1 00:00:18,190 --> 00:00:23,110 Ladies and gentlemen, thank you ever so much for coming along today, 2 00:00:23,110 --> 00:00:35,140 and it's my great pleasure to share with Virginia from the first presentation, which is very much an introductory take. 3 00:00:35,140 --> 00:00:43,300 As we've seen, it's weaving our heritage, the conservation, scientific analysis and display of the Shelden Tapestry maps. 4 00:00:43,300 --> 00:00:47,620 What are the wonderful coincidences? This whole project has been? 5 00:00:47,620 --> 00:00:54,970 The fact that the tapestries hung at Western House and here we are now in the Western Library is a glorious little story. 6 00:00:54,970 --> 00:01:00,250 I think as far as we're concerned, it just fits perfectly. 7 00:01:00,250 --> 00:01:07,090 So let's see what are we going to talk about some general history of the maps? 8 00:01:07,090 --> 00:01:08,860 For those of you who aren't familiar with them, 9 00:01:08,860 --> 00:01:17,610 I'm guessing that most of you in the audience are very familiar with these mountains, but certainly some, I suspect, aren't. 10 00:01:17,610 --> 00:01:21,850 The Sheldon Tapestry maps here at the battalion. 11 00:01:21,850 --> 00:01:29,890 We have three from a set of four, which were produced by four Ralph Sheldon for his house Weston House, 12 00:01:29,890 --> 00:01:38,530 which I showed earlier in South Warwickshire, and this happened in around 50 9C. 13 00:01:38,530 --> 00:01:46,090 The tapestries of surviving tapestries, if you imagine what they would have looked like when they were completed or weren't named 14 00:01:46,090 --> 00:01:53,260 wool and silk and the likely to have reached a dimension of somewhere between 13 by 20 feet. 15 00:01:53,260 --> 00:02:00,340 For those of you who preferred metric four to six and a half metres, they're big things you'll have seen Oxfordshire outside. 16 00:02:00,340 --> 00:02:05,470 That gives you an idea, although that is by no means its full extent. 17 00:02:05,470 --> 00:02:13,510 Gloucestershire, as Richard has mentioned, was acquired selection in June 2007. 18 00:02:13,510 --> 00:02:22,360 Oxfordshire and Worcestershire were bequeathed to the library by Richard Gough in eighteen hundred and nine parts of the magnificent golf bequest, 19 00:02:22,360 --> 00:02:26,560 which contained an awful lot more than two tapestry maps. 20 00:02:26,560 --> 00:02:33,160 Oxfordshire you can see outside Gloucestershire, which was the piece which we acquired at auction, 21 00:02:33,160 --> 00:02:38,450 is currently visible and on display in the Talking Maps exhibition just across the corridor. 22 00:02:38,450 --> 00:02:41,830 So if you've got a moment at lunchtime, you can go along and have a look at that. 23 00:02:41,830 --> 00:02:46,120 There is evidence if you look at it, Richard referred to it as being part of a fire guard. 24 00:02:46,120 --> 00:02:56,470 You can still see in the northern suburbs of Bristol, slightly blackened in colour, where I think it must have been charred so you can see that. 25 00:02:56,470 --> 00:03:05,350 So the tapestries provenance is extremely well documented. Well, the identity of the individual tapestry makers is uncertain. 26 00:03:05,350 --> 00:03:12,940 Although Richard Hicks is likely to have been heavily involved, Hicks was appointed head of the Royal. 27 00:03:12,940 --> 00:03:21,520 Harris works in sixty nine. And here we see his name. 28 00:03:21,520 --> 00:03:27,190 Now this is on the Worcestershire tapestry map, which currently isn't on display here, 29 00:03:27,190 --> 00:03:40,140 but there this is name provenance above the scale bar, which is in the southwest corner of the map in the area just to the west of Hereford. 30 00:03:40,140 --> 00:03:45,570 So what do we already know about these type of stories? 31 00:03:45,570 --> 00:03:51,990 Commissioned by shells in the 1890s, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Worcestershire passed the bodley collection, 32 00:03:51,990 --> 00:03:58,770 I'm delighted to say that Sarah Magee from Warwickshire will be speaking about the Warwickshire Tapestry, 33 00:03:58,770 --> 00:04:06,960 which is held by Warwickshire County Council in Warwick Museums, so learn much more about that today, which is absolutely fantastic. 34 00:04:06,960 --> 00:04:20,140 They were designed to hang in Western House Shelden seats, and the tapestries remained in situ until their dispersal in 1781. 