VII.—The Sheldon Tapestry Weavers and their Work

E.A.B. Barnard; A.J.B. Wace

doi:10.1017/S0261340900013540

VII.—The Sheldon Tapestry Weavers and their Work

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 July 2011

E.A.B. Barnard and

A.J.B. Wace

Article contents

Extract
References

Get access

Extract

In the course of the paper on ‘Elizabethan Sheldon Tapestries’ (Archaeologia, vol. lxxiv), which Mr. John Humphreys read before the Society on 3 April 1924, he dealt principally with the historical and topographical interests of many of the then known examples of Sheldon tapestry-work. In the persons of Mr. Humphreys, Colonel Howard, and Mr. A. F. Kendrick we indeed salute pioneers in research concerning this subject. The object of this present paper is to deal as far as possible with the results of my recent documentary researches concerning William Sheldon's scheme and those who were associated with it. I should at once add that these researches have only been made possible by the financial support of our Fellow, Mr. Rees Price, of Broadway, Worcestershire, who himself has done so much similar work concerning the history of the Sheldon family.

Type: Research Article
Information: Archaeologia , Volume 78 , 1928 , pp. 255 - 314

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0261340900013540 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1928

Access options

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

References

^{page 255 note 1} Indenture in Weston Park MSS.

^{page 256 note 1} This surname has a number of variants in the relative documents in which it appears. As far as possible the form Hyckes has been used throughout this paper, being the form used by Richard Hyckes himself. In cases where it appears otherwise, the surname is spelt as in the original document.

^{page 257 note 1} Not ‘Bardisley (Baddesley Clinton) co. Warwick’, as in former published transcripts.

^{page 257 note 2} These eight aforementioned counties, with the addition of Middlesex, are the only counties represented in the tapestry maps.

^{page 258 note 1} Unfortunately, in spite of much research, this document does not now appear to be in existence.

^{page 259 note 1} At one time Hyckes boarded ‘young gentlemen’ at Barcheston (v. p. 270).

^{page 259 note 2} MS. Rawl. D. 807, Bodleian Library; also The Life and Times of Anthony Wood, antiquary, of Oxford, 1632–1695, described by himself. Collected from his Diaries and other Papers by Andrew Clark, M.A. (Oxford Historical Society). Vol. i, p. 477 n.

^{page 259 note 3} P.C.C. 28 Capell.

^{page 260 note 1} v. p. 280.

^{page 261 note 1} v. p. 275; also Humphreys, ‘Elizabethan Sheldon Tapestries’, Archaeologia, lxxiv, p. 189.

^{page 262 note 1} Richard Hyckes thus ‘signed’ his name in the tapestry-map of Worcestershire (fig. 2), and when signing the Broadway lease (v. p. 267). Francis Hickes thus signed his name in the tapestry-map of Oxfordshire and Berkshire (fig. 3), and in the Shipston-upon-Stour registers.

^{page 262 note 2} Camden's Britannia (1607), p. 620; Fuller's Worthies (c. 1662), p. 34, etc.

^{page 262 note 3} P.C.C. 93 Bolein.

^{page 263 note 1} She was the eldest of Ralph Sheldon's eight daughters, and married Sir John Russell, of Strensham, co. Worcester.

^{page 263 note 2} 1571, 43a.

^{page 263 note 3} P.C.C. 25 Lyon.

^{page 263 note 4} 1583, 115a.

^{page 264 note 1} P.R.O. Court of Requests, 118/16. From the endorsement it would seem that Hyckes had already lodged another complaint in this matter.

^{page 264 note 2} It is thus styled in the Accounts.

^{page 264 note 3} Black Book of Warwick, ed. Thos. Kemp, p. 29.

^{page 265 note 1} Op. cit., p. 48.

^{page 265 note 2} A George Calveley is in the list, dated 1 June 1533, of ‘Knights made with the Sword at the Coronation of Queen Anne Boleyn’ (Shaw, Knights of England). In 1571 there was a George Calveley, of Calveley, co. Chester, knight bachelor; and in 1617 a George Calveley, of Leigh or Lea Hall, Alford (?co. Lincoln), knight.

