PAPER-HANGING.
with the dragon in Northumberland, were in existence at Warwick Castle before 1398. He also gives a longlist of the subjects treated on the tapestries of the various palaces belonging to Henry VIII . There are alsovery full descriptions of hangings in the extremely interesting inventories of Henry VII. , now existing in theRecord Office. Hunt, in his “ Exemplars of Tudor Architecture,” remarks that, “ Of the historical andfabulous subjects represented on these hangings, the siege of Troy, the story of Hercules, and the parable ofthe Prodigal Son, seem to have been the favourites, as they are the most general.” “ Parke work” (land-scape) and heraldry particularly, held high places in the estimation of the “ devysors ” of bygone times; and“in 1503, Katherine, Lady Hastings , disposed by will of ‘counterfeit arras with my lord’s armes, counterfeitarras with the imagery of women, alsoe pieces I have of blew and better blew with my lord’s armes; andalso pieces of hangings of verd that now hang in my chamber and the parlour.’ The latter were probablyhangings of rich silk in one colour, or, in fact, flowered damask.”
With regard to their value he adds, “ Some notion of the prices of hangings may be collected from aletter of Gilbert Talbot’s to his father, the Earl of Shrewsbury, dated 1576,* wherein he says, ‘I haveseen many fayre hangynges, yo r L. may have of all prycesse, eyther iis. a styckf or vii grotes, iiis. ivs.vs. or vis, the styck, eaven as yo r L. will bestow; but there is of vs. the stycke that is very fayre; butunless yo r L. send upp a measure of what depthe and bredthe you wolde have them, suerly they will notbe to yo r L.’s lykynge; for moste of them are very shallow, and I have yet seene none that I thynke depeinoughe for a great chamber, but for lodgynges.’”
The materials latterly used in the superior description of this furniture were of the most costly kinds.Old inventories frequently mention cloths of gold and of silver, and embroidery, and a cloth made of amixture of silk and gold called “baudekin.”J
Holinshed speaks of this in his description of the palace built outside the town of Guines, on theoccasion of the tournay of the Field of the Cloth of Gold,—“Beside rich and marvellous clothe of arras,wrought of golde and silke, compassed of manie auncient storyes.” The room in which Henry VIII .received Francis I. at Calais, in 1520, is described as hung with cloth of gold, decorated with pearlsand precious stones. And from Wolsey ’s inventories, we learn that in his sumptuous apartments, thegorgeous materials of the hangings were cloths of gold and silver and tapestries of pictorial subjects. LordOrford, in his description of the sale of*the effects of Charles I. , says,—“ One set of hangings relating to thestory of Abraham, in eight parts, at Hampton Court , was valued in the inventory at 8260/. ; and another inten parts, the history of Julius Caesar , was appraised at 5019/.” Most of the figured tapestries wereimportations, for we find in an act of Henry VIII. 1512 (4 Henry VIII . c. 6) as much as 4000 pieces oftapestry, &c. mentioned incidentally as coming in one ship. At what time tapestry was first manufacturedin England, we have little satisfactory evidence; but Dallaway writes, “ It was certainly previous to theyear 1344, when a writ was issued (17 Edw. Tertii, m. 41) ‘De inquirendo de mystera Tapiciorum London.’Henry VIII. gave a patent to John Mustian to be his arras-maker; and in the same reign, a private gen-tleman named Sheldon established at Barcheston, in Warwickshire, a manufactory in which some pieceswere made, consisting of maps of counties, some fragments of which are still preserved.”§ Dallaway alsofurnishes us with “A full account of the manufactory at Mortlake of Sir F. Crane, conducted by F.Cleyne, in the reigns and under the especial patronage of Kings James and Charles I .”
The first mention of the importation of Gobelin tapestry is of that brought into this country by CharlesBrandon, duke of Suffolk, being a part of the dowry he received with Mary of France, sister of Henry VIII .
In our next article on the subject of paper-hangings, we shall endeavour to trace the steps whichimmediately led to their introduction.
# Quoted in Lodge’s “ Illustrations.”
t “ Styck” is derived from tlie German word Stuck — a piece.
t A name derived by us from tbe purpose to which it was first applied, viz. to form the baldacchino, or canopy, placed over the high altar ofthe Italian churches on great occasions, and also over the thrones of princes. Alberti tells us that baldacchino is also the name of a Levantine stuff, which comes from Babilouia, called by the Levantines “ Bagdad,” and by our ancestors “ Baldacco.” G. Villani speaks of “ Un ricco paliodi baldacchino di seta e di oro, messo sopra la sua persona.”
§ Walpole’s “Anecdotes,” edit. Dallaway.