Working Arras and Arras Workers: Conservation in the Great Wardrobe under Elizabeth I

References

• All the following make use of these texts: D. Loades, The Tudor Court (London: Batsford, 1986), p. 38; J. Arnold, Queen Elizabeth’s Wardrobe Unlock’d (Leeds: Maney, 1988), ch. 5; J. Munby, ‘Queen Elizabeth’s coaches: the wardrobe on wheels’, Antiquaries Journal, lxxxiii (2003), pp. 313–67.
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• Löwe J.Andreas, ‘Fortescue, Sir John (1533–1607)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press, September 2004; online edition, January 2008). Available from: http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/9945 [Accessed: 22 June 2010]. He was described as ‘Maister’ in the Survey of London written in the year 1598 by John Stow; edited by H. Morley with an introduction by A. Fraser (Stroud: Alan Sutton Publishing, 1994), p. 340.
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• Campbell T.P., Henry VIII and the Art of Majesty (New Haven and London: Yale University Press and Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, 2007), pp. 5–6, 89–92.
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• M. Hayward, ‘Repositories of splendour: Henry VIII’s Wardrobes of the Robes and Beds’, Textile History, xxix, no. 2 (1998), pp.134–56; M. Hayward, ‘Fit for a king? Maintaining the early Tudor tapestry collection’, in M. Hayward and F. Lennard eds, Tapestry Conservation: Principles and Practice (Oxford: Elsevier Butterworth-Heinemann, 2006), pp. 13–19.
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• For the émigré background, see R. E. G. Kirk and E. F. Kirk eds, Returns of Aliens Dwelling in the City and Suburbs of London from the Reign of Henry VIII to that of James I, Quarto Series, vol. 10 in four parts (London: Huguenot Society, 1900–08); W. Hefford, ‘Flemish tapestry weavers in England: 1550–1775’, in G. Delmarcel ed., Flemish Tapestry Weavers Abroad (Leuven: Leuven University Press, 2002), pp. 43–61; Campbell, Art of Majesty, ch. 11, n. 46 and pp. 55–61, summarises the documents naming the weavers.
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• The National Archives (TNA), formerly Public Record Office (PRO) E 101/420/14; E 101/421/3; E 101/421/16, f. 38v; E 315/455, f.40; E 315/456, ff. 47v–48; LC 9/51, ff. 176, 183v, 274–274v.
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• British Library, Stowe Ms 571, f. 28, for 1552, an isolated book dated to 1557, TNA LC 9/52; the series TNA E 351/3027–31 covers 1552–58. Copies made for the Pipe Office.
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• From 1559 until 1603, the series LC 9/53–93 is nearly continuous, except for the years 1565/66, 1569/70 and 1596/99, LC 9/94, LC 9/95 1605–07 and LC 9/96–103 intermittently covers the years from 1613 to the end of 1640. The series AO 3/1106–22, signed by the officials and clearly the audited set, plugs many gaps, leaving unrecorded only the years 1604/05, 1615/16, 1616/17, 1621/22, 1633/34, 1638/39. Accounts for the years 1565/66, 1569/70 and 1596/97 are found only in this series. Another set, E 351/3033–3102, gives details about the tapestries treated only after 1562/63. Other Exchequer records, E 101, E 36 or E 315, do not seem to survive for Elizabeth’s reign. Warrants Dormant are LC 5/49, LC 5/50. I should like to correct my statement in H. L. Turner, ‘Finding the weavers; Richard Hyckes and the Sheldon tapestry works’, Textile History, xxxiii, no. 2 (2002), p. 139 that the account for 1569/70 is missing. Nor do I any longer believe that Hyckes was responsible for the ‘Sheldon’ tapestries (p. 155).
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• Walker was already under-clerk in 1552 (British Library, Stowe Ms 571, f. 25) and head clerk by 1557 (TNA LC 5/32, f. 6, LC 5/49, f. 127). He was a wealthy man, assessed for tax in 1582 on goods of £60; he paid 13s 4d. See R. G. Lang, Two Tudor Tax Assessments Rolls for the City of London, 1541 and 1582 (London: London Record Society, vol. xxix for 1992 (1993)), p. 182. His will was proved on 22 May 1590, TNA PROB 11/75, the Inquisition post mortem is printed in E. A. Fry ed., Abstracts from Inquisitions post mortem for London, Index Library, part 3 1577–1603 (London: British Record Society, 1908), xxxvi, pp. 154–57; original TNA C 142/230/29. He countersigned the accounts frequently; AO 3/1108, year 16–17, 1575 has a clear example of his signature. Walker owned a small tapestry with his arms surrounded by flowers and a woven date, 1565, almost certainly commissioned from one of the arras men (private collection).
