A HISTORY OF SURREY 



is mentioned by Lysons as early as 1792,' and 

 in 181 1 he notices two fectories here for the 

 same purpose, those of Messrs. Blackmore & 

 Co. and of Messrs. Marks & Co." The for- 

 mer works were moved from their first site in 



Wandsworth to their present building in 1 8 14. 

 The cloths are made and numbered i to 20 

 in proportion to the number of meshes in a 

 half-square inch, which varies from six in a 

 No. I cloth to thirty-three in a No. 20.* 



TAPESTRY 



The manufacture of fine tapestry at Mort- 

 lake during the seventeenth century demands 

 special attention. No other attempt to esta- 

 blish the industry in this country has ever 

 attained the success of the Mortlake manufac- 

 tory, or resulted in the production of work to 

 compare in artistic excellence with the product 

 of its looms. But the industry has never been 

 native to this country, and its successful con- 

 tinuance for a time at Mortlake was only 

 achieved by the importation of a small colony 

 of foreign artisans and designers. Even with 

 this importation however, depending as all 

 manufactories of the best tapestry must do 

 upon the support of the very wealthy, it was 

 only so long as the Mortlake works engaged 

 the personal interest of the sovereign that 

 they were able to be carried on with any 

 degree of success.^ 



In the words of a high French authority, 

 M. Eugene MUntz, the Keeper of the Library 

 and Museum of the School of Fine Arts at 

 Paris, ' the creation of the manufactory at 

 Mortlake is not only a notable event in the 

 history of English art but also in the annals 

 of European manufacture. The names of two 

 illustrious painters, Rubens and Van Dyck, 

 are connected with this establishment, which 

 also distinguished itself by weaving the " Acts 

 of the Apostles " and the " History of Vul- 

 can." The technical perfection equalled the 

 beauty of the models. During the whole of 

 the seventeenth century it may safely be said 

 that the work of Mortlake had no rivalry to 

 fear except that of the Gobelins.'* 



The inception of the Mortlake manufactory 



1 Lysons, Environs of London (ed. l), i. 503. 



» Ibid. (ed. 2), i. 379. 



' In addition to the short accounts of this 

 manufactory in Lysons, Environs of London (ed. l), 

 i. 386-7, and Manning and Bray, Hist, of Surrey, 

 iii. 302-3, there is an interesting account in 

 Eugene Mflntz's j1 Short History of Tapestry (trans. 

 Louisa J. Davis, 1885), 295-306. Most of the 

 facts relating to the history of the industry, in- 

 cluding some extracts from the parish registers and 

 local documents, have been brought together by 

 Mr. J. E. Andenon in a privately printed pamphlet 

 entided J Short Account of the Tapestry H^orks 

 Mortlake {1%^^). ' 



' MOntz, op. cit. 295. 



was no doubt largely due to the policy of the 

 Stuart kings of nationalizing foreign industries. 

 The support given to it by James L and his 

 successor took the practical form of consider- 

 able money grants and pensions to the owner 

 of the works and his chief workmen. After 

 the death of its first owner it became the 

 property of the Crown, and thus perhaps more 

 nearly than any other industry in this country 

 has ever done approximates in the conditions 

 under which it flourished to those industries 

 which in France the Bourbon kings supported 

 and maintained in the very precincts of the 

 royal palace. 



So much by way of introduction to demon- 

 strate the especial importance of the Mortlake 

 tapestry works. Their history begins in the 

 year 1619, when James L gave Sir Francis 

 Crane a subsidy of j^2,ooo towards the under- 

 taking.' In a gossipy letter of 23 August in 

 this year, John Chamberlain informs Sir 

 Dudley Carleton, the English ambassador in 

 Holland, that Sir Francis had had the making 

 of three baronets given him to aid his pro- 

 ject.' 



Sir Francis Crane, who was a distinguished 

 courtier of the time, and was the last lay 

 Chancellor of the Order of the Garter, at 

 once proceeded to build his manufactory, and 

 acquired for the purpose from Mr. John 

 Juxon some land at Mortlake on which had 

 once stood the laboratory of the celebrated 

 Dr. Dee.* The manufactory stood on the 

 north side of the High Street, on the east 

 side of the present ' Queen's Head ' court or 

 passage.* On the opposite side of the road 

 was the house subsequently built by Charles I. 

 for Francis Cleyne. "* 



The next step was to obtain a supply of 

 skilled workmen from Flanders to start the 

 manufacture. This was a matter of no little 

 difficulty in view of the jealous fears of the 

 Archdukes for the industry of their own 



' C. T. Davis, loo. cit. 



« Lysons, op. cit. 281, quoting Fuller's 

 Worthies. 



' S.P. Dom. Jas. I. ex. 26. 

 8 Aug. Off. Pari. Snrv. Surr. 37. 

 " Anderson, op. cit. 5. 

 " Pari. Surv. Surr. 37. 



354 