35 00:04:20,140 --> 00:04:29,200 In terms of cartography, they were heavily based on Sexton's county maps of the 15 seventies, and Peter Barber will be telling us more about this. 36 00:04:29,200 --> 00:04:37,120 Hillary Turner will be telling us more in the afternoon about that construction of the tapestries themselves. 37 00:04:37,120 --> 00:04:40,980 Somewhere between seven or eight times the size of Sexton's map. 38 00:04:40,980 --> 00:04:50,770 So just imagine the enlargement that's gone on to produce these tapestries from what a quite small paper maps you. 39 00:04:50,770 --> 00:04:57,310 Again, if you go into the Talking Maps exhibition, you can see the Gloucestershire map produced by Saxon in 15 77. 40 00:04:57,310 --> 00:05:03,300 It's alongside the tapestry. Too much show north at the top. 41 00:05:03,300 --> 00:05:13,320 To show east at the top. So for me, with my cartographic brain, I think very much so graphically, this is a real problem. 42 00:05:13,320 --> 00:05:21,520 If you imagine you have Worcestershire US-North North at the top, Oxfordshire has north at the top. 43 00:05:21,520 --> 00:05:25,680 But Warwickshire and Gloucestershire of East at the top. 44 00:05:25,680 --> 00:05:28,350 So they don't really join together satisfactorily. 45 00:05:28,350 --> 00:05:33,150 And one thing which I would love to do at some stage is get digital imaging images of the lot and beam 46 00:05:33,150 --> 00:05:39,360 them onto a floor and try and walk through them up and see whether we can make any great sense of it. 47 00:05:39,360 --> 00:05:43,740 So it's an interesting geographical challenge. 48 00:05:43,740 --> 00:05:51,780 Finally, Sheldon's friends and relatives houses do feature prominently on the tapestry on the tapestries. 49 00:05:51,780 --> 00:06:01,130 The main geographical content is pure Saxton, but there are additions. 50 00:06:01,130 --> 00:06:08,060 This gives you an idea as to how big the tapestries are, this was Worcestershire when it was being installed in 2015. 51 00:06:08,060 --> 00:06:17,050 So there we are, just wandering alone, popping it into place. 52 00:06:17,050 --> 00:06:24,460 And here's a close up just to show you the intricacy, the colour, the pure joy of these tapestries. 53 00:06:24,460 --> 00:06:29,320 This is an extract from Worcestershire. Here's Western House. 54 00:06:29,320 --> 00:06:35,500 For those of you familiar with this part of the world, we have the Rolling Stones down here. 55 00:06:35,500 --> 00:06:42,820 And here we have the four Shi'as Stone, which is on the A44, which runs from Chipping Norton down here to Morton in March. 56 00:06:42,820 --> 00:06:50,920 Marsh that stone or a version of it is still there, marking the four counties which join, although today only three counties join that. 57 00:06:50,920 --> 00:06:58,570 This detached part of Gloucestershire sorry, this detached part of Worcestershire is now in Gloucestershire, 58 00:06:58,570 --> 00:07:09,310 so you can see there's the This is Worcestershire in Gloucestershire, Worcestershire, Oxfordshire and Warwickshire all joining at one point. 59 00:07:09,310 --> 00:07:18,310 It's a rather sort of ground breaking stone sculpture of stone block, with each county marked on there. 60 00:07:18,310 --> 00:07:26,710 So well worth seeing. I'm here is western in all its glory. 61 00:07:26,710 --> 00:07:41,440 Very impressive. And this is where Western is for those of you where western walls is the A3 400 on this little lane here. 62 00:07:41,440 --> 00:07:49,030 There are no signposts at either end of it or a couple grids here and here, but it's well worth just wandering along there. 63 00:07:49,030 --> 00:07:52,960 It is publicly accessible. You're quite high up, it's woodland. 64 00:07:52,960 --> 00:08:02,640 There are a couple of buildings which still have Western in their name, but Western House has long since disappeared. 65 00:08:02,640 --> 00:08:10,500 So the Tapestry Maps retweets the library by Gough in 1909, there were transferred to the VirnetX for safekeeping in 1913, 66 00:08:10,500 --> 00:08:14,010 and they didn't come back until 2012, as Richard mentioned. 67 00:08:14,010 --> 00:08:25,220 Once we realised that we had the space to accommodate them and so Virginia, if you would like to continue the story. 68 00:08:25,220 --> 00:08:30,400 Thank you, Nick. Hello, everyone. It's lovely to see such a nice audience. 