Just Hanging: Rachel Hunt, Properties Manager at Cotehele House, gave a fascinating talk about the  tapestries that hang at Cotehele. They help you step back hundreds of years into a period created by the Edgcombe family in the 18th century when they remodelled Mount Edgcombe and moved their antique furniture and tapestries to Cotehele.  Tapestries are very expensive items. One large tapestry could take two years to complete and cost £250,000 in today’s money.  Rachel explained that they were not just to keep the house warm but illustrated family wealth, importance  (included heraldic symbols) and showed cleverness (with thought provoking themes).  All this, together with the antique furnishings and weaponry, gave the house an historic and romantic feel.  The Edgcombes gave the impression that the tapestries had always hung at Cotehele despite the fact that most were not made until the late 17th and early 18th centuries when they were not living at Cotehele

The earliest small piece of tapestry (probably dating from 1480) can be found in the dining room beneath the window.  This is an heraldic piece showing a boar’s head which is part of the Edgcombe arms.  There are 56 tapestries in the house but only one is complete, Geometry from the Liberal Arts set.  The others have been cut to fit their new settings, eg. around fire places, across doors and extended to fit bigger walls.

At this point, Rachel explained the difference between a tapestry ( a woven fabric) and an embroidery (stitching on fabric).  Each historic tapestry is completed by several weavers; the less experienced weavers doing the simpler parts (trees, sky, etc) and the master weavers doing the detailed figures.  Weaving businesses were family run, the weaving being done by men and setting up of the looms and finishing stitching by women.

Often, the designs for tapestries were taken from printed cartoons of the early 17th century.  Many tapestries are of the verdure type, blue green themes, bringing the outdoors into the house, as seen in the dining room.  Rachel then went on to describe some of the other tapestries and making us (and also young visitors) laugh with a photo of one of the Children’s Games set which comes from a Belgium print translating as “the fart in the face” game.  More details of the tapestries can be found online.

Even today, the tapestries prove to be very expensive.  Conservation is a highly skilled process and many of the tapestries need work doing on them as a result of deterioration because of dust, mould, pests, light and wear and tear. The last tapestry to come back from conservation is Leander in the Hellespont which cost £86,000 and took eighteen months to complete but it should not need any further conservation for 100 years.

Finally, Rachel explained that this year’s theme for the self-guided tour (Just Hanging) has been extended to links in the garden and the restaurant.  She hopes that everyone has been enthused to revisit the house.

Pete Watson    You can visit on line here > https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/cotehele/features/just-hanging-the-tapestries-at-cotehele