A FRENCH LANDSCAPE TAPESTRY, PARIS WORKSHOP, PRE GOBELINS MANUFACTORY CIRCA 1630

CIRCA 1630

325cm. high, 310cm. wide; 10ft. 8in., 10ft. 2in.

woven with a woodland setting, with a central grouping of trees with plants around, and a lakeside seen in the background, with a raised brickwork island centred by a tree, with small thatched houses and a fence in the distance, the lake disappearing into the background to the right, the foreground with a hen overlooking two fighting elaborately plumed cockerels, within a distinctive four-sided border with strapwork, central cartouches enclosing landscapes, with elaborate strapwork corners with floral bouquets, on a brown ground, with a narrow outer bead and reel border and a double canted cornered borders one with small cabochon and floral motifs, lacking original selvedge and without town and weaver's mark

LITERATURE

See Sotheby's, London, 13th December 1996, lot 10, for a weaving of `Orlando Furioso. Le Combat de Zerbin et de Mandricard' A Literary Narrative Tapestry, Paris, faubourg Saint-Marcel, circa 1630, from the atelier of Pierre Brimard, which is within a four-sided border with double ribbon-tied floral trophies, central landscape medallions within the borders and sculptural corner cartouches, with Paris workshop mark P and fleur-de-Lys and weaver's mark B in lower right selvedge (possibly even an entwined P.B)

See Sotheby's, Paris, 9th December 2005, lot 8, for a tapestry of 'Marriage of Théagène and Charicléa, A Paris Literary Romance Tapestry, in a very similar border, though without any town or weaver's marks, along with lots 6 & 7. H. Göbel, Die Wandteppiche, 1928, Part II, Vol.ii, no 63, illustrates a Pastor Fido tapestry, within a very similar border to lots 251 and 252 in this sale, and also bearing the Paris mark, P and a fleur-de-lys in the outer selvedge and the Pierre Brimard, weaver's entwined mark B, in the side selvedge.

Fenaille, Etat général des tapisseries de la manufacture des Gobelins, Paris, 1923, Vol.I, notes that in 1626 Robert Brimard, aged twelve, son of Pierre Brimard, maître tapissier in the rue Gobelin, was accepted as an apprentice by de Comans and de la Planche. Fenaille details various series of tapestries produced by the Paris ateliers in the first half of the 17th century, prior to the establishment of the Gobelins manufactory by Colbert in 1662. The Flemish weavers, Marc Comans and his brother in law François de la Planche, having arrived from Oudenaarde set up a workshop in Paris in 1601, in the former residence of the Gobelins, a family of dyers. They become a renowned workshop. They received letter patents from Henry IV in 1607, and their privilege was renewed in 1625. Comans and de la Planche set up a workshop in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine and then Faubourg Saint-Marcel. The Comans and van der Plancken family workshops were amongst ten recorded by 1627 in the Gobelins and neighbouring buildings. On the death of van den Planken, Comans continued the existing workshop, and Raphael, son of Frans set up a workshop of his own. The original workshop was then run by Charles, son of Marc, and then Alexandre and Hippolyte, and the last weavers of the Faubourg Saint-Marcel workshop were ultimately part of the Gobelins manufactory in 1662.

See lots 251 and 252 for Paris landscape tapestries with very similar borders, both with the Paris mark, P and a fleur-de-lys in the outer selvedge, one with Pierre Brimard, weaver's entwined mark B, in the side selvedge, the other with just a B.