TAPESTRYCONSERVATION

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Butterworth-Heinemann Series in Conservation and Museology

Series Editor: Andrew OddyBritish Museum, London

Consultants: Sir Bernard FeildenDirector Emeritus, ICCROMPage Ayres CowleyConservation Architect, New YorkDavid BomfordNational Gallery, LondonJohn FidlerEnglish Heritage, LondonC.V. HorieManchester Museum, University of ManchesterSarah StaniforthNational Trust, LondonJeanne Marie TeutonicoThe Getty Conservation Institute, Los Angeles

Published titles: Architectural Tiles: Conservation and Restoration (Durbin)Chemical Principles of Textile Conservation (Timr-Balzsy, Eastop)Conservation and Restoration of Ceramics (Buys, Oakley)Conservation of Building and Decorative Stone (Ashurst, Dime)Conservation of Furniture (Rivers, Umney)Conservation of Historic Buildings (Feilden)Conservation of Leather and Related Materials (Kite, Thomson)A History of Architectural Conservation ( Jokilehto)Lacquer: Technology and Conservation (Webb)The Museum Environment, 2nd edition (Thomson)Radiography of Cultural Materials, 2nd edition (Lang, Middleton)Tapestry Conservation: Principles and Practice (Lennard, Hayward)The Textile Conservators Manual, 2nd edition (Landi)Upholstery Conservation: Principles and Practice (Gill, Eastop)

Related titles: Contemporary Theory of Conservation (Muoz-VinasDigital Collections (Keene)Digital Heritage: Applying Digital Imaging to Cultural Heritage (MacDonald)Fragments of the World: Uses of Museum Collections (Keene)Historic Floors (Fawcett)Managing Conservation in Museums (Keene)Materials for Conservation (Horie)The National Trust Manual of HousekeepingNatural Materials: Sources, Properties and Uses (DeMouthe)Organic Chemistry of Museum Objects (Mills, White)Pigment Compendium: Dictionary (Eastaugh, Walsh, Siddall, Chaplin)Pigment Compendium: Optical Microscopy (Eastaugh, Walsh, Siddall, Chaplin)Pigment Compendium CD (Eastaugh, Walsh, Siddall, Chaplin)Restoration of Motion Picture Film (Read, Meyer)Risk Assessment for Object Conservation (Ashley-Smith)Structural Aspects of Building Conservation (Beckman, Bowles)

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TAPESTRYCONSERVATION

Principles and Practice

Frances Lennard Maria Hayward

AMSTERDAM BOSTON HEIDELBERG LONDON NEW YORK OXFORD

PARIS SAN DIEGO SAN FRANCISCO SINGAPORE SYDNEY TOKYO

Butterworth-Heinemann is an imprint of Elsevier

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Butterworth-Heinemann is an imprint of ElsevierLinacre House, Jordan Hill, Oxford OX2 8DP30 Corporate Drive, Suite 400, Burlington, MA 01803

First published 2006

Copyright 2006, Frances Lennard and Maria Hayward. All rights reserved

The rights of Frances Lennard and Maria Hayward to be identified as the authors of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

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This book is dedicated to Dinah Eastop, MA, FIIC, ACR, ILTM,

Senior Lecturer and Associate Director of the AHRC Research Centre for Textile Conservation and Textile Studies

in recognition of her unfailing support of research and publication in the field of textile conservation

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Foreword by Wendy Hefford and Karen Finch ix

Editors preface xi

Acknowledgements xiii

Picture credits xv

List of contributors xvii

Tapestry timeline xxiiiMaria Hayward

Part One: Context 1

1. The art of tapestry conservation 3Frances Lennard

2. Fit for a king? Maintaining the early Tudor tapestry collection 13Maria Hayward

3. The survival of Henry VIIIs History ofAbraham tapestries: an account of how theywere perceived, used and treated over the centuries 20Jenny Band

4. Changing approaches to tapestry conservation: the conservation of a set of seven eighteenth-century tapestries 28Lynsay Shephard

Part Two: Documentation and analysis of materials 37

5. The truth will out: the value of tapestry documentation 39Maria Hayward and Ksynia Marko

6. Instrumental analysis of metal threads as an aid for interpretation and preservation of a fifteenth-century tapestry altar frontal and super frontal 48Cordelia Rogerson and Paul Garside

Part Three: Cleaning 57

7. Comments on tapestry wet cleaning 59David Howell

8. A brief history of tapestry wet cleaning systems at the Victoria and Albert Museum 62Frances Hartog and Albertina Cogram

9. Chevalier Conservation: past and presentdevelopments in the cleaning of tapestries 68Susanne Cussell

10. Cleaning antique and modern tapestries byaerosol suction: thirteen years later the characteristics, comparative advantages andlimitations of this system 74Yvan Maes De Wit

11. Non-aqueous cleaning 81Frances Lennard

Part Four: Treatment options 89

(a) Support systems12. Development of a couching technique

for the treatment of historic tapestries 91Danielle Bosworth and Caroline Clark

13. A grid support for The Lamentationtapestry 97Frances Lennard and Michelle Harper

Contents

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14. Conservation techniques at De Wit Royal Manufacturers 102Yvan Maes De Wit

15. A description and evaluation of a conservation system for tapestries 108Sheila Landi

16. Tapestry as upholstery: the challenges of conserving tapestry-covered seat furniture 113Kathryn Gill

17. Tapestry on a small scale: conserving a set of Soho tapestry chair covers from Petworth House 123Laura Bosworth

(b) Image reintegration 12918. The visual reintegration of missing areas

in tapestries 131Rachel Langley and Philippa Sanders

19. Methods of infilling areas of loss 138Frances Lennard

20. Tapestry conservation techniques at Chevalier Conservation 145Susanne Cussell

(c) Different approaches 15321. Tapestry conservation at the

Metropolitan Museum of Art 155Ronnee Barnett, A. Alice Blohm, Kathrin Colburn, Tina Kane,Midori Sato and Florica Zaharia

22. Tapestries on long-term view at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum: a synthesis of treatment options 163Kathy Francis, Tess Fredette, Bonnie Halvorson and Deirdre Windsor

23. Wawel Castle tapestry collection: an overview of past and present conservation practice in Krakow, Poland 171Jerzy Holc

24. The conservation of tapestries in Bavaria 177Cornelia Wild and Andr Brutillot

25. Tapestry conservation in Italy: two case studies 185Claudia Kusch

Part Five: Maintenance and display 191

26. Made to fit: reinstating a set of tapestries and painted panels into the Audley EndTapestry Room 193Michelle Harper and Karen Thompson

27. Maintenance and first aid 200Ksynia Marko

28. Removing large tapestry hangings from display 207Fiona Hutton, Frances Lennard and Ksynia Marko

29. Ephemeral or permanent: environmental decisions for textiles 213Boris Pretzel

Part Six: Current research projects 223

30. Monitoring of damage to historic tapestries (MODHT): a European research project 225Kathryn Hallett

31. Mechanical testing and its role in the condition assessment of tapestries 227Melin Sahin, Alan Chambers, Leonidas Dokos, Janice Dulieu-Barton, Jacqueline Earl,Dinah Eastop and Frances Lennard

Select bibliography 235

Glossary 241

Index 243

viii Contents

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Wendy Hefford

Three things make or mar a tapestry design, crafts-manship and condition. Many tapestries weredesigned by leading artists of their day, such asBernard van Orley, Raphael, Rubens, Le Brun andBoucher. With no less artistry, weavers translated thestyle of the designer faithfully. Highly-paid specialists,weaving flesh, faces and hair, overcame constraints oftheir medium to achieve likenesses that caused uni-versal admiration and could deceive an onlooker intothinking a woven portrait was a painting. Silk andwool dyed in brilliant colours and subtle shades,though uniformly tapestry woven, were mingled withsuch skill that they seemed like velvet, satin, fur, shotor watered silk, damask or transparent veils. Surfacesof silver, glass or stone were realistically rendered intapestry; even the luminosity of the sky was success-fully evoked. But all that beauty could be destroyedby constant use, resulting in fading, degradation offibre and hazards of major damage and repair. For atapestry to survive, not only careful treatment butskilled remedial work was, and is, essential.

In the past, workshops weaving new tapestriesmade a considerable part of their income repairingexisting tapestries that were privately owned. For theroyal tapestries in England, Great Wardrobe accountsshow how they were cleaned, repaired and lined by apermanent staff of arras workers and tapestry taylors.Detailed accounts reveal large sums spent on materialsfor repairs, shown to involve reweaving by paymentsfor warp and occasionally for painting the design tofill substantial holes. Up to the eighteenth century,however, such reweaving was performed by men whohad served a seven-year apprenticeship learning theirtrade and spent their lives practising it. Original car-toons, or tapestries of the same design, were oftenavailable for copying to recreate missing areas.

This relatively happy state of affairs lasted whiletapestry was valued as a major furnishing, in spite offluctuations in fashion for different styles. By thelater eighteenth century, however, tastes changed soradically that far fewer new tapestries were beingmade, and fewer old ones were in use. Eventually,tapestry workshops closed and skills were lost. TheGreat Wardrobe itself was abolished in 1782. When,by the end of the nineteenth century, tapestry oncemore had a commercial value, it began to be soldwith increasing frequency; and to make the hangingsserviceable they were often restored by workerswith no idea of how the damaged tapestry originallylooked or with what subtleties it had been woven.Not until the second half of the twentieth centurywas there a revolution in tapestry conservation, withan approach based on scientific and artistic educa-tion, seeking better ways to preserve and protectthese vulnerable, irreplaceable works of art.

