This staggering amount could be even higher if tapestries were made using silk and gold. As the expert explained, the virtue of a set of tapestries to a royal court was their portability: a cold, damp and dark building could be quickly transformed by hanging up a set of tapestries. The cartoons were sent to Brussels where the tapestries were made, and many years later they were acquired by Charles 1.
From about Ralph Sheldon, had set up a tapestry workshop in Barcheston, Warwickshire. His intention was to train and employ local people with the guidance of weavers from Flanders.
The Sheldon tapestries were not as sophisticated as those created abroad, making them suitable for purchase by the middle classes, but they are certainly accomplished. Sheldon tapestries can also be seen at Hatfield House, where tapestries of the Four Seasons now hang. They were originally created for Toddington Manor in Gloucestershire and acquired for Hatfield in The one illustrated is of summer, an English country scene showing fruit ripening on trees, wheat being harvested, and sheep being shorn in a lush landscape through which a generous river winds.
A bed valance , shown at the top of the post, which has remained unfaded, shows a range of country activities and, like the Summer scene, could almost be an illustration of As You Like It.
The Sheldon works had probably closed by about , and in the tapestry works at Mortlake near London were founded. Within a few years they were making tapestries to rival the best being made in Europe, and they were patronised by both James 1 and Charles 1.
