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The Royal Windsor Tapestry Manufactory, 1876-1890

The Tapestry Descriptions

Introduction to The Royal Windsor Tapestry Works

Index to the Tapestries


6. "HERNE'S OAK"

The Merry Wives of Windsor

The third in a series of eight tapestry panels "The Merry Wives of Windsor", which, with No.1 "Queen Victoria", made a total of nine, gold medal winning, exhibits at The Paris Exhibition of 1878.

Date: 1877
Artist: T. W. Hay
Subject: Act V, scene V, Windsor Park. Falstaff crouches in the little dell or "pit hard by Herne's Oak" surrounded by Anne Page and her troop of fairies, all masked, with waxen tapers burning on their heads, some carrying flaming torches. He is disguised with a buck's head, from under which he peers at the scene, only to have one of the flaming torches thrust near his face. Anne Page, dressed as the Fairy Queen, is attended by her brother, and Sir Hugh Evans-dressed like a satyr-a tall figure with a great beard carrying a shepherd's crook-on the right of the scene. Mistress Quickly and Pistol are among the eleven figures active in the complex picture. In the foreground are many flowers of the local woods and fields including foxgloves, mallows, wood violets, forget-me-nots, daisies, cornflowers, orchis and feverfew. Herne's Oak is in the background, with the Round Tower of Windsor Castle on the skyline (right) where a bat flits by. The smoky glare from the tapers and torches heighten the atmosphere of the midnight revel, while Falstaff is subjected to Anne Page's directions to "Pinch him, and burn him, and turn him about, Till candles, and starlight, and moon-shine be out" ...
Cartoon: Not known
Size: 5 ft. 12 in. high (picture only, without the border, which is detached) by 8 ft. 8 in.
No side borders when seen.
Warps: 16 per inch
Colours: Generally to give the effect of the taper and torch lit revel in the half light of a summer night, with grey-blue tints of green and brown and red, with spots of reddish orange light from the flames, and the twilight of the western sky. There is enough light to show Falstaff's red cheeks, the masked features and blue, green buff and grey costumes of the players, the green leaves of Herne's Oak behind Anne Page with the garlanded curve of the top of her bower above the gold of her headress, and the bright spots of colour from the flowers in the foreground.
Border: Detached when seen, with the ribbon "Herne's Oak" in the centre of the lower border in dark reddish purple letters on a light ground with bands of gold on a blue background. The borders consist of alternate squares and rectangles containing branches of fruit-apples, plums, gooseberries and cherries with sprays of four and five petal flowers and roses in the squares.
Marks: T. W. Hay, bottom right, by a questing snail; in the bottom left corner is the Windsor mark of a stylised crown above _l l_ Windsor Tapestry 1877 No. 4, H. Henry, M. Brignolas, all in small deep reddish purple letters.
Sale prices: Not known
Exhibited: Windsor Guildhall, December 1878
Ownership: Commissioned by Gillow & Co., of Oxford Street, London. Bought complete with the entire decor of the Prince of Wales' dining room in the British Pavilion at the Paris Exhibition 1878 by Sir Albert Sassoon for the dining room of his mansion at 25 Kensington Gore.
References: Furniture Gazette, 26 January and 7 September, 1878
WE, 9 November and 7 December, 1878
Art Journal, 1879, p.64

Exhibition at Windsor Guildhall

Painting by Micael Vicarey after an engraving in the Illustrated London News, "Exhibition of Tapestry at Windsor"

An engraving in the Illustrated London News, 14 December, 1878, entitled "Exhibition of
Tapestry at Windsor" shows this tapestry to the left of a centrepiece consisting of a bust of the
Queen draped with flags, in front of the Royal Arms in the Windsor Town Hall Council Chamber
with plants in the foreground, flanked by two tall carved pillars bearing palms. Under the
tapestry is a large label "GOLD MEDAL". In the foreground the Windsor Tapestry Manufactory
President, Prince Leopold, later Duke of Albany, is being welcomed by the Mayor of Windsor
John Wellman, with others in the group.

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