This wide-ranging book with contributions fromexperienced conservators shows what advances havebeen made and what problems inevitably remain, asthe study and practice of tapestry conservation enterthe twenty-first century.

Karen Finch

Like my fellow students at the Kunsthaandvaerker-skole in Copenhagen, I was taught the technique of tapestry weaving by Gerda Henning, herself anartist whose work holds an honoured place in theDanish Museum of the Decorative Arts, where ourschool also her creation was housed.

Her teaching instilled in us respect for the longtraditions of the art of weaving; and it determinedmy attitude to the sad specimens of worn and tattered, but once beautiful tapestries that I came to

Foreword

ix

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encounter in the workrooms of the Royal School ofNeedlework and the Victoria and Albert Museum(V&A). I knew right away that some of their beautywould still be there, waiting to be reclaimed.

At the V&A, the Keeper of the Textile Depart-ment, George Wingfield Digby, allowed me to provemy belief by unpicking the darning covering a seventeenth-century French tapestry (T 1251931)and then supporting the weak remains on heavylinen lining material, undeterred by the fact that tothe dealers, who advised on insurance, this wouldproclaim repair and therefore lower value.

Close up, no design was visible, but the memoryof it was held by the still firm warp thread, so whenthese were couched into place with neutral colouredembroidery silk, the design was revealed as a distanttownscape above a wooded foreground.

The warps of this tapestry were whole, even ifworn. Commissions in my Ealing workroom oftenhad large chunks cut away, leaving unsightly holes,difficult to camouflage. This was dealt with by agifted colleague, Danielle Bosworth. She laid newwarps, dyed to match the old, on the patches underthe gaps and found the information available to usecolour indications to suggest the missing details ofthe design. Danielle taught her techniques to ourstudents, while always following the rules of minimal and reversible intervention.

A good friend, a paintings conservator, told us thathe did not like tapestries because the drawing is sobad. We pondered this and realised that he could nothave seen a tapestry with no repairs, so we invitedhim to the nearest tapestry gallery. Unhappily, to noavail, since none of the tapestries there were in theiroriginal condition.

All of these experiences added strength to ourresolve to develop means to preserve the fine tapes-tries that still grace the great houses for which theywere woven or that are treasured in our museums.

Tapestry conservators have come a long way fromthese beginnings, as witnessed by the many contribu-tors to this book. Tapestries can now be safelycleaned with great benefits to their colours, but westill need a better understanding of the long-termeffects of new materials and support techniques onweak and worn fibres, and to generate the know-ledge that tapestries depend on stable environmentalconditions for their survival.

Tapestry Conservation: Principles and Practice shouldbenefit all with an interest in tapestries and their care;not only owners, historians and tapestry conservatorsbut also designers of modern interiors, who may beinspired to design new, lightly undulating pictorialtextiles for their clients.

x Foreword

Karen Finch at the Textile Conservation Centre at Hampton Court Palace in the early 1980s.

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This book is not a technical manual on how to conserve tapestries, rather it seeks to provide an analy-sis of how tapestry conservation techniques haveevolved over the centuries. Treatment began withthe practices established within the Great Wardrobeby the late Middle Ages to care for the English royalcollection, and disseminated to noble households,originally based on cleaning with bread and brushesand reweaving areas of loss. It evolved into tapestryconservation as it exists today, which in the UKdeveloped in the 1960s and 1970s with the pio-neering work of among others, Karen Finch andDanielle Bosworth, continued by Caroline Clark,

at the Textile Conservation Centre. This long-standing pattern of caring for tapestries can be seenthroughout Europe and in America, where differenttechniques have evolved. Developments in the fieldof tapestry conservation are ongoing as shown bythe Europe-wide project Monitoring of damage to historic tapestries (see Chapter 30). Modern researchis often interdisciplinary, as demonstrated by thesuccessful collaboration between conservators andengineers (see Chapter 31).

The chapters are grouped thematically: context,documentation, cleaning, treatment options (sub-divided in turn into support systems, image reinte-gration and different approaches), maintenance anddisplay, and current research projects. While somesubjects such as lining or hanging mechanisms do nothave a specific section, they form a recurrent theme.The question of specialist terminology and how it isused has been addressed in the glossary and we havesought to ensure a consistent use of terms through-out the text. The glossary, along with Chapters 1 and12, addresses the structure of tapestry weaving, whilean introduction to the history of tapestry weaving is provided by the timeline. The book seeks to berepresentative of conservation practice within themajor studios in the UK and this work is set in con-text by a group of comparative studies from Americaand mainland Europe. These chapters bring out anumber of issues related to the ways in which tapes-tries are perceived as art objects, and how they havebeen collected and displayed.

The chapters have been edited to avoid repetitionof recurring issues such as why conservators usestranded cotton to couch areas of silk weft. A num-ber of the chapters include case histories to illustratetheir particular theme and these have been edited tofocus upon the issue in point rather than to cover allfacets of the treatment.

Editors preface

xi

Lynsay Shephard stitching on a tapestry frame at HamptonCourt Palace.

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We would like to thank the Arts and HumanitiesResearch Councils Research Centre for Textile Con-servation and Textile Studies (20027) for supportwhile working on this publication. The book itselfforms one of the Research Centres milestones and its publication fulfils the Centres aim to consider textiles on long-term open display in country housesand museums. Dinah Eastop must be credited andthanked for suggesting the initial idea for this bookand for developing the book proposal. Dinah alsocompiled the index.

We would also like to thank Nell Hoare, Directorof the Textile Conservation Centre, University ofSouthampton, for her support during the course ofthis project and for permission to publish materialrelating to tapestries conserved at the TCC. Weacknowledge all of the hard work of TCC col-leagues, past and present, who have undertaken theconservation of a number of the tapestries discussedin this book and who are acknowledged personallyin the relevant chapters.

We owe our biggest debt to Christine Bennettand Mike Halliwell, without whose help with theeditorial process and the images, this book wouldhave been much the poorer. Other TCC colleagueswho played an invaluable role include Amber Rowe,Paul Wyeth and Andrea Poole.

Grateful thanks also go to Ksynia Marko, LynsayShephard and Michelle Harper for their work onthe editorial board which discussed the proposedcontents and contributors with the editors. Thebook has benefited greatly from their extensiveknowledge and experience of tapestry conservation.

We are also indebted to Karen Finch and WendyHefford for their encouragement throughout thisproject and for contributing the Foreword. We alsowish to thank our contributors without whom thisbook would not have happened. Finally, we wouldlike to acknowledge all the hard work and encour-agement provided by Stephani Havard, our editor at Elsevier, and all her editorial team who havebrought this book to fruition.

Acknowledgements

xiii

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Cover images: National Museums Liverpool (TheWalker).

Foreword: Textile Conservation Centre.

Editors preface: Crown copyright: Historic RoyalPalaces. Reproduced with kind permission of theRoyal Collection.

Chapter 1Figure 1.1 reproduced by kind permission of theDuke of Buccleuch & Queensbury, KT. TextileConservation Centre; Figure 1.2 Line drawing by Mike Halliwell Textile Conservation Centre;Figure 1.3 Steve Speller West Dean TapestryStudio; Figure 1.4 with kind permission of theWernher Foundation, English Heritage. TextileConservation Centre; Figure 1.5 reproduced withpermission of the Henry Moore Foundation. Textile Conservation Centre; Figure 1.6 MartaRogoyska. Textile Conservation Centre.

Chapter 2Figure 2.1 Crown Copyright: Historic Royal Palaces.Reproduced with kind permission of the RoyalCollection.

Chapter 3Figure 3.1 The Prince de Ligne; Figures 3.2, 3.3,3.4 Crown Copyright: Historic Royal Palaces.Reproduced with kind permission of the RoyalCollection.

Chapter 4Figures 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 4.4, 4.5 Crown Copyright:Historic Royal Palaces. Reproduced with kind permission of the Royal Collection.

Chapter 5Figure 5.1 reproduced by kind permission of theDuke of Buccleuch & Queensbury, KT. TextileConservation Centre; Figures 5.2 and 5.5 with

thanks to the National Trust; Figure 5.3 with kindpermission of the Wernher Foundation, EnglishHeritage. Textile Conservation Centre; Figure 5.4with thanks to the National Trust. Textile Conser-vation Centre.

Chapter 6Figures 6.1, 6.2, 6.3, 6.4 reproduced with permissionof the Whitworth Art Gallery. Textile Conser-vation Centre.

Chapter 7Figure 7.1 Crown Copyright: Historic Royal Palaces.Reproduced with kind permission of the RoyalCollection.

Chapter 8Figures 8.1, 8.2, 8.3 published with the kind permission of the Board of Trustees of the V&A.

Chapter 9Figures 9.1 and 9.2 Tho Baulig/ChevalierConservation.

Chapter 10Figures 10.1 and 10.2 De Wit; Figures 10.3 and10.4 by permission of the National Trust, HardwickHall, Devonshire Collection. De Wit.

Chapter 11Figures 11.1 and 11.6 by kind permission of theChapter of Peterborough Cathedral. Textile Conservation Centre; Figures 11.2, 11.3, 11.4reproduced with permission of the client TextileConservation Centre; Figure 11.5 Permission ofTrustees of the Weston Park Foundation TextileConservation Centre.

Chapter 12Figure 12.1 V&A Images/Victoria and AlbertMuseum. Figures 12.2 and 12.3 by permission of

Picture credits

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xvi Picture credits

the National Trust, Hardwick Hall, DevonshireCollection.

Chapter 13Figures 13.1, 13.2, 13.3 with kind permission of the Wernher Foundation, English Heritage. Textile Conservation Centre.