69 00:08:30,400 --> 00:08:38,300 And we have so we had these magnificent tapestries and it is part of our core collections here at the West Indies, 70 00:08:38,300 --> 00:08:43,260 the set of beautiful woven stories that we see on these maps. 71 00:08:43,260 --> 00:08:47,810 And we then needed to know what to do with them. 72 00:08:47,810 --> 00:08:55,430 I am a paper conservator. I'm also head of conservation here at the podium, and I have never woven anything in my life. 73 00:08:55,430 --> 00:09:02,690 So I needed to understand in terms of the physicality of these objects what what we have to do with them for the conservation. 74 00:09:02,690 --> 00:09:10,040 We couldn't possibly conserve these ourselves. So of course, the next logical step to take was to invite experts to see them. 75 00:09:10,040 --> 00:09:14,990 So we we enrolled them, we enrolled them at the Ashmolean Ashmolean museum, 76 00:09:14,990 --> 00:09:20,600 who were so kind to give us an empty gallery to actually open such big pieces and we 77 00:09:20,600 --> 00:09:25,910 invited different people to to see them amongst those potential prospect on this, 78 00:09:25,910 --> 00:09:32,030 but also the people who would be participating in the tender in the tender campaign that we did. 79 00:09:32,030 --> 00:09:36,230 We invited UK based companies, textiles conservation companies. 80 00:09:36,230 --> 00:09:39,140 All of them competed in a fair way. 81 00:09:39,140 --> 00:09:46,600 And we were very, very pleased to finally invite National Trust to become our conservation treatment partners for these project. 82 00:09:46,600 --> 00:09:50,900 And I've grown up as a conservative, I've grown as a conservator. 83 00:09:50,900 --> 00:09:54,890 I think by working with our colleagues, we have National Trust. 84 00:09:54,890 --> 00:10:02,840 I see that conservation projects are not just a paper or book conservation projects, methodologies. 85 00:10:02,840 --> 00:10:10,820 The research, the materiality, the making of things. Everything has a common threats are common wolf threats. 86 00:10:10,820 --> 00:10:16,130 If you like wool and silk, in this case, that brings together lots of different disciplines. 87 00:10:16,130 --> 00:10:25,600 In the end of the day, it's on heritage. And obviously, we, we we we see things in that way now and the next slide. 88 00:10:25,600 --> 00:10:33,230 Do I know how to do this? Yeah, this is showing you how we unroll the tapestries at the museum. 89 00:10:33,230 --> 00:10:40,580 And we were looking at the very this colour tapestry at that time that the dustry or fox, which as you can see, 90 00:10:40,580 --> 00:10:48,850 and we've now changed that you can see the tapestry outside if you haven't had yet a chance to see it later on a tea break, 91 00:10:48,850 --> 00:10:51,710 we can we can talk to you a little bit about it. 92 00:10:51,710 --> 00:11:00,830 But the radical change the before and after picture is the thing that I would most highlight after participating in this process. 93 00:11:00,830 --> 00:11:08,420 Conservation treatments not always produce that huge contrast between before and after treating badly, 94 00:11:08,420 --> 00:11:16,250 and we do have a rule as a blanket rule generally, which is to keep objects or return objects to stability. 95 00:11:16,250 --> 00:11:19,430 And for that, not always, we have to change them hugely. 96 00:11:19,430 --> 00:11:29,510 Sometimes it's just having a little touch stabilising them in a way that people can use them when they are safe to store and to prolong their life. 97 00:11:29,510 --> 00:11:39,680 In this case, that's what's happened to. But also, we have seen an incredibly dramatic change between the before and after which Rachel Langley liked 98 00:11:39,680 --> 00:11:45,710 to run from National Trust to act one of the expert conservatives who who carried out this work. 99 00:11:45,710 --> 00:11:58,130 I will show you very well with with her talk. So this is the kind of image I know I wanted to say that, 100 00:11:58,130 --> 00:12:04,200 but I think we should mention that the campaign raised about two hundred and forty 101 00:12:04,200 --> 00:12:08,420 between two hundred and fourteen bits and two hundred and fifty thousand pounds. 102 00:12:08,420 --> 00:12:13,730 That money is for the conservation of the tapestry spent that involves a lot of research, 103 00:12:13,730 --> 00:12:18,230 and that involves a lot of work that is not just the hands on work and the treatment work. 104 00:12:18,230 --> 00:12:26,150 For that reason, we wanted to team up with with other, with other institutions and other experts, not just National Trust, 105 00:12:26,150 --> 00:12:32,840 but other people who came into our intern work group and are the scientists of the national, 106 00:12:32,840 --> 00:12:39,410 the National Museums of Scotland at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. 