Museum Exhibition, AntwerpGoogle Scholar
Notes and Queries 1925. 148 (18 04), 278; (16 May), 357 (initialled but unidentified)Google Scholar
Old Furniture 1928–9. Advertisements, IV (08 1928), p iv, no. 15; VIII (Sept 1929), p xii, no. 28.Google Scholar
Ovid, , Heroides (ed and trans Bornecque, H), 1961, ParisGoogle Scholar
Page, W 1893. Aliens in England 1509–1603: letters of denization and acts of naturalization, Publ Huguenot Soc 8, LymingtonGoogle Scholar
Pettegree, A 1986. Foreign Protestant Communities in London, OxfordGoogle Scholar
Pettegree, A 1990. ‘“Thirty Years On”: progress towards integration amongst the immigrant population of Elizabethan London’, in Rural English Society 1500–1800: essays in honour of Joan Thirsk (eds Chartres, J and Hey, D), 29–41, CambridgeGoogle Scholar
Pigler, A 1974. Barokthemen, 3 vols, BudapestGoogle Scholar
Pinchart, A 1878–1885. Histoire generale de la tapisserie dans les Flandres, II, ParisGoogle Scholar
Price, R 1924. ‘William Willington of Barcheston: a 16th-century Warwickshire woolstapler’, Evesham J, 12 01 – 9 02Google Scholar
Rahtz, P 1976. Excavations at Bordesley Abbey, BAR Brit Ser 23, OxfordGoogle Scholar
RCHM 1876. ‘The Sandwich Corporation’, in Fifth Report (ed Riley, H T), 568–71, LondonGoogle Scholar
RCHM 1925. Report on the Manuscripts of Lord De L'Isle and Dudley Preserved at Penshurst Place, I (ed Kingsford, C L), Historical Manuscripts Comm 77, LondonGoogle Scholar
RCHM 1936. Report on the Manuscripts of the Marquess of Downshire at Easthampstead Park, Berkshire, 2: Papers of William Trumbull the Elder, 1605–10 (eds Putnell, E K and Hinds, A B), Historical Manuscripts Comm 75, LondonGoogle Scholar
Reeves, J D 1954. ‘Paris as a device of Tudor flattery’, Notes Queries, 199, 7–11Google Scholar
Roethlisberger, M 1967. ‘La Tenture de la Lincorne dans la Collection Borromée’, Oud Holland, 82, 85–115Google Scholar
Sachs, E 1929. ‘The earliest English tapestries’, Int Studio, 94, 78–80Google Scholar
Scherer, M A 1963. The Legends of Troy in An and Literature, LondonGoogle Scholar
Schrickx, W 1974. ‘Denijs van Alsloot en Willem Tons in London in 1577’, Artes Textiles, 8, 47–64Google Scholar
Scouloudi, I 1985. Returns of Strangers in the Metropolis 1593, 1627, 1635, 1639, Huguenot Soc London, Quarto Ser 57, LondonGoogle Scholar
Spenser, E 1579. Shepheardes Calendar, facsimile edn, 1968, Scolar Press, MenstonGoogle Scholar
Standen, E A 1962. ‘The Carpet of Arms’, Bull Metropolitan Mus Art, 20, 221–31Google Scholar
Standen, E A 1985. European Post-Medieval Tapestries and Related Hangings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, II, New YorkGoogle Scholar
Strong, R (ed) 1999. 600 Years of British Painting, Denver, ColoGoogle Scholar
Tawney, R H and Power, E (eds) 1924. Tudor Economic Documents, 3 vols, LondonGoogle Scholar
Tervarent, G de 1968. Les animaux symboliques dans les bordures des tapisseries bruxelloises au XVIe siècle, BrusselsGoogle Scholar
Thirsk, J 1965. ‘Stamford in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries’, in The Making of Stamford (ed Rogers, A), 40–67, LeicesterGoogle Scholar
Thomson, W G 1906. A History of Tapestry From the Earliest Times Until the Present Day, LondonGoogle Scholar
Thomson, W G 1911–1912. ‘Tapestry weaving in England’, Art J, 73 (07–12); 74 (Jan–Mar)Google Scholar
Thomson, W G 1914. Tapestry Weaving in England From the Earliest Times to the End of the XVIIIth Century, LondonGoogle Scholar
Thomson, W G 1930. A History of Tapestry From the Earliest Times Until the Present Day, rev edn, LondonGoogle Scholar
Turner, H L 2001. ‘An early map of Brailes’, Warwickshire Hist, II(5), 182–93Google Scholar
Turner, H L 2002a. ‘“A wittie devise”: the Sheldon tapestry maps belonging to the Bodleian Library’, Bodleian Ree, 17(5) (04), 293–313Google Scholar
Turner, H L 2002b. ‘Finding the weavers: Richard Hyckes and the Sheldon tapestry works’, Textile Hist, 33, 137–61Google Scholar
Turner, H L 2002c. ‘The Sheldon tapestry map of Warwickshire’, Warwickshire Hist, 12, 32–44Google Scholar
Turner, H L 2003. ‘The Sheldon tapestry maps: their content and context’, Cartogr J, 40, 39–49Google Scholar
Turner, H L 2008a. ‘Tapestry sections depicting the Prodigal Son: how safe is an attribution to Mr Sheldon's tapestry venture at Barcheston?’, Archaeol Aeliana, 37Google Scholar
Turner, H L 2008b ‘Walter Jones of Witney, Worcester and Chastleton: rewriting the past’, Oxoniensia, 73Google Scholar
Velde, C van de 1975. Frans Floris, Leven und Werken, BrusselsGoogle Scholar
Victoria and Albert Museum 1915. Victoria and Albert Museum Portfolios. Tapestries, LondonGoogle Scholar
Vogue 1927. [photoshoot], 7 09, 48, 80Google Scholar
Wace, A J B 1928. ‘Some tapestries in the collection of Sir William Burrell’, Old Furniture, 5, 78–82Google Scholar
Wallis, W C 1927. ‘Sheldon tapestries for the Royal Scottish Museum’, Burlington Mag, 51, 25–6Google Scholar
Watson, D 2000. ‘The bibliography of Ettwell Augustine Bracher Barnard MA FSA FRHistS’, Trans Worcestershire Archaeol Soc, 3rd ser, 17, 285–92Google Scholar
Watts, W W 1924. Old English Silver, LondonGoogle Scholar
Wells, W 1968. Scottish Art Review, xi, 14–18Google Scholar
Wells-Cole, A 1990. ‘The Elizabethan Sheldon tapestry maps’, Burlington Mag, 132 (1047), 392–401Google Scholar
Wells-Cole, A 1997. Art and Decoration in Elizabethan and Jacobean England: the influence of continental prints, 1558–1625, New HavenGoogle Scholar
Whitmore Jones, M 1909. The Gunpowder Plot and the Life of Robert Catesby, also an Account of Chastleton House, LondonGoogle Scholar
Wingfield-Digby, G 1980. The Victoria and Albert Museum, Catalogue of Tapestries Medieval and Renaissance, LondonGoogle Scholar
Wood, A 1691–1692. Athenae Oxonienses (ed Bliss, P), II, OxfordGoogle Scholar
Wood, A 1891. The Life and Times of Anthony Wood, Antiquary of Oxford, 1632–1695, Described by Himself (ed Clark, A), OxfordGoogle Scholar
Wood, D T B 1912. ‘The tapestries of the Seven Deadly Sins’, Burlington Mag, 20, (106), 210–22; (107), 277–87Google Scholar