Dance around the Maypole, A 'Teniers' tapestry, Brussels, Peter van den Hecke workshop, after Jan van Orley | Tapisserie danse autour du arbre de mai, tapisserie "Teniers", Bruxelles, atelier Peter van den Hecke, d'après Jan van Orley

The extensive series of pastoral and genre tapestries depicting scenes of peasant life was immensely popular in the late seventeenth and eighteenth century and there are many surviving examples. These tapestries are generally known as 'Teniers' tapestries after the paintings of the artist David II Teniers (1610-1690) although very few compositions relate directly to his actual paintings. Although the majority of the 'Teniers' tapestries were woven in Brussels other pieces were woven in Lille, Oudenaarde, Antwerp, Beauvais, Aubusson, Madrid and London. As a result of being woven in many workshops across Europe, it is often difficult to determine the designers and weavers of the genre of tapestry after Teniers. Brussels workshops involved in weaving Teniers tapestries were those of Jeroen le Clerc (fl.1677-1722), Jacob II van der Borcht (fl.1756-1794), Urbanus (1674-1747) and Daniel II Leyniers (1669-1728 ), Judocus de Vos (1700-1735), and Peter van den Hecke (fl.1703-1752). Distinctive border types and signatures are of assistance and many pieces can help with attribution using these elements. Artists involved in the evolving designs, included Jan van Orley (1665-1735), Theobald Michau (1676-1765), Jacob van Helmont (1683-1726) and Ignatius de Hondt (1685-1715.) Figures were often painted by different artists and landscape artists contributed to this specific element within the tapestry compositions, and included Pieter Spierincx (1635-1711), Augustin Coppens (1668-1740), and Lucas Achtschellinck (1626-1699) as well as the original cartoon designers, van Orley and van Helmont. Interestingly, new cartoons were devised my incorporating groups or individual figures and landscape and architectural components from previous designs into new compositions. There is a core group of subjects, which included `The Kermesse', `The Fish Quay', `Return from the Harvest', `Gipsy Fortune Teller', `The Vegetable Market' and `Sportsmen Resting' amongst others, which were the most popularly woven original designs and interpretations of subjects, and others including the playing of games and various miscellaneous subjects and individual compositions such as the `Molecatcher', which were often woven in specific locations