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The Royal Windsor Tapestry Manufactory, 1876-1890

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Introduction to The Royal Windsor Tapestry Works

Index to the Tapestries


10. "SIR HUGH EVANS AND SIMPLE"

Sir Hugh Evans and Simple

The seventh 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: 1878
Artist: T. W. Hay
Subject: Act III, Scene I, A field near Frogmore. The Welsh parson, Sir Hugh Evans addresses Simple: "I pray you now, good master Slender's serving man... which way have you looked for master Caius, that calls himself Doctor of Physic?"
Simple replies: "Marry, sir, the pittie-ward, the park-ward, every way; Old Windsor way, and every way but the town way". The mischievious arrangement of mine host of the Garter Inn, was to guide Dr. Caius to Frogmore to meet Anne Page "at a farm-house, a feasting, and thou shalt woo her . . . " only to be met by Page, Shallow and Slender and disarmed, but ... "let them question; let them keep their limbs whole, and hack our English".
Simple holds Sir Hugh's gown, as he sits by a fallen tree stump, close to a stream. The honest and wise Sir Hugh stands before Simple, his right hand grasping the hilt of his sword. The foreground is carpeted with wild flowers, and behind them in the woods a stag bounds away, while another rises from the undergrowth.
Cartoon: Not known
Size: 6ft. 4in. high including border, (6ft. 6in. including blue binding (for hanging by 6ft.)
Warps: 16 per inch
Colours: Sir Hugh's tunic is terra-cotta colour, edged red, with blue sleeves, hat and stockings, which shows through his slit shoes. Simple, with his healthy red cheeks and hat on his brown hair, has a red trimmed tunic, red stockings, drab tunic with light blue cuffs and a red line at the division. The forest scene has soft browns, greens and greys, with bright spots of colour from the forest flowers which abound, yellow oxlips, primroses and cowslips, red campion and wood hyacinths, and many more. The trees include a light green ash sapling, and darker green oaks and beeches, under which the forest deer show brown shades with white. The stream rushes along with eddies of white water among the peaty shades, with the "Windsor mark" lettering in deep purplish red.
Border: Three long panels at the top containing (left to right) a branch of roses with buds, a branch of apple in flower, another rose branch. These panels are separated by square panels containing sprays of flowers. The title "Sir H. Evans & Simple" is on a wide ribbon in the central panel of the bottom, with a sprig of holly in a square panel on the left, and a similar panel on the right contains a spray of flowers, with beyond it a branch of (unidentified) flowers. On the left is a long panel of roses. The border is not continued down the sides.
Marks: T. W. Hay (left, on the butt of a felled tree stump), and on the right, in the stream, the Windsor mark of a crown above _l l_ Windsor Tapestry 1878 N 9 (underneath) H. Henry, M. Brignolas (in deep reddish purple).
Sale prices: Not known
Exhibited: Windsor Guildhall, 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 of 1878 by Sir Albert Sassoon for the dining room of his mansion at 25 Kensington Gore. Auctioned by Messrs. Christie's in September 1978.
References: Furniture Gazette, 26 January and 7 September, 1878.
Windsor Slough and Eton Express, 7 December, 1878.
Art Journal, 1879, p.64.
Catalogue of Windsor Tapestries exhibited at Town Hall, Windsor, December 1878.

Notes: An engraving in the Illustrated London News, 14 December 1878 entitled "Exhibition of Tapestry at Windsor" shows this tapestry to the right 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, flanked by tall carved pillars bearing palms . . . Under the tapestry is a large label "GOLD MEDAL", below the title "Sir H. Evans & Simple". 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 other VIPs in the group. A recreation of this illustration by Windsor artist Michael Vicary appears here, Herne's Oak


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