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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


9. "ANNE PAGE AND SLENDER"

NO PHOTOGRAPH AVAILABLE

The sixth 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: Probably 1877
Artist: T. W. Hay
Subject: Described in the WE as "Anne Page inviting Slender into her house", this tapestry has not been recorded since it hung in the dining room of Sir Albert Sassoon at 25 Kensington Gore in the 1880s. Slender with his "virtuous mind", as Sir Hugh Evans says, is not for Anne Page to wed, but in their poetic alliance they are inseparable. This scene, set in the streets of Windsor, is of obvious importance.
Cartoon: Not known
Size: Probably similar to "Anne Page & Fenton", "Sir H. Evans & Simple", and "Dr. Caius & Rugby", about 6 ft. 4 in. high by 6 ft. wide.
Warps: Probably similar to the others in the series, about 16 per inch
Colours: Not known

Border: Probably along the top and bottom only, as indicated in the engraving of the Prince of Wales' dining room in the British Pavilion [above] at the Paris Exhibition of 1878, where, by process of elimination, it can be considered to be the tapestry drawn as being on the end wall of the salon. (Chefs d'oeuvre d'Art a I'Exposition Universelle 1878, p.186). This may not be entirely reliable, as this and other engravings show certain tapestries in the series which are known to have borders at the sides, e.g. "Ye Merrie Wives", hung without the side border showing contrary to at least one engraving. As these borders are only sewn on, and not woven integrally with the picture, this may have been an intention of design, to facilitate hanging in spaces of different size. Thus the border would a be a continuous chain of panels consisting of sprays of flowers (in squares) and longer branches of fruit or flowers (in rectangles) alternately, with squares at the angles, the title being on a wide ribbon in the central lower panel. The strips of border are about 82 in. wide.
Marks: Not known, but probably the Windsor mark of a stylised crown above JL followed by H. Henry and M. Brignolas, (or their initials H.H. and M.B.) and the series number, N 7.
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
Knight, Charles, Virtue's Imperial Shakespeare Diu. 1, The Merry Wives of Windsor (Illustrations i
& Supplementary Notice, pp. 100-107) g
Chefs d'Oeuvre d'Art a l'Exposition Universelle 1878, p.186
WT
An engraving in Chef d'Oeuvre d'Art a l'Exposition Universelle 1878 indicates the general arrangement of the subject of this tapestry, with Slender on the left, Anne Page on the right of the scene with her dog-or a cat-behind her, in this street scene. It has the usual border arrangement at the top and bottom.

Addendum: It was thought that apart from the tapestry portrait of Queen Victoria none of this series had survived, but seven of the missing eight were collected by Messrs. Christies (Christie, Manson & Woods Ltd., St. James's, London) in preparation for auction later in the autumn of 1978. This only became known in September 1978 when the text of this volume had already gone to press. Previously little information and only shadowy vague outlines could be gleaned from the above accounts and from rare engravings showing the Prince of Wales's dining room at the Paris Exhibition of 1878, and the Exhibition at the Town Hall, Windsor, in December 1878.

 

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