107 00:12:39,410 --> 00:12:48,170 Also, the scientific research department participated in this and and other colleagues and in other different in different places that, 108 00:12:48,170 --> 00:12:53,480 you know, with just an exchange of emails helped us understand the reality of the tapestries. 109 00:12:53,480 --> 00:13:02,030 So the questions, the research questions are what I wanted to get out and we will be illustrating those through the day with different talks. 110 00:13:02,030 --> 00:13:06,890 And my colleague Alex and I will talk about the scientific analysis later on. 111 00:13:06,890 --> 00:13:16,160 But the research questions are not just material, they're historical and but answering material questions can help those historic questions. 112 00:13:16,160 --> 00:13:19,700 Nick was was talking about how mysterious it is. 113 00:13:19,700 --> 00:13:24,120 The way to know who actually made the tapestry is really that. 114 00:13:24,120 --> 00:13:28,290 How the workshops were like, where they were based, where they built, 115 00:13:28,290 --> 00:13:33,480 especially for these tapestries, where they actually workshops that were well established already. 116 00:13:33,480 --> 00:13:39,210 So all of those things have questions still, and I'm not sure how close we are to answering those. 117 00:13:39,210 --> 00:13:44,670 However, we did not know scientifically what we had in those tapestries. 118 00:13:44,670 --> 00:13:49,740 And that's one thing that was really bugging me, and I thought, Well, 119 00:13:49,740 --> 00:13:56,670 we better analyse these have scientific proof of what, you know, the tapestries containing them. 120 00:13:56,670 --> 00:14:03,360 This is, for example, dyes or the kind of fleece that was used to produce the wool or the silk. 121 00:14:03,360 --> 00:14:12,300 And so I felt that we needed to take that step not just conserve tapestries, but actually know exactly what we have here physically. 122 00:14:12,300 --> 00:14:16,320 And that's one of the reasons why the partnership was was established. 123 00:14:16,320 --> 00:14:25,800 But of, of course, if we know which things have been used for the walls, we might actually have an indication of where those colours came from, 124 00:14:25,800 --> 00:14:29,490 and they might actually tell us where that wool was designed or produced. 125 00:14:29,490 --> 00:14:42,300 And only just if you know, not always that is the case, but we are a little step closer if we get that information confirmed by a scientific analysis. 126 00:14:42,300 --> 00:14:51,780 So we'll reach it earlier on and make a little bit talked about the installation, how complex that process was. 127 00:14:51,780 --> 00:14:59,790 I just simply wanted to say that it was a pleasure working with the architects, Wilkinson and there, who understood the needs, 128 00:14:59,790 --> 00:15:06,690 understood how peculiar this display was because we didn't want to give a final date for the display. 129 00:15:06,690 --> 00:15:09,480 We said, Actually, let's not put a limit. 130 00:15:09,480 --> 00:15:19,680 It's just think of how we set up a preservation programme that is actually telling us during the process of display how the tapestries are doing. 131 00:15:19,680 --> 00:15:24,990 Another reason why knowing the pigments that are contained in the tapestry and another 132 00:15:24,990 --> 00:15:29,770 reason why and monitoring very closely was an important aspect of this project. 133 00:15:29,770 --> 00:15:34,560 So a preservation plan will again come back to this topic later on. 134 00:15:34,560 --> 00:15:38,790 But as you can see, this is this is the making. 135 00:15:38,790 --> 00:15:47,430 This is black hole in the making. What you see and this is the showcase in the making that you will later on are you must have seen a site already at. 136 00:15:47,430 --> 00:15:53,520 The showcase features a pull up frame that allows the tapestry to be installed and attached to a 137 00:15:53,520 --> 00:16:01,020 backing in situ UV filter glazing blinds to reduce light exposure at site public opening hours. 138 00:16:01,020 --> 00:16:03,450 So there's plans that goes on when the family leaves. 139 00:16:03,450 --> 00:16:10,950 That leaves the black hole and protection from both sides because this is a tapestry that is very close to a cafe. 140 00:16:10,950 --> 00:16:15,840 It's the main one of the main features in the black hole where a lot of events take place. 