Chapter 14Figures 14.1 and 14.2 De Wit.

Chapter 15Figures 15.1 and 15.2 Textile Conservation Consul-tancy workshop; Figure 15.3 private collection.

Chapter 16Figures 16.1 and 16.4 by kind permission of thetrustees of the Wallace Collection. Textile Con-servation Centre; Figures 16.2, 16.3, 16.5, 16.6 and16.7 Kathryn Gill, Textile Conservation Centre.

Chapter 17Figures 17.1, 17.2, 17.3 by permission of theNational Trust, Petworth House.

Chapter 18Figures 18.1, 18.2, 18.3, 18.4 The National Trust.

Chapter 19Figures 19.1 and 19.2 President and Fellows ofMagdalen College, Oxford. Textile ConservationCentre; Figures 19.3 and 19.4 reproduced with permission of the client. Textile ConservationCentre; Figure 19.5 Textile Conservation Centre.

Chapter 20Figures 20.1, 20.2, 20.3, 20.4 Chevalier Conser-vation, Paris and Aubusson.

Chapter 21Figures 21.1, 21.2, 21.3 Metropolitan Museum ofArt, Medieval Art Collection; Figure 21.4 Metro-politan Museum of Art, The Cloisters Collection.

Chapter 22Figures 22.1, 22.2, 22.3 Isabella Stewart GardnerMuseum, Boston. Figure 22.3 Isabella StewartGardner Museum, Boston. Photograph by RichardLingner.

Chapter 23Figures 23.1, 23.2, 23.3, 23.4 Wawel Castle.

Chapter 24Figures 24.1, 24.2, 24.3, 24.4 Bayerisches National-museum Munich.

Chapter 25Figures 25.1 and 25.2 with the kind permission ofthe Museo Diocesano di Ancona.

Chapter 26Figures 26.1, 26.2, 26.3, 26.4 Images courtesy ofEnglish Heritage. Textile Conservation Centre.

Chapter 27Figures 27.1, 27.2, 27.3, 27.4 with thanks to theNational Trust.

Chapter 28Figure 28.1 with thanks to the National Trust;Figures 28.2, 28.3, 28.4 with thanks to the NationalTrust, Dyrham Park. Fiona Hutton and FrancesLennard, Textile Conservation. Figure 28.5 Photo-graph by Cristian Barnett.

Chapter 29Figures 29.1 and 29.2 Photographs by Paul Robins, V&A Photo Studio; Figures 29.3, 29.4, 29.5 Linedrawings by Boris Pretzel.

Chapter 30Figure 30.1 Image courtesy of Historic Royal Palaces.

Chapter 31Figures 31.1, 31.2, 31.3, 31.4, 31.5, 31.6 Line draw-ings by Melin Sahin.

Glossary Textile Conservation Centre.

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Ronnee Barnett

Ronnee Barnett, Associate Conservator, has beenrestoring tapestries at the Textile ConservationDepartment of the Metropolitan Museum of Artsince 1991. Among other projects, she has been solerestorer of Noli Me Tangere, the fifth fragment in theHunt of the Frail Stag series, and is presently restor-ing the third tapestry of the Courtiers in a RoseGarden series.

Jenny Band

Jenny Band gained a BA specialising in tapestry in 1972 and undertook an apprenticeship with thelast Morris & Co restorers at Hampton Court from1976 8. In 1980 she assumed the management ofthe Hampton Court tapestry and furnishings work-shops, changing the working ethos to conservation,and amalgamating them to form the Textile Con-servation Studio and research laboratory. In 2002,Jenny was appointed Conservation Advisor to theHistoric Royal Palaces. She is now a freelance con-sultant working on historic interiors, undertakingresearch and lecturing.

A. Alice Blohm

Alice Blohm, Associate Conservator, Departmentof Textile Conservation, The Metropolitan Museumof Art, has assisted in the technical analysis of thepublication, Medieval Tapestries in The MetropolitanMuseum of Art by Adolpho S. Cavallo. Presently, sheis restoring a medieval tapestry. She has a Certificatein Tapestry Weaving from West Dean College,England.

Danielle Bosworth

Danielle Bosworth studied art embroidery andrestoration in Paris. She worked as a textile restorerat Maison Brocard, Paris. In 1965, she joined KarenFinch at her London studio as a freelance conserva-tor. The studio moved to Hampton Court Palacewhen the Textile Conservation Centre was estab-lished in 1975, where she was employed as SeniorConservator/Tutor until 1982. Danielle set up herown studio in North West London in 1983. She alsotaught textile conservation at the Institut Franaispour la Restauration des Oeuvres dArt in Paris forfour years. She moved her studio to Dorset in 1999.

Laura Bosworth

Laura Bosworth studied History of Art and Frenchat the University of Sussex. She joined DanielleBosworths private studio in North West London in1990 and completed a four-year in-house trainingprogramme in textile conservation. She moved toDorset with the studio in 1999 where she specialisesin tapestry conservation.

Andr Brutillot

Born in La Chaux de Gilley, France, Andr Brutillotgraduated from the University of Besanon. In 1975he started an apprenticeship in Munich with a free-lance textile conservator. In 1979 he started workingpart-time at the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum andpart-time as a freelance conservator. Work at theBayerisches Nationalmuseum includes the storageand documentation of c. 150 tapestries from the col-lection and the conservation of two tapestries from

Contributors

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The Life of the Apostle Paul, Brussels, c. 1550 by PeterCoecke van Aelst.

Alan Chambers

Alan Chambers, PhD, is Senior Lecturer in MaterialsEngineering at the School of Engineering Sciences,University of Southampton. He has expertise in com-posite materials and damage detection techniques.

Caroline Clark

Caroline Clark took a one-year diploma course inTapestry Weaving at West Dean College (197576).She was employed by the Textile ConservationCentre as an apprentice in Tapestry Conservation(1976 78), Conservator (197879), Head ofTapestry Conservation Department (197988 and199294), and Head of Conservation Services(198892). Since 1996 she has worked part-time as an independent conservator and, from 2002, alsopart-time with Danielle and Laura Bosworth inDorset.

Albertina Cogram

Albertina Cogram gained a City and Guilds Certifi-cate in Conservation and Restoration Studies fromLincoln College of Art in 1981. This was followedby voluntary work and then employment in theConservation Department of the HornimanMuseum, London. In 1985 she joined the TextileConservation Studio, Hampton Court Palaceworking mainly on tapestries. In 1988 she joinedthe Textile Conservation section of the Victoria and Albert Museum taking up a post as a tapestryconservator.

Kathrin Colburn

Kathrin Colburn, conservator, joined the Metro-politan Museum of Art in 1990. She is responsiblefor the conservation of textiles belonging to theDepartment of Medieval Art and the Cloisters.Prior to her appointment at the Metropolitan, sheworked at the Cleveland Museum of Art. Shereceived her training at the Abegg-Stiftung inSwitzerland.

Susanne Cussell

Susanne Bouret, ne Cussell, graduated from theTextile Conservation Centre, Hampton Court Palacein 1989. After working with Kysnia Marko at theTextile Conservation Studios in Limehouse, shetook an internship at the Muse des Tissus, Lyon,France. In 1991 she joined Chevalier Conservationwhere she was responsible for setting up and run-ning the Aubusson studios until 2002. Currently onsabbatical leave, she teaches tapestry conservationtheory at the restoration/conservation departmentof the Institut National du Patrimoine and lecturesat the University of Clermont Ferrand.

Leonidas Dokos

Leo Dokos is a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow; he isco-located in the School of Engineering Sciencesand the Textile Conservation Centre, University ofSouthampton. He has experience in the applicationof optical strain sensors to structures.

Janice Dulieu-Barton

Janice Dulieu-Barton, PhD, is a Reader in Experi-mental Mechanics, at the School of EngineeringSciences, University of Southampton. She has around15 years experience in material testing, strain meas-urement and non-destructive evaluation.

Jacqueline Earl

Jacqueline Earl, PhD, is a Research Fellow in ShipScience, at the School of Engineering Sciences,University of Southampton, with expertise in testingand evaluation of composite materials and structures.

Dinah Eastop

Dinah Eastop is Senior Lecturer at the TextileConservation Centre, University of Southamptonand Associate Director of the AHRC Research Centrefor Textile Conservation and Textile Studies. She hasworked in the heritage conservation sector since 1976and has a special interest in developing the principlesand practice of textile conservation via the integrationof both the physical and social sciences.

xviii List of contributors

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Karen Finch

After training as a weaver in Denmark, Karen Finchworked at the Royal School of Needlework whereshe became involved with tapestry conservation.Then, in 1954, she joined the Art Work Room at the Victoria and Albert Museum, soon to berenamed the conservation department, beforeestablishing her own workshop in Ealing, London.She was founder of the Textile ConservationCentre and its Principal from 1975 to 1986.

Kathy Francis

Kathy Francis presently works as a freelance textileconservator in Summit, New Jersey. From 1995 to2002 she was Senior Conservator for Textiles at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. From 1988 to1994 she served as Chief Conservator of the TextileConservation Center. She holds a BS in Clothingand Textiles from Framingham State College.

Tess Fredette

Tess Fredette is Associate Textile Conservator at theIsabella Stewart Gardner Museum. From 1996 to2003 she was Assistant Conservator at the TextileConservation Center and a principal member of thetapestry conservation team. She holds a BFA in FiberArt from the Massachusetts College of Art and anMS in textiles from the University of Rhode Island.