^{page 265 note 3} P.R.O. Court of Requests, 66/15.

^{page 265 note 4} Members of the Hyckes family were associated with this parish for many years, and Henry Hyckes, great-grandson of Richard Hyckes, held the living in 1682 (Vis. Worcs., 1682–3, p. 56).

^{page 266 note 1} In this connexion it is a conflicting fact, apparently, that in Birmingham Reference Library there is: ‘167815. Admittance of Humphrey Moore, clerk, to the parish church of Stretton-upon-Fosse by the Bishop of Worcester, 1 May, 1591’ [sic]. There are also several other relative documents in Birmingham Reference Library.

^{page 266 note 2} P.C.C. 30 Darcy.

^{page 266 note 3} Probate of this will was granted on 17 August 1581.

^{page 266 note 4} Netherborowe, modern Berrow, a Worcestershire parish some 8½ miles south-west of Upton-upon-Severn. ‘This parish was sometimes called Netherberrowe, to distinguish it from Overberrowe alias Overbury, the former being dependent on the latter, and both [churches] dedicated to St. Faith.’ Nash, History of Worcestershire, vol. i, p. 75 n.

^{page 266 note 5} Worcester Probate Registry, vol. vii, 136.

^{page 267 note 1} Cf. p. 274, n. 2.

^{page 267 note 2} v. p. 285.

^{page 267 note 3} P.R.O. Court of Requests, 146/15.

^{page 267 note 4} Old St. Paul's is a very prominent topographical feature of this map.

^{page 267 note 5} Birmingham Reference Library, 167556.

^{page 267 note 6} 1571, no. 110.

^{page 268 note 1} He was one of the witnesses to the will.

^{page 268 note 2} 1588, no. 144 a; v. also p. 263.

^{page 268 note 3} L.C. 9/98.

^{page 268 note 4} It is possible, however, that Robert Hill did not come to Barcheston until the year 1575. Cf. evidence of Joseph Tustian.

^{page 268 note 5} P.R.O. Court of Requests, 121/32.

^{page 268 note 6} An old family name in Worcestershire and Warwickshire.

^{page 268 note 7} Cf. Septem peciis de Tapistrie de columnis vocat ffullishe pillers (Lord Chamberlain's Accounts, 1581–2). Verdure is mentioned in the same account, and therefore could not be synonymous.

^{page 270 note 1} ? Cherington in co. Warwick, four miles from Shipston-upon-Stour.

^{page 271 note 1} I have lately seen at Weston House, through the kindness of Mrs. Warriner, a pardon dated 8 Jan. 1435–6 to Thomas Ryngwode, ‘keeper of our [Henry VI] Great Wardrobe and of our jewels, of every manner of debt’, etc. The presence of this document amongst the Weston muniments is at present unaccountable and possibly significant. It is also a curious fact that one Robert Rolleston actually appears to have been Keeper of the Great Wardrobe from 1419 to 1445, and that there is no mention of Thomas Ryngwode in the official documentary evidences of that period.

^{page 272 note 1} e.g. Thomas Welles, Bordesley, 1558 (Calendar of Worcester Wills, etc., p. 30).

^{page 273 note 1} Beginning in 1559.

^{page 273 note 2} Beginning in 1571.

^{page 273 note 3} Beginning in 1558.

^{page 273 note 4} This statement also applies to other existing local documentary evidences.

^{page 273 note 5} Worcester Probate Registry, 1622, no. 95.

^{page 274 note 1} There is ample internal evidence that this will at Worcester Probate Registry is not the original document, although it is thus calendared. Both it and the inventory are in the same handwriting.

^{page 274 note 2} v. also p. 267. A certain Anthony Diston appears in the Lord Chamberlain's Accounts-under the arras-workers—in 1586–7.

^{page 274 note 3} Presumably his second wife. Sir Thomas Phillipps, in his additions to the Visitation of the County of Worcester, gives his wife as Anne Ingram, of [Little] Wolford, co. Warwick.

