Fig. 290.—A Chinese Paper, Ramsbury, Wiltshire.
Fig. 291.—TAPESTRY: SUBJECT, VULCAN AND VENUS. Woven at Mortlake, circa 1620.
In the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Fig. 292.—Chimney-Piece in the Mayor’s Parlour, The Town Hall, South Molton, Devonshire.
The Chinese papers, as already observed, had some affinity in their subjects to tapestry, and tapestry had been a favourite means of covering walls from very early times (Figs. [291], [293]). In the seventeenth century it was much in vogue among the rich, both on the Continent and in England, and a noble form of decoration it is. It would be beside the mark to recount the history of tapestry weaving at any length, but it is of interest to know that during the seventeenth century the English factory at Mortlake was the most renowned in the world, and produced some of the finest tapestries that have come down to us. The factory was founded in 1619 by James I., and with it are connected the names of two families who have already been mentioned in these pages. The first was that of the Cranes, the other the Montagus.[86] Sir Francis Crane, who built a house at Stoke Bruerne, in Northamptonshire (see pp. 174, 176), managed the factory for many years on behalf of the king, and made a considerable fortune. The factory flourished under James I. and Charles I., but declined under the Commonwealth. After the Restoration new vigour was imparted to it; it passed from the direct patronage of the king and was acquired in 1674 by the Montagus, whose house at Boughton (see pp. 196–199) retains many splendid examples from its looms. But by this time the factory at Gobelins was producing work as fine as that at Mortlake, if not finer, and this circumstance, together with the declining taste for tapestries, brought the Mortlake venture to an end in 1703.[87] Tapestries were at all times chiefly for the wealthy, but early in the eighteenth century they began to go out of fashion, and were superseded by the other modes of decoration already described.
Fig. 293.—THE TAPESTRY DRAWING-ROOM, POWIS CASTLE, Montgomery.