On display

Sample

1966-1967 (made)
Artist/Maker
Edinburgh Tapestry Company Ltd (maker)
Harold Cohen (designer)
Place of origin
Edinburgh (made)

Tapestry sample woven in wool on cotton warps. White cotton warp loosely spun with approximately 10 warp threads to the inch. Wool weft in orange, blue, red, green, white, black and grey forming an abstract curvilinear pattern. The coloured areas are tapestry woven at approximately 14 weft threads to the inch. The grey and white areas have a complex surface of woven knots in addition to the tapestry weaving. Warp threads form a fringe, with both ends held captive by dark grey wool.

Object details

Categories
Tapestry
Textiles
Interiors
Scotland
Object type
Sample
Materials and techniques
Tapestry woven in wool on cotton warps
Wool
Cotton Yarn
Tapestry Weaving
Brief description
Tapestry sample woven in wool on cotton warps, designed by Harold Cohen, made by Edinburgh Tapestry Company Ltd., Edinburgh, 1966-1967.
Physical description
Tapestry sample woven in wool on cotton warps. White cotton warp loosely spun with approximately 10 warp threads to the inch. Wool weft in orange, blue, red, green, white, black and grey forming an abstract curvilinear pattern. The coloured areas are tapestry woven at approximately 14 weft threads to the inch. The grey and white areas have a complex surface of woven knots in addition to the tapestry weaving. Warp threads form a fringe, with both ends held captive by dark grey wool.
Dimensions
  • Length: 31cm (Note: Measured by conservation)
  • Width: 34cm (Note: Measured by conservation)
Gallery label
A good sized tapestry takes months of slow concentrated work by several highly-skilled craftsmen it is too costly a process for large works to be undertaken on a purely speculative basis, and in general tapestries can only be acquired through a direct commission. The idea that the Museum should commission a tapestry –- ultimately for its permanent collection but with the immediate purpose of creating a loan travelling exhibit –- was first mooted in 1963; but it was not until the autumn of 1966 that a commission was awarded to the painter Harold Cohen to design it, and supervise its execution by the Edinburgh Tapestry Company. In 1965 Cohen had designed a very large tapestry (26 feet long, nearly 9 feet high) for the London headquarters offices of British Petroleum. This had in fact been his first experience of the medium. But in the course of twelve months which it took to complete he had established a particularly happy relationship with the weavers of the Edinburgh Company, and was thoroughly versed in the general technical problems of a large tapestry.

He determined, nevertheless, that the new work should be quite different in character from the first, and his starting move was to test out at an experimental scale how certain design ideas could satisfactorily be translated into woven wool. Here are two examples of experiments which the artist did not find satisfactory. The first was concerned with colour transitions within a strictly mechanical weaving pattern, and passages of the final tapestry did in fact develop some use of this idea. The second was intended to try out the possibility of a very deep coarse texture of weave gradually changing to smooth texture and flat colour; but it was not taken up.
Object history
Experimental piece of tapestry with a rough texture woven in preparation for weaving the tapestry 'Over All' (Circ.536-1967). The texture experimented with here was not used in the completed tapestry.
Collection
Textiles and Fashion Collection
Accession number
CIRC.537-1967

About this object record

Explore the Collections contains over a million catalogue records, and over half a million images. It is a working database that includes information compiled over the life of the museum. Some of our records may contain offensive and discriminatory language, or reflect outdated ideas, practice and analysis. We are committed to addressing these issues, and to review and update our records accordingly.

You can write to us to suggest improvements to the record.

Suggest feedback

Record createdJune 24, 2009
Record URL
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O365547/sample-harold-cohen/
Download as: JSON