Sheldon tapestries

Detail of Sheldon tapestry of Warwickshire

Sheldon tapestries were produced at Britain's first large tapestry works in Barcheston, Warwickshire, England, established by the Sheldon family. A group of 121 tapestries dateable to the late 16th century were produced. Much the most famous are four tapestry maps illustrating the counties of Gloucestershire, Worcestershire, Oxfordshire and Warwickshire, with most other tapestries being small furnishing items, such as cushion covers. The tapestries are included in three major collections: the Victoria and Albert Museum, London;[1] the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York;[2] and the Burrell Collection, Glasgow, Scotland (still uncatalogued). Pieces were first attributed in the 1920s to looms at Barcheston, Warwickshire by a Worcestershire antiquary, John Humphreys, without clear criteria;[3] on a different, but still uncertain basis, others were so classified a few years later.[4] No documentary evidence was then, or is now, associated with any tapestry, so no origin for any piece is definitely established.[5]

  1. ^ Wingfield-Digby, G., The Victoria and Albert Museum, Catalogue of Tapestries Medieval and Renaissance, London 1980, pg.71-83.
  2. ^ Standen, E.A., European post-medieval Tapestries and Related Hangings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1985, nos. 119-124.
  3. ^ Humphreys, J., 'Elizabethan Sheldon Tapestries', Archaeologia 74, 1924, pg. 181-202, reprinted as a monograph with the same title, Clarendon Press, Oxford 1929
  4. ^ Barnard, E.A.B. and Wace, A.J.B., ‘The Sheldon tapestry weavers and their work’, Archaeologia 78, 1928, pg. 255-314
  5. ^ Turner, H.L., "Tapestries once at Chastleton House and their influence on the image of the tapestries called Sheldon: a re-assessment", The Antiquaries Journal, vol. 88, 2008, pg. 313-343, also available on-line.