Medieval Life and Leisure in the Devonshire Hunting Tapestries

London: V & A Publications. New in New dust jacket. 2002. Hardcover. 1851773746 . Color Illustrations; 10 1/4 x 12 1/4 x 3/4; 128 pages; Hardcover and DJ are sealed in shrinkwrap. Illustrated with color pictures of the famed tapestries. A beautifully produced book by the world renowned V&A Museum [Victoria & Albert] in London. Their textile collections, of many sorts, are amazing. The Devonshire Hunting Tapestries are four very large and beautifully designed tapestries made between 1430 – 1450, depicting hunting scenes of boars, bears, swans, otters, deer and falconry. Very few tapestries of this scale and quality of design have survived. The tapestries were probably made in Arras, in modern day France – a centre famed for supplying the courts of France and Burgundy with magnificent wall hangings. They were acquired by the museum in 1957 from the estate of The Dukes of Devonshire, and probably belonged to the Countess of Shrewsbury, known as 'Bess of Hardwick', a celebrated, four-times married noblewoman, a contemporary of Elizabeth I, who had the grand Derbyshire house Hardwick Hall built in the 1590s, housing a magnificent collection of textiles. The tapestries were hanging at Hardwick in the 19th century. Tapestries were expensive and much-prized during the medieval and Renaissance periods. They were easy to transport and well-suited to the travelling lifestyle of the northern courts up to the 17th century, providing means for insulating and decorating the coldest and gloomiest castle. Tapestries would have hung from floor to ceiling and been placed edge to edge, like wallpaper in a modern room. Those with narratives also provided entertainment and interest for the household and guests at a time of low literacy, when images were extremely important. The hunt was a particularly powerful theme and would have been a familiar pastime as well as an important source of food to many of the high-born individuals and families who owned tapestries. Very oversized, 5#. .