Falconry thumbnail 1
Falconry thumbnail 2
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Image of Gallery in South Kensington
On display at V&A South Kensington
Tapestries, Room 94

Falconry

Tapestry
1430s (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

In the 15th century, tapestries provided colour, warmth and draught-proofing in bleak rooms with stone walls. Those with narratives also provided entertainment and interest for the household and guests at a time of low literacy, when images were extremely important.

This is one example of a group of four hunting tapestries. Until they came to the Museum in 1957, the group belonged to the Dukes of Devonshire. Large tapestries were not produced in England in the 15th century and had to be imported. A number of towns or cities in the southern Netherlands had workshops and it was in one of these that the Devonshire Hunting Tapestries were made. The earliest history of the tapestries is unknown but they were identified as being at Hardwick Hall in Derbyshire in the 16th century, from an inventory compiled in 1601 for the Countess of Shrewsbury. This celebrated and four-times married noblewoman had Hardwick Hall built and furnished to her taste. The hunt was a particularly powerful theme and would have been a familiar pastime to many of the high-born individuals and families who owned tapestries.

The composition is made up of numerous scenes that each make sense separately. This device was often used in tapestry design so that if, as often happened, a tapestry were cut up or altered - for example, to go round a doorway or fit a smaller room - the narrative would still make sense.


Object details

Categories
Object type
TitleFalconry (popular title)
Materials and techniques
Tapestry-woven
Brief description
Falconry, one of the Devonshire Tapestries. 15th century.
Physical description
Tapestry showing figures participating in falconry
Dimensions
  • Height: 445cm
  • Width: 1075.9cm
Converted from feet/inches measurements given in green register, not checked against object
Gallery label
FALCONRY Tapestry formerly owned by the Dukes of Devonshire. Episodes in the hunt are interspersed with scenes of rural life. Three of the horse-trappings are decorated with the letter 'M'. This could have been the initial of the tapestry's first owner's name, but is more likely to have no personal significance, possibly being a devout allusion to the Virgin Mary. It is not known for whom this tapestry was made. In the sixteenth century all four tapestries now known as the 'Devonshire Hunts' may have belonged to the Dukes' ancestress, the Countess of Shrewsbury, probably being part of the 'Tapestrie hanginges with personages and forrest work Fyftene feet and a half deep' noted in the 1601 inventory of Hardwick Hall. This tapestry is now only 14.5 feet deep, but has clearly lost some foliage and plants at top and bottom. ARRAS? 1430s Museum number T.202-1957(c. 2003)
Credit line
Accepted by HM Government in lieu of tax payable on the estate of the 10th Duke of Devonshire and allocated to the Victoria and Albert Museum
Object history
Cut into strips and arbitrarily joined as curtains, these rare fifteenth century tapestries were discovered in the Long Gallery at Hardwick Hall in the late 19th century. The Duke of Devonshire sent the pieces to this Museum in 1900 for examination and reassembly, and they were sewn together as four large hangings by the Ladies' Decorative Needlework Society in Sloane Street. In need of cleaning and repair by 1950, The Deer Hunt was washed and restored, with much reweaving, in Paris. On the death of the 10th Duke of Devonshire, the tapestries were acquired for the Nation. Between 1958 and 1966 the other three pieces were cleaned and restored at a tapestry workshop in Haarlem.

Few tapestries of this size and date have survived centuries of use. It is not known where these particular tapestries were made; but so many fine tapestries of this period came from Arras that the name became synonmous with tapestry in England. The four pieces actually come from slightly differen sets, as can most clearly be seen in comparing the height of the Boar and Bear Hund and the scale of its figures with the adjacent Falconry. (Taken directly from the introductory label taken down in August 2006)
Summary
In the 15th century, tapestries provided colour, warmth and draught-proofing in bleak rooms with stone walls. Those with narratives also provided entertainment and interest for the household and guests at a time of low literacy, when images were extremely important.

This is one example of a group of four hunting tapestries. Until they came to the Museum in 1957, the group belonged to the Dukes of Devonshire. Large tapestries were not produced in England in the 15th century and had to be imported. A number of towns or cities in the southern Netherlands had workshops and it was in one of these that the Devonshire Hunting Tapestries were made. The earliest history of the tapestries is unknown but they were identified as being at Hardwick Hall in Derbyshire in the 16th century, from an inventory compiled in 1601 for the Countess of Shrewsbury. This celebrated and four-times married noblewoman had Hardwick Hall built and furnished to her taste. The hunt was a particularly powerful theme and would have been a familiar pastime to many of the high-born individuals and families who owned tapestries.

The composition is made up of numerous scenes that each make sense separately. This device was often used in tapestry design so that if, as often happened, a tapestry were cut up or altered - for example, to go round a doorway or fit a smaller room - the narrative would still make sense.
Associated objects
Bibliographic references
  • Lewis, M. and Richardson, I. (2017). Note: Inscribed Vervels. Post-Medieval Archaeology, 51(1), pp. 194-200.
  • Wingfield Digby, G F & Hefford, W., The Tapestry Collection: Medieval and Renaissance (London: H M S O, 1980) pp. 24-26, pls. 21A & B.
  • Rapp Buri, A. & Stucky-Schürer, M., Zahm und Wild: kleiner Katalog zur Ausstellung Basler und Strassburger Bildteppiche des 15. Jahrhunderts (Basel: Historisches Museum Basel, 1990) pp. 358-361, fig.113
  • Joseph Jobé (ed.), The Art of Tapestry, London 1965, pp. 62-63
Collection
Accession number
T.202-1957

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Record createdFebruary 27, 2004
Record URL
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