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• Tyas probably filled the under-clerk’s post from 1559 and was also paid as a weaver; warrant for his livery as Clerk LC 5/49, f. 223 (17 March 1590). He was buried in St Andrew’s in the Wardrobe, London Guildhall Mss 4507/1. He was not therefore the man Barnard identified; E. A. Barnard and A. J. B. Wace, ‘The Sheldon tapestry weavers and their work’, Archaeologia, lxxviii (1928), pp. 255–318. Graveley’s name appears amongst the tailors from 1576 until 1624, LC 9/68–98.
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• TNA, LC 9/80; AO 3/1111, anno 29–30 Eliz. Transcripts — not translations — of the entries relevant to the tapestries treated year by year can be found at http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov. uk/20110622142122/http://yourarchives.nationalarchives.gov.uk/index.php?title=Arras_Men_and_Tapestry_conservation_under_Elizabeth_I_1559-1603_-_Introduction.
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• TNA AO 3·1108 anno 16–17 Eliz, 1574–75.
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• TNA LC 9/68, f. 44, 1576–77; AO 3/1108 anno 15–16 Eliz (1573–74) and AO 3/1109 anno 19–20 (1577–78).
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• TNA AO 3/1114, 1115, 1116, 1117; 221 in 1601–02; 216 between Michaelmas and Queen Elizabeth’s death; 81 in 1603–04; 243 in 1605–06; 290 in 1606–07; 146 in 1607–08; 195 in 1608–09; 89 in 1610–11; 92 in 1611–12; 60 in 1612–13; 200 in 1613–14. Details were not given in subsequent years.
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• TNA LC 5/49, f. 330; Arnold, Queen Elizabeth’s Wardrobe Unlock’d, p. 165 is, I think, mistaken in thinking the tailors referred to were those who made liveries; their association with the arras men is clear. The regulations were reissued in 1631, TNA, E 36/234, f. 2, following investigations into the accounting irregularities of the Keeper.
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• Statutes of the Realm, iv, p. 132f.
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• TNA AO 3/1116, anno 8–9 James; AO 3/1118, 1620/21.
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• For patches, see J. Band, ‘The survival of Henry VIII’s History of Abraham tapestries: an account of how they were perceived, used and treated over the centuries’, in Hayward and Lennard, eds, Tapestry Conservation, pp. 20–27.
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• For the Arrasmaker’s work, see http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20110622142122/http://yourarchives.nationalarchives.gov.uk/index.php?title=The_Work_of_the_Arrasmaker_1559-1640 and see note 11. The word ‘tappet’, meaning caparison, appears first in 1502 in N. H. Nicolas ed., The Privy Purse Expenses of Elizabeth of York (London: Pickering, 1830), p. 14, a reference I owe to Helen Wyld. Badges for the stables were paid for from the arras men’s budget in TNA, LC 9/53 (1559–60) and LC 9/56 (1562–63). For early examples, see Campbell, Art of Majesty, pp. 91, 125.
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• The 1547 Inventory lists two small tapestries ‘made by tharrasman’, nos 12027, 12029; neither has left any trace in the accounts; D. Starkey ed., The 1547 Inventories of Henry VIII (London: Harvey Millar, 1998). The suggestion in J. Clark, ‘A set of tapestries for Leicester House in The Strand: 1585’, The Burlington Magazine, cxxv (1983), pp. 283–84, is unlikely to be correct. The Gryce tapestry, Burrell Collection, Glasgow, 47·4, is a more probable candidate because patterns for the royal arms were in regular use and Gryce was a Clerk of the Stables, another household department. The tapestry has been discussed by G. Delmarcel, Tapisseries Anciennes d’Enghien (Mons: Fédération du Tourisme, 1980), no. 5; Hefford, Flemish Tapestry Weavers, pp. 43–44; Campbell, Art of Majesty, pp. 91, 125.
