TAPESTRY-MAKING IS AN ART AS OLD AS ANCIENT EGYPT

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 14, Issue 29, 24 August 1949, Page 8

TAPESTRY-MAKING IS AN ART AS OLD AS ANCIENT EGYPT

making is an art almost unknown to New Zealanders and certainly is known by very few, if any, residents of the Bay of Plenty but it is an art that is as old as an± cient Egypt. However there are no records of it in Britain until the reign of Edward the Third, although it must have been in use long before then. them became so interested in the crt of weaving tapestry that they learned all they could about it. Their interest infected William Sheldon who, as a far-sighted Elizabethan business man, set Hicks up as master of a small factory at Barcheston, a quiet corner of Warwickshire, where the local men took quickly to the work and were helped in it by refugee Flemings. Cushion Covers Mainly Their main output was cushion covers but from the first Sheldon and Hicks made a speciality of maps of the British counties woven in bright and varied colours. These maps, really original and very beautiful, are today extremely valuable. They are highly regarded for many reasons, firstly for their intrinsic beauty and fine workmanship but perhaps even more for their historical value. The churches, bridges and roads are shown by means of symbols, rather as they are in ordnance maps of today. All sorts of landmarks are found on them, providing an accurate picture of the country of the period. Very many different subjects, depicted in endless detail, were woven into tapestry. This makes it additionally fascinating to the student of history for here, in the pictures of everyday life, in the hunting and battle scenes, is a faithful record of past days. Tapestry also showed Biblical scenes and stores from the classics. When castles gave place to houses at the end of the Middle Ages, it was used even more widely; every house of good size was full of it. Made By 16th Century

By the middle of the sixteenth century tapestry was being made in England, by a Warwickshire gentleman, William Sheldon of Beoley, near Birmingham. The ■ Sheldons were a wealthy family and the Sheldon chapel at Beoley is today full of their magnificent monuments. Sheldon sent his son Ralph on an instructive tour of the Continent, this being considered a good and educative process for young men just down from Oxford. Ralph took with him his' good friend Richard Hicks and in Flanders the two of