^{page 274 note 4} 1592, 130 b. There is no entry concerning this Edmund Hicks in the Barcheston registers.

^{page 275 note 1} The Tredington registers begin in 1541.

^{page 276 note 1} A copy of his will is at Somerset House. P.C.C. 264 Brent [1653].

^{page 276 note 2} Nash, History of Worcestershire, vol. ii, p. 431.

^{page 276 note 3} v. Chambers's Biographical Illustrations of Worcestershire, p. 129. Thomas Hyckes makes a reference to draughtsmanship in the early lines of his short Life of Lucian, which precedes the Dialogues.

^{page 277 note 1} Willis-Bund, Worcs. County Records, vol. i, p. 158.

^{page 277 note 2} Star Chamber Proceedings, Jas. I, Bun. Y, 311/6. Also: Barnard, ‘The Adventures of an Evesham Sergeant-at-Mace at Shipston-upon-Stour in 1616’ Evesham Journal, 3 June, 1922.

^{page 277 note 3} His place of abode is not given.

^{page 277 note 4} See p. 263.

^{page 278 note 1} Willis-Bund, op. cit., i, 325.

^{page 281 note 1} In every instance the names of the workers are spelt in the form in which they appear in the Accounts.

^{page 282 note 1} P.C.C. 10 and 11 Lewyn.

^{page 282 note 2} Cf. Accounts for 1579–80.

^{page 282 note 3} P.C.C. 48 Soame.

^{page 283 note 1} In later accounts he appears as Harman van Bell.

^{page 286 note 1} The year in which the name first appears in the Accounts.

^{page 287 note 1} Walpole Society, Annual, ii, pp. 89 ff., xiv, pp. 27 ff.; Victoria and Albert Museum, Tapestry Portfolio, iii; Catalogue of Tapestries ², pp. 10 ff.

^{page 287 note 2} Archaeologia, lxxiv, pp. 181 ff.

^{page 287 note 3} Tapestry Weaving in England, pp. 47 ff.

^{page 287 note 4} In the preparation of this paper, apart from the generous co-operation of Mr. E. A. B. Barnard, I owe much to other friends, especially Colonel Howard, Mr. Humphreys, and Mr. Baron Ash. I have to thank the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Birmingham Art Gallery and Museum, the Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight, and the owners of the tapestries described, Lady Binning, Lady Barber, Frau Budge, Mrs. Majendie, Mrs. Antrobus, the Duke of Rutland, the Marquess and Marchioness of Salisbury, Sir William Burrell, Mr. Dent Brocklehurst, Mr. S. R. Vereker, and Mr. Basil Dighton, for permission to reproduce the photographs here. Dr. Sauermann, of the Thaulow Museum, Kiel, Dr. Sauerlandt, of the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg, and the Director of the Kestner Museum, Hanover, have also given much unselfish assistance. Lady Binning, Lady Barber, Sir William Burrell, Mr. Louis Clarke, Col. Howard, Mr. Humphreys, and Mr. S. R. Vereker have also generously contributed to the cost of the illustrations.

^{page 287 note 5} Richard Hyckes and Francis Hickes are used throughout because they themselves spelled their names thus.

^{page 288 note 1} Bodleian Library, MS. Rawlinson D. 807, fol. 15; Clark, Life and Times of Anthony Wood, i, p. 477, 2.

^{page 288 note 2} See above, p. 259.

^{page 288 note 3} Humphreys, Archaeologia, lxxiv, p. 184.

^{page 288 note 4} Made for me by the kindness of Professor G. A. S. Snijder of Amsterdam, to whom my thanks are due for other help as well.

^{page 288 note 5} British Topography ², p. 310.

^{page 289 note 1} See above, p. 271.

^{page 289 note 2} Thomson, Tapestry Weaving in England, p. 68.

^{page 289 note 3} See above, p. 264.

^{page 289 note 4} See below, p. 307.

^{page 289 note 5} Victoria and Albert Museum, Tapestry Portfolio, iii.

^{page 289 note 6} Thomson, Tapestry Weaving in England, fig. 14.

