am 24.11.2003 0:01 Uhr schrieb [EMAIL PROTECTED] unter [EMAIL PROTECTED]: > I will make the admission that my first design attempt was based on the > Unicorn in Captivity tapestry. I used curly left over thread for the tail and > I > placed it against a background of Virgin Ground, a joke that is wasted on > practically everyone. (Tradition has it that a unicorn can only be captured by > a > virgin.) However, I really messed up the border, so I don't display it. > Having satisfied the requirement of "Lace content" I will add that the > Unicorn Tapestries in the Cloisters were the property of the La Rochefoucauld > family, hanging in the chateau of Verteuil during the time of the Revolution. > They > were looted by peasants who used them to cover vegetables in the field to > protect them from freezing. In the 1850's Count Hippolyte de La Rochefoucauld > and > his wife Countess Elizabeth went about trying to buy back the things that had > disappeared from the chateau. A peasant's wife informed the countess that her > husband had some old "curtains" covering vegetables in the barn that might be > of interest to her. They were the unicorn tapestries. In the 1920's they were > purchased by John D. Rockefeller and hung in his house. Mrs. Rockefeller > entertained the Needle & Bobbin Club in her home and shared them with this > august > lace club. (Perhaps the account is among the N&B Club Bulletins on the > Professor's web site.) When the Cloisters, a pet project of Rockefeller, was > established,clever James Rorimer, then head of the Metropolitan Museum of Art > which > owns the Cloisters, designed in a Tapestry room for them and presented the > design > to Rockefeller to approve. Rockefeller obligingly gave the tapestries to the > Museum. > I am interested to see that there is a La Roche family involved in the French > Unicorn tapestries. I wonder if there is any relationship between the two > families and if they had a special thing for unicorns. > Devon > who has an entire shelf of unicorn tapestry books, all professing to explain > the symbology, but none agreeing. > > - > To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: > unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Hello Devon I don't know if there is a relationship between the two families La Roche and La Viste but it is sure that there is a relationship between the two series of tapestery. I know both because I saw both twice. This one of the family La Viste was at least till 1841 in the original home le chateau à Boussac, this is south/est of Chateauroux. The tapestery came into Cluny-museum at 1881 but i am not sure if the cloister Cluny at that time still was a museum. For those of you who are interested in the subject here two links which I got from Sof: http://fbecuwe.free.fr/licortap.htm http://www.insecula.com/salle/MS00985.html Greetings from rainy, rainy hamburg in Germany Ilske - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