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• Campbell, Art of Majesty, p. 90; TNA LC 9/80, f. 43v, LC 9/82, f. 43v and LC 9/83, f. 38v. For warrants signed in 1692/93 and 1695, LC 5/151, ff. 200, 418.
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• Hayward M, The Whitehall Inventory of 1542. The Palace and its Keeper (London: Illuminata Publishers and Society of Antiquaries, 2004).
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• Biographies based on census, tax and denization records, parish registers, Dutch Church consistory records and wills together with a full discussion of émigré weavers in London are at http://www.tapestriescalledsheldon.info/p34_learn_index_pdfs.htm. The site is archived at http://www.webarchive.org.uk/wayback/archive/20110425060029/http://www.tapestriescalledsheldon.info/.
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• Cal. Pat. Rolls 1557–58, p. 129.
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• Cal. Pat. Rolls 1566–69, no. 2573. The appointment of Hyckes in 1569, much earlier than previously known and before the setting down of Sheldon’s plans, together with the evidence for Hyckes’s presence in the Wardrobe during the 1570s (see note 19), necessarily changes previous views of Sheldon’s venture; see H. L. Turner, ‘Tapestries once at Chastleton House and their influence on the image of the tapestries called Sheldon: a re-assessment’, Antiquaries Journal, lxxxviii (2008), pp. 313–43, now online. He had an income independent of the success of Barcheston.
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• Cal. Pat. Rolls 1571–75, no. 3268. The fee of £10 recorded there is nowhere on record as having been paid, and the sum of 6d has been raised to 1s.
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• Turner, ‘Finding the weavers’, pp. 137–61; Turner, ‘Tapestries once at Chastleton House’, pp. 313–46. The Barcheston venture should have been named after Hyckes, not Sheldon. See also http://www.tapestriescalledsheldon.info/p34_learn_index_pdfs.htm.
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• See note 19 and for Alsloot and Otes (as Hoots), see http://www.tapestriescalledsheldon.info/pdfs/NEWPP39Emigre1GtWardrobe.pdf or http://www.webarchive.org.uk/wayback/archive/20110425060114/http://www.tapestriescalledsheldon.info/pdfs/NEWPP39Emigre1GtWardrobe.pdf.
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• For Wallys, see http://www.webarchive.org.uk/wayback/archive/20110425060113/http://www.tapestriescalledsheldon.info/pdfs/NEWPP39Emigre2Independents.pdf.
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• Cal. Pat. Rolls 1572–75, no. 3269. Biographies at http://www.tapestriescalledsheldon.info/p34_learn_index_pdfs.htm.
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• TNA LC 5/50, ff. 198–200; his death, TNA LC 5/50, f. 309; son’s birth IGI, London.
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• Barnard and Wace, ‘Sheldon tapestry weavers’, p. 286 and, for his sources, Turner, ‘Tapestries once at Chastleton House’, n. 116. Neither William Diston nor Thomas Dowler, witnesses to Hyckes’s will, were arrasworkers as stated by J. Humphreys, ‘Elizabethan Sheldon Tapestries’, Archaeologia, lxxiv (1924), p. 187.
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• TNA LC, nine volumes throughout Elizabeth’s reign.
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• Biographies of Wells, van der Meulen, Van der Vynnen and Baerd at http://www.tapestriescalledsheldon.info/pdfs/NEWPP39Emigre1GtWardrobe.pdf. So few tapestries are of indisputably English origin that it is not possible to associate names with products; one possibility is the set of the Four Seasons; see H. L. Turner, ‘A case of mistaken identity: the ‘Sheldon’ Four Seasons’ tapestries at Hatfield House reconsidered’, Emblematica, 19, forthcoming, 2012. Weavers also had links to trade, see H. L. Turner, ‘The tapestry trade in Elizabethan London: products, purchasers and purveyors’, London Journal (forthcoming).
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• Nightingale’s biography is at http://www.webarchive.org.uk/wayback/archive/20110425060114/ http://www.tapestriescalledsheldon.info/pdfs/NEWPP39Emigre1GtWardrobe.pdf.
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• See note 23 and http://www.tapestriescalledsheldon.info/p34_learn_index_pdfs.htm.
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• For White, see http://www.tapestriescalledsheldon.info/pdfs/NEWPP39Emigre1GtWardrobe.pdf.