Paul Garside

Paul Garside received an MChem from theUniversity of Southampton, where he remained tostudy for a PhD. He subsequently joined the AHRCResearch Centre for Textile Conservation andTextile Studies. His current research involves thedevelopment of techniques to investigate the chem-ical and microstructural properties of natural andsynthetic fibres, with the aim of informing textileconservation treatments.

Kathryn Gill

After gaining a BA (Hons) in Textiles and Fashion atManchester Polytechnic, Kate trained and worked

as a textile conservator, specialising in upholsteryconservation at the Textile Conservation Centre,Hampton Court Palace. In 1984 Kate moved to theUSA to set up the upholstery conservation sectionat the Metropolitan Museum of Art. After sevenyears as Senior Upholstery Conservator, she took apost at the Textile Conservation Centre, Universityof Southampton. Kate is Senior Conservator andLecturer, combining practical conservation (textilesand upholstered furniture) with teaching and research.She is principal contributor to and co-editor (withDinah Eastop) of Upholstery Conservation: Principlesand Practice (2001).

Kathryn Hallett

Kathryn Hallett is Senior Conservation Scientist atHistoric Royal Palaces. After training as a conserva-tor at the Institute of Archaeology, UniversityCollege London, she gained a Masters degree inConservation Science from the Royal College ofArt/Victoria and Albert Museum joint course, incollaboration with the British Museum.

Bonnie Halvorson

Bonnie Halvorson has worked at the IsabellaStewart Gardner Museum since 1997 and is a SeniorConservator of Textiles. Her background includestapestry conservation experience from the Museumof Fine Arts Boston, and the Cathedral of St Johnthe Divine, New York City. She graduated with anMS in textile conservation from the University ofAlberta, Canada in 1991.

Michelle Harper

Michelle Harper (BA Hons) completed a three-yearpostgraduate diploma in textile conservation at theTextile Conservation Centre (TCC), CourtauldInstitute of Art in 1995. She worked for a year at theNational Trust Textile Conservation Studio, Norfolkand then joined the Conservation Services depart-ment of the TCC in 1996. Michelle has recentlyworked as project manager on a variety of largeEnglish Heritage projects, specialising in tapestryconservation.

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Frances Hartog

In 1989, Frances Hartog began a three-year appren-ticeship in textile conservation at the TextileConservation Studio in London, focusing mainly ontapestry conservation. From 1992 to 1994 she workedat the Textile Conservation Centre predominantly inthe tapestry department. The following two yearswere spent at the Museum of London fulfilling con-tracts for a costume exhibition and displays. In 1996she joined the National Trusts Textile ConservationStudio, Norfolk. Two years later she took up herpresent post as senior textile conservator in theConservation Department of the Victoria and AlbertMuseum.

Maria Hayward

Maria Hayward, PhD, gained the postgraduatediploma in Textile Conservation in 1990 and subse-quently worked at the Textile Conservation Centreas a conservator. She is currently a Reader and Headof Studies and Research at the Textile ConservationCentre, University of Southampton and Director ofthe AHRC Research Centre for Textile Conservationand Textile Studies. In 2004 she published The 1542Inventory of Whitehall: The Palace and its Keeper and waselected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries. She iscurrently working on two books, Dress at the Court ofHenry VIII and Rich Apparel: Dress in Henry VIIIsEngland.

Wendy Hefford

Wendy Hefford read History at Oxford and thenjoined the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1960, laterbecoming a Research Assistant in the Department of Textiles. She went on to become the expert ontapestries in the Department of Textiles, Furnishingand Dress. She is now a freelance tapestry historian.

Jerzy Holc

Jerzy Holc has held the post of Head of TextileConservation Studio at Wawel Royal Castle inKrakow for 14 years. He began studies in ArtHistory at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow in1987. Whilst there, he began an internship at theTextile Conservation Studio at the Wawel RoyalCastle. Upon completing his MA degree in ArtHistory he remained employed there as a textile

conservator and took over the role of DepartmentHead in 1990.

David Howell

David Howell trained as a chemist, spent some timein industry and studied English Mediaeval Studiesbefore entering the conservation profession. Duringtwenty years at Historic Royal Palaces, he gained aninternational reputation in research in textile con-servation. He was coordinator of a major Europeanfunded research project, Monitoring of Damage toHistoric Tapestries and led the development of theunique washing facility at Hampton Court Palace.David has moved to Oxford University LibraryService where he is now Deputy Head of Conser-vation and Collections Care.

Fiona Hutton

Having served an apprenticeship at the TCC underKaren Finch, Fiona Hutton built up her experiencewith Ksynia Marko at the Textile ConservationStudio in London before moving to the South Westof England. There she established Textile Conser-vation with Frances Lennard. She continued to offerconservation services throughout the South Westuntil her untimely death in May 2005.

Tina Kane

Tina Kane, conservator, began working in the TextileConservation Department at the MetropolitanMuseum in 1978. She is a specialist in the restorationof medieval tapestry. She received an MA inComparative Literature from the University ofCalifornia, Berkeley, USA, and has published articleson tapestry and other subjects.

Claudia Kusch

Claudia Kusch trained as a tapestry weaver withProfessor Silvio Grossi at the Vatican Laboratories,followed by training as a textile conservator at theAbegg-Stiftung, Switzerland. Since the mid eighties,she has worked as a freelance textile conservator inItaly, where she set up the workshop Arakhne, spe-cialising in tapestry conservation. Currently, besideArakhnes projects, she collaborates with the VaticanMuseums and the Istituto per il Restauro di Roma.

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Sheila Landi

Sheila Landis early education and training was centred on fine art followed by a variety of jobs inteaching, design and manufacture, all of which proveduseful in a career in conservation that began in 1963.Largely self-trained while working in the TextileConservation Section of the Victoria and AlbertMuseum, she became Head of Section in 1972,remaining in post until her official retirement in 1989,when the Textile Conservation Consultancy wasestablished. The studio moved to Burghley House,Stamford in 1992. Her chief publication is the TheTextile Conservators Manual.

Rachel Langley

Rachel Langley has worked at the National TrustsTextile Conservation Studio since 1993. She trainedas an Apprentice in Tapestry Conservation at theTextile Conservation Centre, Hampton Court (198992) and began her career as a Textile Conservator inthe Tapestry Department of the Textile ConservationCentre, Hampton Court (199293) before joiningthe National Trust.

Frances Lennard

Frances Lennard gained the Postgraduate Diploma inTextile Conservation awarded by the TextileConservation Centre (TCC) & The Courtauld Insti-tute of Art in 1985. She worked for the ConservationServices Department of the TCC until 1990, thenmoved to the South West of England to work as afreelance textile conservator in partnership withFiona Hutton; she was Chair of the United KingdomInstitute for Conservation (UKIC) Textile Sectionfrom 1994 to 1997. She returned to the TCC in2001 where she is Convenor of the MA TextileConservation programme.

Yvan Maes De Wit

Starting in 1968, Yvan Maes De Wit received trainingas a master weaver and restorer from his grandfather,Gaspard De Wit. Between 1969 and 1973 he studiedHistory of Art followed by Business and Admin-istration at the Catholic University of Louvain,Belgium. Between 1975 and 1976 he was president of the Cultural Commission, AGL at the Catholic

University of Louvain. In 1979 he did research for hisHistory of Art dissertation at the Muse des Tissus inLyon, France. Since 1980, he has been manager of theRoyal Manufacturers De Wit.

Ksynia Marko

Ksynia Marko has been working in the field of textileconservation for over thirty years. She began her train-ing in 1973, first with Karen Finch and then withSheila Landi at the Victoria and Albert Museumwhere she became Senior Textile Conservator respon-sible for tapestry conservation. She ran her own studioin London for eleven years, before joining theNational Trust in 1991 as manager of the TextileConservation Studio at Blickling, Norfolk. In 1995she became the Trusts Textile Conservation Adviser,caring for over 50000 textiles including 500 tapestries.

Boris Pretzel

Boris Pretzel was born in West Berlin. He graduatedfrom Bristol University with a BSc, followed by anMSc and a term as researcher. Subsequently, heworked in the European Patent Office in The Hagueand Berlin, with responsibility for solid-state physicsdevices, manufacturing and materials. Since 1989, hehas been the Materials Scientist in the Victoria andAlbert Museum Conservation Departments ScienceSection. He is on the editorial board of the Journal of Cultural Heritage, European Chair of IRUG (theInfrared and Raman Users Group), and a charteredphysicist.

Cordelia Rogerson

After taking a History of Art degree, CordeliaRogerson trained and worked as a textile conserva-tor at the Textile Conservation Centre, Universityof Southampton, and is presently a lecturer in theStudies and Research Department. In addition, she currently holds a research conservator post atthe TCC as part of the AHRC Research Centre forTextile Conservation and Textile Studies, and is aPhD candidate at the Royal College of Art.

Melin Sahin

Melin Sahin is a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow; heis co-located in the School of Engineering Sciences

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and the Textile Conservation Centre, University ofSouthampton. He has a special interest in experi-mental vibration analysis, structural health monitor-ing and damage identification.

Philippa Sanders

Philippa Sanders has worked at the National TrustsTextile Conservation Studio since 1992. She gaineda Diploma in Textile Conservation from the TextileConservation Centre, Hampton Court (198992)and began her career as a Textile Conservator whenshe joined the National Trust in 1992. In 1996 shewas a team member of the runner-up project for theJerwood Foundation Award.

Midori Sato

Midori Sato, Conservator, began working at theMetropolitan Museum of Art on the conservationof four large hangings in the Museums Louis XIVbedroom in l986. Since then, she has contributed tomany projects including the restoration of the tapes-try series, Courtiers in a Rose Garden. She works onthe conservation of textiles from the Asian Art andAncient Near East Departments.

