Cole & Son | Verdure Tapestry

The verdure tapestries of Flanders were known as the mobile frescoes of the North, and they were exactly that: enormous woven landscapes that travelled with a household and furnished a cold stone room in an afternoon. Unlike figurative tapestry, verdure had no narrative to serve, which freed the weavers from perspective altogether, so trees, foliage and creatures could be placed wherever the composition wanted them. This design is drawn from a seventeenth-century work now displayed in the King's Presence Chamber at Kensington Palace.

What has carried over is the density. Foliage fills the field from edge to edge, layered so depth comes from overlap rather than from recession, with flora and fauna found at every level of the canopy. The tonality is that of a woven thing rather than a painted one, built from close-related tones where a painting would use light and shadow.

Each roll contains four drops and makes a panel 210 cm wide by 350 cm high, hung as a straight match. That is a considerable object and should be treated as one: a wall in a dining room, a stair hall or a library, with the furniture kept clear of it. Made with Historic Royal Palaces, it earns its place in a room where the reference to a real tapestry in a real palace is part of the point.