141 00:16:15,840 --> 00:16:21,930 Lots of people come through every day through our doors, luckily, unfortunately, with interest in our collections. 142 00:16:21,930 --> 00:16:25,530 And of course, they are again stunned by the beauty of the tapestries, 143 00:16:25,530 --> 00:16:31,410 and they stand there looking and finding places, names and places that are familiar to them. 144 00:16:31,410 --> 00:16:37,320 I think that's key a very important aspect of this tapestry. People don't seem to get tired of actually doing that. 145 00:16:37,320 --> 00:16:45,570 So we needed a very special showcase, quite expensive. I can't remember the exact figure, but that's costing us a bit of money. 146 00:16:45,570 --> 00:16:50,850 But we know it would be worth it because it's taking us through quite a few years of this play, 147 00:16:50,850 --> 00:16:54,990 and I'm sure there will be other other things we can do later on with these shows. 148 00:16:54,990 --> 00:17:01,650 And I don't want to go over my time, but I think I'm still OK. 149 00:17:01,650 --> 00:17:11,610 Richard also mentioned the media attention the public campaign and at the beginning of was part of the Western, 150 00:17:11,610 --> 00:17:18,870 just launching the West and talking about the Western and the tapestries where we're part of it, as well as a very important feature, as you know. 151 00:17:18,870 --> 00:17:24,480 But also through the years, we've seen that there's been different obstacles and different people wanting to write about 152 00:17:24,480 --> 00:17:30,330 them and wanting to alert the public about what was going on with these fabulous pieces. 153 00:17:30,330 --> 00:17:35,430 I still remember the exhibition at the British Museum about Shakespeare. 154 00:17:35,430 --> 00:17:39,960 I'm not sure if you remember that when I say must have been 2011 20, 2012. 155 00:17:39,960 --> 00:17:45,300 So whereabouts and I remember the Warwickshire tapestry was on display there, 156 00:17:45,300 --> 00:17:53,190 and it was quite an awkward space because there wasn't distance to actually detach from it and take a good look at the whole piece. 157 00:17:53,190 --> 00:18:03,300 And I don't think that was the case. I don't think it was the reason for people to actually accumulate next to the tapestry. 158 00:18:03,300 --> 00:18:09,900 What I observed that time is that that tapestry and they went in on purpose just because I knew this was going to happen. 159 00:18:09,900 --> 00:18:17,520 And what I observed at the time is that I well, I thought that was one of the stark pieces of the show. 160 00:18:17,520 --> 00:18:23,810 It really stole people's hearts to see the Warwickshire tapestry and people were they just. 161 00:18:23,810 --> 00:18:26,060 Coming up and then they could and actually go through, 162 00:18:26,060 --> 00:18:31,670 some people could not get through to the rest to see the rest of the exhibition, and they say, Well, 163 00:18:31,670 --> 00:18:40,190 you know how lucky we are that we are going to have black hole and how lucky we are that we have time to alert people about what's going on and 164 00:18:40,190 --> 00:18:49,820 advertise this in a way that people can come find themselves in a very big space and just even take a look at the tapestries as they look at weavers, 165 00:18:49,820 --> 00:18:56,090 maybe showing how the technique is or maybe will, as you know, people who will be dying. 166 00:18:56,090 --> 00:19:02,390 And we're hoping today, you know, we're hoping to do this kind of thing and. 167 00:19:02,390 --> 00:19:10,430 So that's that's pretty much what I wanted to say and also thank everyone who participated in this project. 168 00:19:10,430 --> 00:19:13,520 It's a long list of names and they will keep popping up through the day. 169 00:19:13,520 --> 00:19:23,420 They've already some of them have upset, but mostly are donors who but Richard mentioned already without them, this wouldn't have been possible. 170 00:19:23,420 --> 00:19:29,390 The conservation, the research, the travelling to Blickling state, the travelling to Michigan, 171 00:19:29,390 --> 00:19:33,920 which you know, is where the tapestries were, where things are very interesting process. 172 00:19:33,920 --> 00:19:43,190 You will you will learn about today. And thanks to you so far for being here, for it, for just keeping us company, doing design. 173 00:19:43,190 --> 00:19:47,270 To learn more and to talk about the project. That's very close to our hearts. 174 00:19:47,270 --> 00:19:52,938 I think so. Thanks very much.