Lynsay Shephard

Lynsay Shephard completed a two-year apprentice-ship in Tapestry Restoration at Hampton Court in1980, after which she continued to specialise in tap-estry conservation and was instrumental in the devel-opment of conservation practices at Hampton Court.She was Head of Tapestry Conservation at HamptonCourt until 2004. Lynsay is now working in privatepractice and continues to lecture and teach.

Karen Thompson

Karen Thompson graduated from ManchesterPolytechnic in 1990 with a BA (Hons) in History of

Design. She completed her postgraduate training inTextile Conservation at the Textile ConservationCentre, Hampton Court Palace in 1993. Since thenshe has carried out conservation for museums andprivate practice both in the UK and abroad. She iscurrently employed at the Textile ConservationCentre, University of Southampton and her areas ofspecialisation include tapestries, painted textiles,costume and accessories.

Cornelia Wild

Cornelia Wild attended the School of Fashion inMunich and then completed a dressmaking appren-ticeship. She has worked as a freelance conservatorfor the Civic Gallery at Lenbachhaus and on theMunich Archiepiscopal chair. She has worked inthe Bavarian palace conservation department since1986. In 1992 she became head of the tapestrydepartment with responsibility for one of the mostimportant tapestry collections in Germany.

Deirdre Windsor

Deirdre Windsor is currently Principal of WindsorConservation, in Dover, Massachusetts, USA. From1995 to 2001 she was Director and ChiefConservator of the Textile Conservation Center,American Textile History Museum in Lowell,Massachusetts, USA, and managed the tapestry con-servation team. She holds a BFA in Textile Designfrom the Rhode Island School of Design.

Florica Zaharia

Florica Zaharia, Acting Conservator in Charge,joined the Department of Textile Conservation ofthe Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1988. She hascontributed to various tapestry conservation pro-jects, including Courtiers in a Rose Garden and TheStart of the Hunt of The Unicorn tapestry series. Sheholds a PhD in Visual Arts from the University ofArt Nicolae Grigorescu in Bucharest.

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Major developments in tapestry weaving Tapestries cited in this book

11th century: the Cloth of St Gereon, Cologne11th to 13th century: Baldishol, Norway12th to 13th century: Halberstadt pieces1302: the formation of the Corporation of Tapestry c.137580: The Apocalypse series, Angers, woven by

weavers as tapissiers de la haute lisse in Paris Nicolas Bataille, Paris (5)1422: only two master weavers in Paris 1420 30: The Fabulous Beast, Upper Rhineland (21)1425: the occupation of Paris by the English and the 1425: The Triumph of Fortitude, Brussels (12)

removal of the French court c.1450: Courtiers in a Rose Garden, Flemish (5, 21)c.1447: a dyer called Gobelin buys property on the banks 1450 75: Praetexta, Germany (21)

of the Bivre in the parish of Saint-Marcel, Paris 1460: The Story of Alexander the Great, Tournai (10)1447: a tapestry guild established in Brussels c.1460: The Roman de la Rose, Tournai (5, 6, 12)144953: History of Gideon woven for Philip the 147590: The War of Troy, Tournai (8, 10)

Good, Duke of Burgundy 147599: The Tree of Jesse, Cologne region, German (6)1450 51: first guild rules at Brussels c.1490 1510: The Lord of the Vineyard, Flemish (19)1466: Verdure with Arms of Burgundy by Jean de Haze, c.14881501: Millefleurs with the Arms of John Dynham,

Brussels French or Flemish (5)1476: victory of the painters guild of St Luke in 1500s: Anthony and Cleopatra, Brussels (5)

Brussels to secure their right to design tapestries 1500s: Fructus Belli, after cartoons by Giulio Romano, 1477: capture of Arras by Louis XI of France Brussels (20)c.1480: History of the Trojan War, woven by Pasquier 1500s: October, Brussels (10)

Grenier, Tournai tapestry merchant 1500s: The Triumph of Fame, Brussels (10)c.1500: Brussels established as the centre of tapestry c.1500: Christ of the Mystic Winepress, South

production Netherlands (21)c.1500: The Triumph of Christ, Brussels c.1500: La Chute des Idoles, possibly Flanders (14)1519: Raphaels Acts of the Apostles set delivered by c.1500 25: Esther Hearing of Hamans Plot, Brussels (12)

Pieter van Aelst to the Vatican from Brussels c.1500 30: Triumph of Eternity over Time, Flemish (8)(Continued )

The aim of the timeline is to place the tapestries used to illustrate the chapters into the context of the keydevelopments in tapestry weaving. The dates given for tapestry designs in the left-hand column are the datesfor the initial design, rather than the period over which tapestries were woven from these cartoons. The num-bers in round brackets ( ) in the right-hand column refer to the chapter number in which the tapestries are discussed. Where authors are uncertain about the date for a tapestry, this has been reflected in the timelineby citing the whole century. The tapestries illustrated in the book are highlighted in bold.

Tapestry timeline

Maria Hayward

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Major developments in tapestry weaving Tapestries cited in this book

1522: tapestries over a certain size to carry the 1510 15: Pannos dOro set, Brussels (14)Brussels mark of a red shield flanked by two red Bs 1510 20: The Landlord and the Woodcutters, Tournai (22)

c.1530: The Battle of Pavia, woven for Charles V 1510 25: Esther Fainting before Ahasuerus, from the Story c.1535 40: The Story of Jacob, by Bernaert van Orley, of Esther, Brussels (22)

first woven by Willem de Kempereer, Brussels 151525: The Story of David and Bathsheba, Brussels (14)c.1535: The Story of Romulus and Remus series, Brussels c.1520: The Reception with Nuptial Banquet and The c.1535: The Story of Cyrus series, Brussels Nuptial Procession from The Priamo series, Flemish (25)1541: tapestries over a certain size to carry the 152530: Los Honores series, Brussels (14)

weavers mark, Brussels 152550: The Education of the Prince of Peace, Tournai (22)154853: The Conquest of Tunis series, designed by c.1530 40: The Hunts of Maximilian, designed by

Jan Cornelisz Vermeyen, in the workshop of Bernard van Orley, woven in the workshop of Willem de Pannemaker, Brussels, woven for Charles V Jan Ghieteels, Brussels, for Charles V (5)

1548 60: Cornelius Floris produced the first designs 1530 50: The Conversion of the Apostle Paul, from for verdures incorporating mythical figures in The Life of the Apostle Paul, after design by Pieter decorative metalwork Coecke van Aelst, Brussels (24)

c.1550: William Sheldons tapestry workshop 153550: The Life of Saul, Brussels (18)established in Warwickshire c.154344: The History of Abraham by van Orley,

c.1550: The Story of Moses, by Bernaert van Orley, Coexie and Coeke (2, 3)Brussels 1545: The Story of Moses, Brussels (14)

c.1550 60: the large leaf verdure or feuilles de choux, c.1550: St Paul before Porcius Festus, Brussels (10)Flemish, especially Grammont and Oudenaarde c.1550: The Lamentation, Brussels (13)

c.1555: The Story of Cyrus series, Michel Coxcie, Brussels c.1550: Arras with the Arms of Poland and Lithuania, 1576: the sack of the Antwerp tapestry market by Brussels (23)

Spanish troops c.1550: The First Parents, Brussels (23)c.157580: verdure with mythological figures 1550s: Verdures, Brussels (23)

increasing the narrative element in verdures, Brussels c.1550: The Story of Noah, Brussels (23)1597: Laurent sets up a tapestry workshop in Paris c.1550: The Story of the Tower of Babel, Brussels (10, 23)1601: Flemish weavers brought to France to work in 157595: The Life of Scipio, Brussels (18)

an atelier at faubourg Saint-Marcel 157595: The Story of Gideon, Brussels (5, 10, 18, 27)1601: Law banning the import of verdure tapestries 1600s: Contarini landscapes, Flemish (8)

into France 1600s: Don Quixote, after cartoons by Francis Poyntz, 1607: Henri IV established an atelier in the grand Mortlake (15)

gallery of the Louvre under the direction of 1600s: The Fall of Damiate, Haarlem (10)Marc Comans and Frans van der Plancken 1600s: The Life of Elijah (20)

1619: the Mortlake manufactory established by 1600s: The Life of St Paul (11)James I and Charles, Prince of Wales 1600s: The Life of the Virgin, Paris (10)

c.162325: The History of Constantine, designed by 1600s: Moses Smites the Rock, French or Flemish (19)Peter Paul Rubens, woven in the Saint Marcel 16059: The Marriage from The Acts of Otto von workshop, Paris Wittelsbach, after designs by Peter Candid, from the

c.1627: Raphael de la Planche established an atelier at workshop of Hans van der Biest (24)faubourg Saint-Germain-des-Prs 1625: The Battle of Ponte Molle, Paris (14)

1634 35: The Story of Theagenes and Chariclea series, c.1629: Kitchen Scene from Scenes of Country Life afterdesigned by Simon Vouet, woven by Raphael de la cartoons by Jacob Jordaens, from the workshop of JacobPlanche Geubels, Brussels (5, 10, 12)

1661: 200 250 weavers and 42 looms at faubourg c.1630: The Institution of the Eucharist, The Assumption of Saint-Germain-des-Prs the Virgin, The Resurrection of Christ and The Worship of

c.1662: transformation of the atelier Saint-Marcel into the Shepherds, after cartoons by Rubens, Brussels (25)the royal manufactory of the Gobelins by Colbert c.1650: Julius Caesar Meeting Cleopatra, woven by Marcus

