Yale Tapestries

Once owned by the eldest daughter of Elihu Yale (supposed founder of the University), four old English tapestries were sold at Sotheby's (London) for -L-6,800. The designs are of Indo-Chinese character with innumerable buildings, trees, exotic birds, all on black backgrounds. They belong to a well-known type worked by Vanderbank, who got his inspiration from lacquer screens. Signed panels by him are in the Victoria and Albert Museum. Two of these panels bear the mark of the Mortlake and other factories. The largest is 17 ft. 9 in. by 10 ft, the smallest 8 ft. 4 in. by 11 ft. The tapestries were in the possession of the family of the Earl of Guilford from the time of the marriage of the eldest daughter of Elihu Yale to Dudley North, son of the second Baron Guilford, and remained at Glenham, Suffolk, until the recent sale of that estate by Lord Guilford.