^{page 289 note 7} The Bodleian maps 1 and 2 and the Bodleian fragments of 3 are on loan at the Victoria and Albert Museum and are illustrated in Tapestry Portfolio, iii.

^{page 290 note 1} Victoria and Albert Museum, Tapestry Portfolio, iii. Where known the present ownership of the tapestries is given in each case.

^{page 290 note 2} Victoria and Albert Museum, Tapestry Portfolio, iii (in right-hand corner of plate showing the Bodleian map of Oxfordshire and Berkshire).

^{page 290 note 3} See Victoria and Albert Museum, Tapestry Portfolio, iii, Introduction.

^{page 290 note 4} Göbel, Wandteppiche, i, p. 539, pl. 490.

^{page 290 note 5} Kendrick (Walpole Society, Annual, xiv, p. 37) compares a lost plan of Paris dated to the sixteenth century. One of the panels representing the legendary kings of France (dated 1530) in Beauvais Cathedral has a map of France as a background (Gobel, Wandteppiche, ii, p. 208).

^{page 291 note 1} Sotheby's Sale Catalogue, 12 Nov. 1920, lots 128–32.

^{page 291 note 2} Bible illustrations probably formed the basis for the designs of the scenes represented. The Story of Judah in four scenes occurs in N. J. Visscher, Grooten Figuer Bibel, Alcmaer, 1646.

^{page 291 note 3} Kendrick, Catalogue of Tapestries, p. 11, no. 1 a.

^{page 292 note 1} The Sheldon arms occur in the decoration of Chastleton House and the inventory of 1633 speaks of Mr. Sheldon's chamber; Miss Whitmore-Jones, Gunpowder Plot and Chastleton House, pp. 114 ff.

^{page 293 note 1} Sotheby's Sale Catalogue, 4 March, 1927, lot 76.

^{page 293 note 2} Bryan Bequest, pl. iii; Kendrick, Catalogue of Tapestries, p. 14, 1 c, 1 d.

^{page 294 note 1} Review of Principal Acquisitions, 1926, p. 67, fig. 59.

^{page 294 note 2} Sold at Sotheby's, 24 June, 1927, lot 89.

^{page 294 note 1} Old Furniture, v, p. 79 ff.

^{page 294 note 2} I have to thank Dr. Sauermann, of the Thaulow Museum, Kiel for information about this cushion.

^{page 294 note 1} American Art Association Sale, New York, April 26–30,1927, lots 995, 996; Art News, April 16, 1927, p. 11.

^{page 297 note 1} Old Furniture, v, p. 83.

^{page 297 note 2} Burlington Magazine, li, pp. 25 ff.

^{page 298 note 1} Clifford Smith, Proc. Soc. Ant., 1913–14, p. 236; Kendrick, Catalogue of Tapestries ², p. 14, 1 e.

^{page 298 note 2} Herald and Genealogist, in, p. 532: cf. Nichols, Leicestershire, iii (1), p. 509. I have to thank Mr. Van de Put for kind help on these points.

^{page 298 note 3} e. g. Victoria and Albert Museum, Picture Book of Embroideries, II, Stuart, pl. 19.

^{page 299 note 1} e.g. Victoria and Albert Museum, Picture Book of Embroideries, I, Elizabethan, pls. 6, 7, 10, 11, 13, 14, 19, 20; II, Stuart, pls. 1, 4, 6, 9; Huish, Samplers, pls. xv, xvi, xviii, xix, figs. 56, 59.

^{page 299 note 2} Sir William Burrell possesses a tapestry valance (c. 60 in. long by 10 in. high) with hunting genes, which has been claimed as Sheldon, but, as this attribution is far from certain, it is omitted from the present discussion.

^{page 301 note 1} Walpole Society, Annual, ii, p. 93.

^{page 302 note 1} Walpole Society, Annual, ii, pp. 89 ff.

^{page 303 note 1} Sir John Tracy (died 1591) married Ann, daughter of Sir Thomas Throckmorton, and Ralph Sheldon the elder married in 1557 Anne, daughter of Sir Robert Throckmorton.