1664: foundation of Beauvais workshop by Colbert de Vos, Brussels (5)1665: letters patent issued to establish Aubusson and 1650 75: God Commands Noah to Build an Ark and God

Felletin with a level of royal status while retaining Shows Noah a Rainbow from the Life of Noah, Brussels (22)independence; weavers could use the letters MRD 1650 95: The Miraculous Draft of Fishes, Mortlake (1, 5)or MRDB (Manufacture Royale dAubusson) After 1657: The Return of Sarah by the Egyptians, from

1665: The Story of the King series, designed by Le Brun, The History of Abraham, Mortlake (5)Gobelins 166280: La Portiere de Char de Triomphe, Gobelins (27)

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Major developments in tapestry weaving Tapestries cited in this book

1667: royal edict establishing the manufactory of the 1670s: The Cadmus series, Antwerp (27)Gobelins 1670s80s: Boy Satyr Climbing a Tree, from the

166790: Charles le Brun, director of the Gobelins Bacchanals set, English (5)1684 1705: Philippe Behagle, director of c.1675: The Healing of the Lame Man at the Beautiful

Beauvais Gate, Mortlake (15)c.16891729: The Berain Grotesques, designed by c.1657: The History of Abraham, Mortlake (18)

Jean Berain, cartoons by Jean-Baptiste Monnoyer 167595: The Story of Nebuchadnezzar, English (27)c.1690: The Metamorphoses of Ovid series by 167595: Diogenes Washing Herbs, English (8)

Ren-Antoine Houasse, Beauvais 167595: Diogenes in a Barrel Discussing the Meaning 1694 99: the Gobelins was closed of Life with Alexander, Mortlake (28)1699: reopening of the Gobelins 16751710: Melintus and Arianne Fleeing Rome, Brussels (22)1699: Les Portieres des Dieux (The Seasons and the c.167595: The Liberal Arts after cartoons designed

Elements), cartoons by Claude Audran III by Daniel Janssens (d. 1682) (5)1703: closure of the Mortlake workshop 1684 1705: The Tea Party from The King of China set, 1726 55: Jean Baptiste Oudrey (16851755), from cartoons by Vernavisal, Blin de Fontenay and

official designer for Beauvais Dumons, woven by Philip Behagle, Beauvais (1, 5) c.1732: The Story of the Emperor of China series, 1690 1720: A Rural Scene, after Teniers (11)

designed by Guy Louis de Vernansal, Jean-Baptiste 1690 1720: Chinoiserie tapestry, woven by John Belin de Fontenay and probably Jean-Baptiste Vanderbank, Soho (11)Monnoyer, Beauvais 1700s: Eros and Psyche, Gobelins (15)

1736: Ftes Italienne, by Boucher, at Beauvais c.1700: Mercy and Argos and the Daughters of Ericthonius, 175559: Jean Baptiste Oudrey illustrates Jean La English (5)

Fontaines edition of Aesops Fables 1700 25: Verdures, Brussels (27)1756 70: Boucher director of Beauvais c.1716: The History of Alexander the Great woven 1756 76: Jacques Germain Soufflor, director of by Josse de Vos, Brussels (4, 7)

Gobelins and Savonnerie c.1720: Chinoiserie set, by John Vanderbank, Soho (27)1780s: the last weaving ateliers in London close c.1735 60: A set of seat furniture depicting scenes 1793: selected tapestries were burnt before the from Aesops Fables, after cartoons by Jean Baptiste

Liberty Tree in the courtyard of the Gobelins Oudrey, Beauvais (16) 1794: the Gobelins and Beauvais workshops were c.1760: Seven chair covers depicting scenes from

made national institutions Aesops Fables, probably based on Francis Barlows, 1794: the last atelier in Brussels closes probably by Paul Saunders, Soho (17)1871: Fire almost destroys the Gobelins workshops 1764: Peter the Great tapestry, woven in St Petersburg (27)1876: a workshop established under royal patronage at 1766: Pastoral Scenes by Paul Saunders, Soho (26)

Windsor with French weavers who had left France 1800s: Tapestry woven curtains in the bedroom of during the Franco-Prussian war Napoleon III at the Chateau de Pierrefonds, Oise (20)

1881: Merton Abbey tapestry works established by 189899: The Attainment of the Holy Grail by Sir William Morris Galahad, Sir Bors and Sir Percival, English (19)

1890: Windsor workshop closes1893: Windsor tapestries displayed at the Chicago

World Fair1893: William Baumgarten established a manufactory

in New York, later moving to Williamsbridge1894: Holy Grail series, designed by Edward

Burne-Jones, woven at Merton Abbey1908: Herter workshop established in New York1912: Baumgartens workshop closes1912: Dovecot Studios established in Edinburgh1926: Beauvais is granted autonomy1927: Private commissions possible at the Gobelins1937: Forests and Illusions of Icarus, designed by Jean 1946: Le Pcheur, after a cartoon by Jean Lurat,

Lurat, woven in Aubusson Aubusson (20)1939: Gobelins and Beauvais evacuated to Aubusson 1978: Three Reclining Women, One with a Child, after 1940: The Beauvais workshops in Paris are bombed. designs by Henry Moore, West Dean (1)

From then on they share the Gobelins buildings 1984: Greenhouse I designed and woven by Marta 1957 66: The Song of the World, designed by Jean Rogoyska (1)

Lurat, woven in Aubusson 2005: Estuary by John Hubbard, West Dean (1)

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Part One

Context

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Tapestry weaving

Western European tapestry weaving is one of thefine arts. The skill of the tapestry weaver is con-sidered by many to be equal to that of the painter,although it has generally received less recognition.

The combined skills of designers and weavers were capable of rendering detailed images, of cap-turing facial likenesses and expressions, and repro-ducing the textures of velvet and satin, fur, feather, stone and water in wool, silk and metal thread(Figure 1.1).

3

1

The art of tapestry conservation

Frances Lennard

Figure 1.1 The Miraculous Draft of Fishes, Mortlake, showing the modelling of the figures and the reflections in the water.

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Tapestries woven in Western Europe at the peak ofproduction, from the fifteenth to the eighteenth cen-turies, were an undoubted status symbol. They weremore expensive than paintings and were among themost costly and prized possessions of wealthy patrons.In 1528, Henry VIII bought a 10-piece set of tapes-tries depicting the Story of David for 1500, while in1538, Holbein, the Kings painter, received 30 perannum.1 Tapestries remained valued possessionsthroughout the centuries, as seen by the fact that somany have survived periods of war and domesticupheaval, changes of use and movement from oneproperty to another.

Tapestries are woven textiles; the term tapestryweave generally describes a weft-faced plain weave,where the warp threads are completely covered by

the weft threads (Figure 1.2). If weft threads aremissing, both the design and the physical structure ofthe material are compromised. Another characteris-tic of tapestry weave is that the weft is discontinuousand does not extend all the way from one selvedge tothe other; there is a separate weft for each colouredarea of the design and the image or pattern is createdby building up small areas of different colouredthreads (Emery, 1966). The weavers used a variety oftechniques to join the areas of differently colouredweft yarns (Figure 1.2) and a high degree of subtletywas employed to create different effects. Chapter 12discusses tapestry weaving in more detail.

This book is about the conservation treatment oflarge tapestry weave hangings created as domesticand liturgical furnishings, and also of smaller-scale

4 Context

Tapestry weave Slit tapestry

Single interlocking tapestry Single dovetailing tapestry

Figure 1.2 Diagram showing tapestry weave, and different methods of joining two colours of weft threads. The hori-zontal weft yarns are spaced further apart than on a tapestry, in order to show the relationship of warp and weft yarnsin the weave structure.

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tapestry furniture covers, designed to be used en suitewith the hangings. Tapestry weave is a widely usedtechnique found on all continents and throughouthistory. Decorative elements found on Coptic tex-tiles, flat weave kelim rugs from the Middle East andkesi textiles from China are all created using thisweaving technique. However, there are many styl-istic and material variations within this basic tech-nique so that each of these types of tapestry weavepresents a very different appearance.

These tapestry-woven textiles are generally con-served in the same way as other types of textile, usingtechniques to support and stabilise them, but not usu-ally to recreate missing areas of design. The materialsused and the scale of the weaving also influence thetype of conservation treatment carried out; it isunlikely that a kesi woven in fine silk yarns would betreated in the same way as a Flemish tapestry hangingbecause of the relative fineness of the weave.

Aims of conservation

The conservation of Western European tapestryhangings has developed in a different way from thatof other types of tapestry-woven textile. The uniquechallenge presented when undertaking the conserva-tion treatment of a tapestry hanging is the need toprovide overall structural support to allow the large,heavy and weak textile to continue to bear its ownweight while, often simultaneously, providing com-pensation for areas of loss within the image andreturning definition to the overall design.

In the wider field of textile conservation, thepreservation of the structure of a textile is often animportant aim; carefully colour matched support fab-rics are frequently used in order to visually fill in miss-ing areas, but often there is no attempt to recreatemissing areas of decoration. This approach is some-times taken with tapestries, but is often seen as toominimalist when the projection of the image is thefundamental role of the tapestry, and when the imageis often of such fine quality. While this may also betrue of embroidered pictures, the tradition of repairand reweaving of tapestries means that it is far morecommon for some attempt to be made to reconstructmissing and damaged areas of the picture, whether byreweaving or by colour matched stitching.

