International studio (82.1925)

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On the extreme left of the tapestry a house
nestles under a huge overhanging rock; on the top
of it is a figure with a building, trees and birds.
Between it and the central group an island ap-
pears, where a sage and a youth perform a religious
rite. Various people are represented in amuse-
ments or serious occupations in the distance—for
instance, the fine figure of a bowman shooting a
bird. Trees are spotted over the dark ground in
great numbers and variety, making a rich and
crisp pattern with exotic plants and flowers, among
which arc parrots and other birds of brilliant
plumage great and small, while by the distant
islands butterflies flit to and fro. In the lower part
of the right vertical selvage appears the St.
George's cross mark common to English tapestry
manufactories.

"The Concert" was a favorite subject, and is
repeated in a tapestry at the Vyne, near Basing-
stoke, and in a hanging now in America. In both
these examples, however, there are differences:
the height is reduced by cutting off rows of islands
at the top, while the design is reversed.

The panel next in size may be entitled "The
Toilet of the Princess" from the group on the
lower angle on the left, where she is gazing in a
mirror, to observe how the maid has arranged her
hair. A notable object in the foreground is a table
with cabriole legs, the front pair united by a
stretcher—an English transitionary type of leg.
An attendant standing with a tray containing a
jug and cup is receiving instructions from a kneel-
ing figure. A party of musicians appears on the
island above, which is dominated by a huge rock,
and tree. A lady and child promenading; a serv-
ant kneeling before his master; with a summer-
house of exquisite design in the background from
which a bridge spans the void towards a rock with
overhanging top; the lovers under a weeping
willow; and the magnificent parrot in the fore-
ground, form the chief points of interest. The
parrot is important as he appears in a tapestry
in the Victoria and Albert Museum which bears
the signature: "John Vandrebanc fecit."

This Museum example is practically a replica
of the narrowest panel of the Yale series, "The
Promenade," and the chief differences have arisen
from the weaver having to adapt his composi-
tion to fill panels of different dimensions.

The museum panel measures nine feet and two
inches in width, by ten feet, however, and one
inch in height. The Yale panel is only eight feet
and nine inches wide, but eleven feet high. The
greater width of the Museum panel made it nec-
essary to introduce three extra groups, and sev-
eral figures, and to cut off the distant rows of

islands at the top. The main incidents however
are the same in both—"The Promenade," a noble-
man with a parasol-bearer, talking to a man sitting
on a mat within a summer-house; the fruit-gather-
ers climbing a tree; and the fine figures of the
harpers in the foreground to the right.

The remaining panel, "The Palanquin" was one
of the most favored subjects and one which re-
ceived various treatments. Here the canopy is
folded up and the four bearers are preceded by an
avant-courier. Four ladies on an adjacent island
await the rajah's arrival where a balustrade leads
to the gardens of a mansion. A porter and two
musicians on an island below are receiving in-
structions from an official.

This panel contains the English manufactory
mark in the lower part of the vertical selvage on
the right. "The Palanquin" appears in a panel
in a Chinoiserie belonging to the Hon. H. D.
MacLaren, and another at Addington Hall. A
third was the property of Lady Sackville.

Glemham Hall, Suffolk, where these tapestries
hung for over two centuries, was in Tudor times
built for the old family of Glemham of Glemham.
A picture recently in the house represented it as an
edifice surrounded by a semi-fortified wall, with a
pavilion rising from the outbuildings, and many
gables. They were a gallant race; one in Queen
Elizabeth's time was a sea-rover, an "Adventurer"
who sailed like Drake and Raleigh to raid the
Spanish Main; while another was a famous soldier
in the Civil War, the hero of sieges and a die-hard.
The war proved their ruin, and about the end of
the seventeenth century Glemham had to be sold.

The new owner was Dudley North, a son of the
second Baron Guilford, and husband of Catharine,
eldest daughter and co-heir of Elihu Yale.

The male line of Dudley North of Glemham
came to an end in 1764, but the female line was
continued through the Earls of Pembroke, and so
there came to live at Glemham the Hon. Mrs.
Herbert, who outlived her children and left
Glemham Hall to her nephew, Dudley Long, who
assumed the name of North. He died in 1829,
and with his death the lineal descent of Elihu
Yale became extinct.

Glemham Hall reverted to the Earls of Guil-
ford, and one of the last dwellers there was the
Dowager Lady North, who had with her her
younger son, Mr. Eden Dickson.

On the sale of the Glemham property by Lord
Guilford, the tapestries left the old home they
had adorned since the marriage of Dudley North
to Catherine, daughter of Elihu Yale, the bene-
factor of Yale University, and finally were brought
to this land of his birth.

two fourteen

DECEMBER I 925