^{page 303 note 2} This has also been discovered independently by Mr. Kendrick, Burlington Magazine, li, p. 161.

^{page 303 note 3} Victoria and Albert Museum, Review of Principal Acquisitions, 1923, p. 21, Pl. 11.

^{page 303 note 4} See Andreae Alciati Emblematum flumen abundans, edited by Henry Green for the Holbein Society (1871).

^{page 304 note 1} The figure of Justice in the tapestry in St. Mary's Hall, Coventry (Kendrick, Burlington Magazine, xliv, p. 83; Humphreys, Archaeologia, lxxiv, p. 198), is also excluded. It is thought to have been specially woven in to replace the original figure which had been deleted for religious reasons. It does not, however, seem Sheldon in style, and looks rather like a patch cut out of some other tapestry and inserted to fill the gap. A thorough examination of the back of the tapestry is essential before any decision can be reached.

^{page 304 note 2} A complete set of six is in the Victoria and Albert Museum (Kendrick, Catalogue of Tapestries ², p. 12, 1 b), two from another set are in the Glynn Vivian Art Gallery at Swansea, and a single cushion in Colonel Howard's possession (Walpole Society, Annual, xiv, p. 40, Pl. xxxiv). Recently Mr. Frank Partridge had another complete set of six.

^{page 304 note 3} Göbel, Wandteppiche, i, pl. 510.

^{page 304 note 4} Göbel, op. cit., 1, pl. 440.

^{page 304 note 5} H. Schmitz, Bildteppiche ³, pp. 154ff.

^{page 304 note 6} Humphreys, Archaeologia, lxxiv, pls. xliii, xliv.

^{page 304 note 7} Page 48 (ed. by Thomas Kemp); see above, p. 264.

^{page 304 note 8} Göbel, Wandteppiche, i, p. 540f.

^{page 304 note 9} Gobel, op. cit., i, pl. 493; Böttiger, Svenska Statens Samling af väfda Tapeter, ii, pls. 1–111.

^{page 305 note 1} Kendrick, Burlington Magazine, li, p. 161.

^{page 305 note 2} Göbel, Wandteppiche, i, pl. 489.

^{page 305 note 3} Thomson, Tapestry Weaving in England, p. 52, fig. 8.

^{page 305 note 4} Walpole Society, Annual, xiv, p. 34 (1).

^{page 305 note 5} Walpole Society, Annual, xiv, p. 38, pl. xxxi.

^{page 305 note 6} No. 851–1884.

^{page 305 note 7} Göbel, Wandteppiche, i, pls. 488^a, 488^b, 492.

^{page 305 note 8} Walpole Society, Annual, xiv, p. 39, pl. xxxii.

^{page 305 note 9} See below, p. 306 (9).

^{page 306 note 1} Thomson, Tapestry Weaving in England, p. 50, fig. 6. Now in possession of Messrs. P. W. French and Co., New York.

^{page 306 note 2} Walpole Society, Annual, xiv, p. 41, pl. xxxvi.

^{page 306 note 3} Works of Art at Welbeck Abbey, p. 25.

^{page 306 note 4} Thomson, Tapestry Weaving in England, p. 51, fig. 7.

^{page 306 note 5} Kendrick, Catalogue of Tapestries, p. 10 (1), pl. 1; Thomson, op. cit., p. 48, fig. 5.

^{page 306 note 6} Walpole Society, Annual, xiv, p. 40, pl. xxxiii; Archaeologia, lxxiv, p. 199; Humphreys, Archaeologia, lxxiv, pl. xlii.

^{page 307 note 1} Victoria and Albert Museum, Tapestry Portfolio, iii. The three maps are at present on loan in the Victoria and Albert Museum.

^{page 308 note 1} Mr. Kendrick has kindly informed me that he saw some years ago, in a private collection, a small panel of tapestry, probably a cushion-cover, which bore a reference to Genesis xxxvii. He thought that it might well be of the Sheldon School. According to the inscription the subject would probably have referred to the Story of Joseph. The cushion cannot now be traced.