From this point of view, tapestry conservation hasmore in common with paintings conservation whereretouching is often a central part of treatment. How-ever, retouching is carried out as a separate, reversibleprocedure when conserving a painting, not as anintrinsic part of the support. The purely visual aspect

of tapestry conservation is sometimes carried outseparately from the structural support (Chapter 14discusses one such technique). For example, a neu-tral support is sometimes worked in less visible warpcoloured couching stitching, particularly on smallerpieces such as chair covers. This may then be supple-mented by stitching in coloured yarns with the soleaim of infilling missing areas of the image. However,it is more common for both structural support andvisual infill to be carried out at the same time.Tapestry conservation is a distinct branch of textileconservation the need to preserve the integrity ofboth structure and image, often simultaneously, posesdistinct challenges; in response a wide variety of different approaches and techniques is used.

There are still many hundreds of tapestries hangingin historic houses, museums and churches through-out Europe and North America, but this is a finiteresource. Although modern workshops preserve theskills of the weaver, for example at the West DeanTapestry Studio (Figure 1.3) in the UK and at thestate funded Gobelins Workshop in France, moderntapestry weaving is nowhere near as fine and intricateas the weaving of the early modern period. It is not somuch a question of the skills having been lost, as thatresources no longer permit the tremendously detailedwork involved, while equivalent materials are also dif-ficult to obtain. Much more coarsely woven tapestrythan that which is found on almost all surviving his-toric examples is almost prohibitively expensive toweave today, and tapestry as fine as the highest qualityFlemish production of earlier centuries is completelybeyond the range of current financial possibility. Oncethe surviving tapestries have deteriorated to the pointwhere they can no longer be hung, this rich heritagewill have gone for ever.

Condition

Compared with other textiles, tapestries appear tobe relatively robust but this appearance may be mis-leading. As has been well documented, for examplein the proceedings edited by Barnett and Cok (1994)and Marko (1995), they suffer from particular formsof damage. The exposed weft yarns deteriorate as aresult of external environmental factors, particularlylight. The front of a tapestry is often seen to be veryfaded when compared with the reverse which hasbeen protected from light. Exposure to light alsocauses colour changes; the green of foliage tends tobecome more blue as it ages and the more fugitiveyellow component is lost (compare the backgroundof Figures 1.1 and 5.1).

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In addition, component materials contain theagents of their own deterioration areas of pale silkweft are often weak with areas of loss, presumablythe result of a bleaching process combined with thedamaging effect of light on the silk yarn. The darkbrown dyed wool weft, found particularly in theoutlines of the design, is often badly damaged as aresult of the iron mordant used to obtain the darkcolour. The weft yarns deteriorate from the crownsof the weave, gradually exposing the undyed warpyarns, and affecting the image as well as the structureof the tapestry.

Loss of warp yarns, through insect or physicaldamage, causes areas of weakness in the structure.The condition of Germanic tapestries with linenwarps is particularly compromised as the linen isoften extremely weak. The slit stitching in all tapes-tries is often weak, leading to gaping areas wherelong lines of stitching have failed. Metal threads areoften tarnished and abraded. Tapestries virtuallyalways contain areas of reweaving and repair carriedout over generations; whole areas have sometimesbeen replaced. Long-term display has nearly alwaysled to high levels of soiling and discolouration.Tapestries size and weight become more problem-atic as the materials age, and although the long-term

mechanical effects of hanging have not been quanti-fied (although see Bilson et al., 1997), conservationaims to reduce their impact.

Although conservators can usually only speculateabout the causes of damage on the tapestries theytreat, those who work with permanent collectionsare in a position to gain an understanding of the tap-estries histories and to relate the damage they see to episodes in their past (see Chapters 3 and 4). Theassessment of damage and the evaluation of tapes-tries conservation needs have until now been car-ried out mainly on a basis of visual examination,relying on the often considerable experience of indi-vidual conservators. Conservation techniques areusually selected because experience indicates thatthey are successful.

To date there has been only a small amount ofresearch aimed at providing empirical evidence of atapestrys condition and the effectiveness of conser-vation treatments. Recent developments have aimedto begin to provide such evidence. The EuropeanCommission funded project, the Monitoring ofDamage to Historic Tapestries, aimed to develop abetter understanding of the materials and tech-niques used in the construction of tapestries and of the degradation mechanisms affecting them

6 Context

Figure 1.3 Philip Sanderson, West Dean Tapestry Studio, weaving Estuary by John Hubbard.

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(see Chapter 30). A project at the University ofSouthampton, which started in 2004, aimed toestablish whether a non-destructive test methodcould be used to monitor stress in tapestries hangingon display and so help to determine the optimumtime of intervention (see Chapter 31).

Developments in conservation treatment

Cleaning

Before the twentieth-century traditional surfacecleaning techniques were used on tapestries, theywere often cleaned by brushing or by applyingbread to absorb the dirt (Hefford, 1979). Tapestriesfrom the UK are often particularly soiled, in partdue to the countrys early industrialisation, and inpart because there was less of a tradition of wetcleaning tapestries than in other European countrieswhere it was a more accepted part of maintenance.Since the mid twentieth century it has becomecommon to wet clean tapestries as part of an overallconservation treatment. Wet cleaning aims to removelarge amounts of soiling deposited on tapestries overcenturies on open display; the presence of soilingcan catalyse degradation and often causes the pH ofthe yarns to be lowered to damaging levels, as wellas being disfiguring. Wet cleaning also has the effectof making the stiffened yarns more supple beforestitched support treatments are carried out.

Early wet cleaning treatments were carried out ina manner which now appears fraught with hazard(Chapter 8 discusses a typical evolution of wet clean-ing techniques); tapestries were often subjected towhat may now be considered extreme mechanicalaction and inappropriate cleaning solutions. Todaythere is a much greater awareness of the inherentweakness of tapestries, and wet cleaning treatmentsaim to reduce movement by keeping mechanicalaction to a minimum. The late twentieth centuryhas been characterised by rapid developments in thetechnology of cleaning large textiles such as tapes-tries. Several workshops in Europe now have purpose-built facilities designed to clean tapestries and otherlarge textiles safely (see Chapters 9 and 10).

Although simpler systems involving immersion ina temporary bath are now used less often, they stillhave a place in tapestry conservation. Althoughconcerns have been expressed that movement of thewet tapestry causes fibre loss, experience of wetcleaning demonstrates that if immersion cleaning iscarried out carefully it can be achieved safely while

providing very effective cleaning. Further work isneeded to investigate the part played by differenttypes of mechanical action and also by the durationof the wet cleaning processes.

Support and reintegration techniques

Reweaving was the dominant repair techniquebefore the 1960s; since that period the trend hasbeen towards the use of conservation techniques,primarily the support of weak areas by stitchingthem onto a support fabric. This was in part due to the developing conservation ethic which wasextended to the conservation of tapestries fromother types of textile, although the issue of cost hasalso played a part. Reweaving takes longer thanstitched support. Wingfield Digby (1971) recordeda total of 41 789 hours spent on the reweaving of theOtter and Swan tapestry, one of the Devonshire Hunt-ing Tapestries at the Victoria and Albert Museum.The work was carried out between 1962 and 1966at the Stichting Werkplaats tot Herstel van AntiekeTextiel in Haarlem, The Netherlands.

Conservation treatments aim to preserve a textilein its entirety, while making conservation additionsvisible on close examination. Formerly, reversibilitywas central to conservation ethics; more recently ithas been acknowledged that reversibility is not thatstraightforward an aim, and the emphasis has beenrather on minimum intervention. It is difficult toencompass both these aims in tapestry conservation.Although full stitched supports are reversible in the-ory, it is unlikely that in practice they would ever bereversed, while any technique that aims to recreatethe image rather than purely support the fabric goes beyond pure conservation in structural terms.Tapestry conservation is a subtle process; the line isinevitably drawn somewhere between pure conser-vation and restoration. The contributions to thisbook demonstrate how many gradations are foundacross Europe and North America, while all conser-vators who work on tapestries would agree that aes-thetic considerations are fundamental and that it isnecessary to consider the image as well as the struc-ture when making decisions about conservationtreatments.

Reweaving

As the contributions to this book demonstrate, tap-estries have often been repaired at frequent intervalsthroughout their existence; individual tapestriesoften contain repairs from many different periods.Although most tapestries contain crude amateur

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stitched repairs, reweaving has predominated as aprofessional restoration technique until relativelyrecently, carried out initially by the tapestry weaversthemselves (Hefford, 1979). Historically, reweavingwas not carried out through a support fabric andwas often executed so skilfully that it is not alwaysrecognisable as a later addition, although differencesin the rate of dye fading have often revealed its presence (Figure 1.4).

Reweaving is still a favoured technique in someconservation laboratories, while others use bothreweaving and stitching techniques depending onthe condition and role of the tapestry (as demon-strated in Chapters 20 and 21). Evidence of reweav-ing would now usually be left deliberately visible onthe reverse of the tapestry by the presence of warpends and knots. It is often necessary to remove weakweft yarns before reweaving an area; this conflicts

with the conservators aim of preserving all that is original in the textile. Proponents of reweavingargue that stitching is an essentially alien techniquewhich introduces differential stresses to the hangingtapestry, while support fabrics obscure the reverse,probably permanently.

Conservation stitching

Conservation techniques applied to tapestry use thecommon textile conservation process of stitchingweak and damaged areas onto patches or a full support of new fabric. Where tapestry conservationoften differs from the conservation of other types oftextile is in the stitching technique. Laid threadcouching, designed to be unobtrusive, often to thepoint of near invisibility, is commonly used to stabilise damaged areas of textiles, and is sometimesused on tapestries. In tapestry conservation, how-ever, particularly in the UK, visible couching stitch-ing (sometimes called brick couching) is often usedacross areas of bare warps, colour matched to themissing weft yarns, and stitched through new fabricon the reverse of the tapestry. Suitably dyed threadsare selected to match the colour of the remainingweft threads. The couching stitching extends intostronger areas of the tapestry, and an overall grid ofstitching may also be worked in order to integratethe supported areas into the overall structure.