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• Those who served for one year only are Beaver, Lome, Molyneux, Derick, P. and J. Holland, Arnold vanderBoam and van der Vynnen, the only one to return. Claes and Nicholas van Hover served for two years, Raes and Panne for three, Povir for four. Biographies for all these men are at http://www.webarchive.org.uk/wayback/archive/20110425060114/http://www.tapestriescalledsheldon.info/pdfs/NEWPP39Emigre1GtWardrobe.pdf.
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• Turner, ‘Finding the weavers’, pp. 146–49; Turner, ‘Tapestries once at Chastleton House’, pp. 331–32. See also note 23 above.
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• Awstin, TNA LC 9/79–103; Clay, LC 9/95–103. See also note 23.
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• TNA LC 5/50, f. 309.
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• British Library Ms Stowe 571, f. 28 records a wage of 6d in 1552. On wages in general, see S. Rappaport, Worlds within Worlds: Structures of Life within Sixteenth Century London (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989), pp. 129–45.
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• TNA, C 66/1265 m.22 also numbered 19 at head of membrane, printed Lists & Indexes, C 66/1254–70, 1584–85, no. 887, vol. 293 (1998).
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• Kirk and Kirk, Aliens, ii, p. 396.
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• TNA, LC5/50, f. 173.
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• TNA, LC5/50, ff. 221–23.
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• TNA, LC9/75–78, 82, 83, 91, 93; AO 3/1111, anno 29–30 Eliz, 30–31 Eliz.
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• David and Moses in 1586, litera y in 1600 and Titus and Longus in 1602.
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• Carolo Magno 1587/88 and again 1600/01; Carolo Brandon (Duke of Suffolk, d. 1545) and pieces of the Passion in 1588/89; the siege of Jerusalem, 1600/01; St John 1602/03. For their work see http://yourarchives.nationalarchives.gov.uk/index.php?title=Cleansing_tapestries_Mundificacio; also available at references through note 11.
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• TNA, LC 9/77, f. 35v.
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• Hefford W, ‘‘Bread, Brushes, and Brooms’: aspects of tapestry restoration in England, 1660–1760’, in A. Bennett ed., Acts of the Tapestry Symposium November 1976 (San Francisco: Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, 1979), pp. 65–75. Hayward’s reference to brushing, taken from John Russell’s Boke of Nurture, refers only to clothes; Hayward, ‘Fit for a king?’, p. 15. In 1539, Lady Lisle’s steward had difficulty finding anyone capable of ‘scouring’ a carpet; J. Brewer and R. Brodie eds, Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, of the Reign of Henry VIII, 1509-1547, vol. xiv pt I, no. 1145.
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• Parliament Rolls 1467 and Statutes of the Realm, iv, Act 8 Eliz cap 11, para. 2.
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• For example, Earl of Pembroke’s arrasman, NAL, Special Collections, KRP D.30, f. 83. G. R. Batho ed., Household Papers of Henry Percy, 9th Earl of Northumberland (1564–1632), Camden Society 3rd series, xciii (1962), pp. 151, 157; Hastings (Hist. Mss Comm.), i, p. 354; J. R. Gage, The History and Antiquities of Hengrave in Suffolk (London: James Carpenter, Old Bond Street, Joseph Booker, New Bond Street and John Deek, Bury St Edmund’s, 1822), p. 191. In 1539, Sir Richard Fermor’s house at Easton, Northants, had an arrasmaker’s chamber where a loom was set up; BLib, Royal Ms 89, now Cotton Appendix xxviii, f. 163 (f. 167). For household duties, see S. D. Scott ed., ‘A Booke of Orders and Rules by Anthony Viscount Montague in 1595’, Sussex Archaeological Collections, vii (1854), pp. 173–212 (esp. p. 205); J. Banks ed., ‘Copy of an original mss, entitled ‘A Breviate touching the Order and Government of a Nobleman’s House etc, 1652’’, Archaeologia, xiii (1807), pp. 315–89 (esp. pp. 354–55).
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• Starkey, 1547 Inventories lists the map at 10773; it seems it was also a tapestry, TNA LC 9/72, f. 44v; J. B. Black, The Reign of Elizabeth (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1936), pp. 303, 306, 307.
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• Campbell, Art of Majesty, pp. 350–53.
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• See Wyld H., ‘Seventeenth-century tapestries at Ham House’, in C. Rowell ed., Ham House: 400 Years of Collecting and Patronage (forthcoming, 2012).
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