^{page 309 note 1} The lion and unicorn in the larger panel suggest a date after 1603, for James I was the first sovereign to use the lion and unicorn as supporters for the royal arms.

^{page 309 note 2} Victoria and Albert Museum, Tapestry Portfolio, iii.

^{page 309 note 3} Humphreys, Trans. Birmingham Arch. Soc., xliv, pp. 49, 83.

^{page 310 note 1} Ed. by Thomas Kemp, p. 48; see above, p. 264.

^{page 310 note 2} Cf. Göobel, Wandteppiche, i, pls. 488^b, 489, 491, 510.

^{page 310 note 3} Victoria and Albert Museum, Picture Book of English Embroideries, I, Elizabethan, pl. 20, II, Stuart, pl. 2; cf. Shorleyker, Schole House for the Needle (1624).

^{page 310 note 4} Old Furniture, iii, p. 22; cf. Ashton, Samplers, figs. 5, 14, 15.

^{page 310 note 5} Ibid., iii, pp. 125, 230, and illustrations there given; Picture Book of English Embroideries, II, Stuart, pls. 1, 6; Huish, Samplers. 6 Picture Book of English Embroideries, II, Stuart, pl. 19; Old Furniture, iv, p. 66.

^{page 311 note 1} See his epitaph in Beoley Church. His passport is still in existence.

^{page 311 note 2} H. N. Nugent, Huntingdon Peerage, pp. 399 ff.

^{page 311 note 3} Worcester Probate Registry, 1597, 135, will and inventory.

^{page 311 note 4} Miss Whitmore-Jones, Gunpowder Plot and Chastleton House, pp. 114 ff.

^{page 312 note 1} Victoria and Albert Museum, Picture Book of English Embroideries, I, Elizabethan, pl. 4.

^{page 312 note 2} Sotheby's Sale Catalogue, 15 June 1928, lots 42–5.

^{page 312 note 3} Picture Book of English Embroideries, I, Elizabethan, pl. 3.

^{page 312 note 4} Old Furniture, iii, p. 22.

^{page 312 note 5} Picture Book of English Embroideries, II, Stuart, pl. 3; cf. Ashton, Samplers, pl. 1, figs. 13–16, 18.

^{page 312 note 6} The fourth curtain of the set is now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, T. 30–1928.

^{page 312 note 7} See above, p. 266.

^{page 312 note 8} See above, p. 260.

^{page 312 note 9} H. N. Nugent, Huntingdon Peerage, p. 400.

^{page 313 note 1} See above, p. 311. In the Hôtel-Dieu at Beaune is a series of thirty tapestry woven bed coverlets of the fifteenth century.

^{page 313 note 2} National Gallery, London, no. 256.

^{page 313 note 3} See the inventories of the church of Saint Ame at Douai, Pinchart, Hist. Gén. de la Tapisserie, iii, Pays Bas, p. 53.

^{page 313 note 4} e. g. Göbel, Wandteppiche, i, p. 259.

^{page 313 note 5} Sauermann, Schleswig-Holsteinischer Kunst Kalender, 1916, pp. 60 ff.

^{page 313 note 6} Bossert, Volkskunst in Europa, pls. xiv, 1, 2, 3, 11; xv, 1, 4, 6; xxii, 4; cf. Kendrick, Victoria and Albert Museum, Catalogue of Tapestries ², nos. 59–61, 62, 62^a, 62^b.

^{page 313 note 7} e. g. Göbel, op. cit., i, pls. 487^a, 487^b, 501, 505.

^{page 313 note 8} Sauermann, op. cit., p. 64, figs. 1–3; cf. Kendrick, op. cit., no. 39.

^{page 313 note 9} e. g. Sauermann, op. cit., fig. 2, p. 61.

Article contents

VII.—The Sheldon Tapestry Weavers and their Work

Extract

Access options

References

Save article to Kindle

Save article to Dropbox

Save article to Google Drive

Reply to: Submit a response

Your details

You have entered the maximum number of contributors

Conflicting interests