This technique has developed since the 1960s (seeChapter 12), and has had a major impact on the con-servation of tapestries in the UK. It aims to helprecreate the design at the same time as supportingthe structure. It can be extremely successful inreturning definition to the overall image, so thatfrom a viewing distance the design of the tapestryappears much more complete, while on a closerinspection the areas of loss and damage and the con-servation stitching are obvious. Other stitching andweaving techniques are used which have a differentvisual effect from couching, but which have thesame aim (see Chapter 14).

The need to conserve and reinforce the imagemeans that, unusually in textile conservation, theconservation stitching is intended to be seen by theviewer. The creativity and artistic interpretation ofthe conservator play a greater part than in other areasof textile conservation; this can make tapestry con-servation particularly rewarding but also particularlytime-consuming. Such is the skill of the weaver indepicting facial expression, for example, that theconservator intending his or her stitching to be vis-ible has to use great skill and subtlety to convey the

Figure 1.4 The Tea Party, from the King of China series,late seventeenth- to early eighteenth-century Beauvais.The sides had been rewoven following damage to the tap-estry when it was rolled for storage.

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image intended by the weaver and not to substitutetheir own interpretation. Some textile conservatorsare specialist tapestry conservators and develop realexpertise in the redefinition of the image.

Previous repairs

As many tapestries have been repaired at frequentintervals since they were first woven, one of the prob-lems facing the conservator is how to treat previousinterventions. In this area, many different approacheshave also been taken. The historical value of previousrepairs is weighed against their appearance and poten-tial to result in further damage, whereas the cost ofremoving them and carrying out a further treatmentis sometimes an issue. Historic reweaving and repairmay cause problems by causing distortion, or damagethrough the use of fugitive dyes. Reweaving whichhas been rendered unsightly by unintended colourchanges has sometimes been removed; it may also bepreserved because it is considered to be part of thetapestrys history, or sometimes perhaps because itwould be expensive to replace. The removal ofreweaving is also likely to cause further damage to thetapestry. Previous repairs have often had to be incorp-orated into conservation treatments (Thompson,1997).

Structural support

There has been debate on the most appropriate material to use for the structural support of tapestries,focusing on whether it is desirable to allow movementin the support fabric. It is widely believed that a sup-port fabric should behave in a similar way to the tap-estry itself so that changes in the environment cause itto expand and contract at the same rate. Linen is themost commonly used support fabric. Although linenis not normally a component of tapestries, it is believedthat as a natural fabric it has a comparable response toenvironmental changes, while being strong enough tosupport the weight of the tapestry and capable ofmoulding itself to the surface.2

Landi (see Chapter 15) has taken the less widelyheld view that a support fabric should restrain the tap-estry and prevent it from expanding and contractingwith changes in temperature and relative humidity. Asurvey was carried out at Hatfield House to measurethe dimensions of tapestries as they expanded andcontracted in response to environmental changes.3 Itwas discovered that the dimensional changes were sig-nificant and it was feared that these would lead toincreased stress on the structure; this has not yet beenquantified however. As yet there are no answers to

these questions, although research at the University ofSouthampton (from 2004) aimed to investigate theseissues.

Modern tapestries

The conservation of modern tapestries poses differ-ent problems which will become more apparent tofuture generations of conservators. Tapestries wovenfrom the nineteenth century onwards can incorp-orate different materials which need to be treated in adifferent way. The cotton warps generally used in thenineteenth and twentieth centuries usually precludewet cleaning as they tend to shrink dramatically. Inthe late twentieth and now in the twenty-first cen-turies, tapestry weaving is being used experimentallyfor pieces of textile art, but also for modern hangingsin a development of the basic technique but involv-ing a range of different materials. Cartoons wereoften drawn by well-known artists (the Raphael car-toons for the Acts of the Apostles tapestries now on dis-play in the Victoria and Albert Museum are a famousexample). This has continued in the modern age; forexample the tapestry weaving studio at West Deanhas woven a set of tapestries from cartoons by HenryMoore (Figure 1.5). Modern tapestries such as theone in Figure 1.6 are often passed on to textile con-servators after weaving to be prepared for hanging byblocking and lining.

An interesting debate surrounds the treatment ofdamaged modern tapestries. Chapter 20 discusses thetreatment of a damaged Lurat tapestry from the midtwentieth century. It is interesting that sections werereplaced by reweaving in the same way that oldertapestries would have been treated at an earlier pointin their history, and presumably for the same reasons:the expertise was still available to precisely recreatethe damaged areas and the restoration of the undam-aged appearance of the relatively new tapestry wasconsidered to be paramount.

Cost of conservation

The cost of conserving tapestries can often be pro-hibitive; their size combined with an often large pro-portion of weak areas means that the extremelylabour intensive and time-consuming work requiredis costly. One of the greatest challenges facing tapes-try conservators is the necessity to make the cost ofconservation feasible for owners, who may have largecollections of tapestries representing an enormouslevel of expenditure (Clarke and Hartog, 1996). Thishas led to the initiation of different approaches aimed

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at reducing the time needed to make a tapestry safe tohang and so reducing the costs involved.

Adhesive treatments have occasionally been usedby conservators in an attempt to develop more time-efficient conservation treatments. Marko (1978) discussed the adhesive treatment of several tapestries carried out both to maximise efficiency and becausestitching methods did not appear to give enough sup-port. However, even at the time of conservation itwas recognised that this technique did not enhancethe image of the tapestry, and these treatments have

not stood the test of time; they are often now begin-ning to fail. The structure of the tapestry weavemeans that tapestry hangings are not well supportedby an adhesive treatment. The adhesive contact issolely with the more loosely spun weft yarns whereasthe warp yarns are generally not supported at all; thiscan cause the wefts to be pulled away from the warps.

Coloured patches have often been used, both as a faster alternative to the more labour intensivereweaving or couching techniques, and for their aes-thetic qualities. Painted infills have also been used on

Figure 1.5 Three Reclining Women, One with a Child, woven at West Dean Tapestry Studio in 1978 to a design byHenry Moore.

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occasion, for the same reasons (see Chapter 20).However, the need to consider the image means thatthe development of alternative methods of stitchedsupport is not always straightforward. Rather, thesearch to limit costs has tended to focus on the use ofvolunteers, seen as a way of limiting the need forexpensive skilled labour (Biddulph, 1988). One ofthe impulses behind the preparation of this book wasthe increasing need to use scarce conservationresources more effectively and to attempt to identifymore time-efficient methods of conserving tapestrieswhile restoring their visual appeal.

Display

Tapestries are frequently kept on permanent dis-play; they often form an essential component of the decoration of a room in a historic house. Evenin museum collections, the scarcity of other similarexamples may lead to tapestries being on long-termor permanent display. Appropriate linings and

hanging mechanisms are important in providinglong-term protection. In many European countriesa lining acts to support the weight of a tapestry (seeChapters 14 and 24). In the UK the two functionstend to be separated: a lining is often added to act asa dust barrier, following the provision of a supportfabric which bears the weight of the tapestry.

Some tapestries are still displayed in roomsdesigned to house them. Some are still found in theiroriginal presentation, so that conservation must alsotake into account the preservation of the frame orother architectural features (as discussed in Chapter27). Other tapestries may have been modified to fitdifferent room settings (as in Chapter 4); reuse andremodelling have been common themes in their his-tory. This can sometimes create challenges at the timeof conservation (an example is given in Chapter 26).

It is important that conservation is an ongoingprocess. Before or after a major conservation inter-vention the condition of the tapestry must be regu-larly assessed (Chapter 27) and its environmentmonitored. The environmental conditions in which

Figure 1.6 Greenhouse I by Marta Rogoyska, 1984.

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tapestries are kept play a vital role in enhancing theirlong-term preservation; research continues to leadto developments in the recommendations for opti-mum display conditions (see Chapter 29).

Treatment context

An evaluation of the literature demonstrates thatthere has never been a single method of tapestryconservation, and today there is no correct way totreat a tapestry. A wide range of cleaning, supportand display techniques is used. This book includescontributions from individuals and teams of conser-vators from institutions across the United Kingdom,Europe and the United States of America. Someregional variations are apparent; for example, theuse of strapping as a support technique is far morecommon in the USA than in Europe.

Techniques of tapestry conservation continue tobe largely dependent on the context of the tapestry.Tapestries may be displayed in historic houses orprivate homes, in civic or commercial buildings, in museums or in churches; an approach which isselected for a tapestry in one situation may not be the most appropriate for another. The contri-butions to this book demonstrate that tapestriesconserved for historic houses may be treated in adifferent way from those intended to be displayed inmuseums of fine and decorative arts where the qual-ity of the image may be considered paramount.

The conservation of a particular tapestry may alsobe influenced by its relationship with others; wholeor partial sets of tapestries often survive, so that the consistency of treatment becomes an issue. Morethan one set of tapestries woven from the same car-toons may survive; this can aid the interpretation of details missing from a tapestry. The time taken towork through a set of tapestries may also have aneffect on treatment; Chapter 4 discusses a set of tap-estries from Hampton Court Palace in the UKwhere the treatment was completed after a period of20 years, necessitating a complete change of tech-nique. Chapter 23 discusses similar issues.

This book is not intended to be a manual givinginstruction in tapestry conservation techniques butis aimed at illustrating th