A Flemish Border Fragment Cantonniere, Bruges, late 17th century

woven with red ribbon entwined elaborate architectural golden strapwork, enclosing ribbon tied swags of fruit and vegetables, each corner with a naked child holding the red ribbons, the side strapwork enclosing pendant fruit and foliage and vases of exuberant flowers, all on a dark brown ground, cut and joined top centre, with restoration

Frederick William Sharon (1862-1915), 323 Fifth Avenue, New York, brother of Florence Sharon, Lady Fermor-Hesketh, recorded in a photograph of his New York house taken by Pach Bros., 935 Broadway, New York, circa 1900 (see lot 244);
Thence to his step-daughter Florence Louise Witherspoon Breckenridge who married Thomas Fermor-Hesketh, later 1^st Lord Hesketh, in 1909

Delmarcel & Duverger, Bruges et la Tapisserie, 1987, illustrates and discusses at length the series of `The Seven Liberal Arts', cat.65-72, pp.453-512. This was a distinctive series of tapestries designed by the Antwerp painter, Cornelis Schut (1597-1655), whom having worked in the Florentine Medici workshops, returned to Antwerp in 1631. The first set of tapestries were woven before his death, the later reweavings were produced in Bruges workshops and often bear the Bruges town marks. The borders were of three types, one with columns entwined by floral trails, the other with river gods and allegorical figures, the third being the distinctive strapwork and putti. The present cantonniere has been cut and joined in the centre and is now lacking the central medallion and optional supporting putti. For tapestries in the series with very similar borders to the offered lot, see a version of La Dialectique, and another of L'Apothéose des Sept Arts Libéraux, both in the Bruges, Musées Communaux, and illustrated pp.464 & 484-485, figs.66/1 & 72/1 respectively and a version of La Géometrie and La Musique, both in the Vatican Museum, Vatican City, Rome, pp.474 & 478, figs.69/01 & 70/1.