A Flemish Old Testament Tapestry, Brussels, possibly from The Story of David, mid 16th century

woven within a four-sided floral border, with narrow inner scroll border and outer guilloche border

This is a historically interesting tapestry, however being around 460 years old, the condition is mixed in areas, as a result of still having a large amount of the original silks which have deteriorated and in some places simply fallen out leaving the foundation warps. This is particularly evident in the top of the tapestry and down the side borders. It has not been cleaned for a very long time, and is deteriorating in areas, especially the areas of silk highlights, which are the some of the areas of light leaves in the border and clothing, for example shoulder of kneeling figure. It needs airing, and some of old silks should be replaced as rotting. The wool weaving is stable weave generally, but dirty. There are small repairs overall and there are small splits in areas, some of which have old repairs. There are small horizontal strips of old reweaving in the top section, near the arch in the top right corner and left of the tree in the top left corner, and in the left corner near the feet and sandals. Some of browns (outlines) have been replaced with tan coloured brown reweave. This tapestry has an old silk lining (which is split and brittle and therefore prone to more splitting, and is distressed), which needs to be replaced. There are small metal hooks attached across the top edge, which were the previous method of hanging. It is recommended for hanging purposes in the future that it is re-lined and that Velcro should be added across the top. There are strips of later velvet (The height of the tapestry and 40cm. wide on each side) The drawing of the composition is beautiful, and there are some finely woven details including the details of the curaiss of the standing figure, the folds of the clothing and the details of the exotic fruit in the border. The inside border, `wave pattern' is especially lovely and unusual.
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