We are 3 months into the project and are well underway, with 8 of our 20cm sections down on the bagpiper player and dancing dog tapestry and 5 on the cobbler tapestry. In fact we are beginning to catch glimpses of both the cobbler and the bagpiper as they come around the back roller of the frame toward us.

Soon the bagpiper player and the cobbler will be able to see each other across the tapestry frames! They haven’t seen each other since 2010 when they were taken down from the walls of the Holly bedroom for wet cleaning. Some of their faces were so dirty and obscured they haven’t really seen each other for many years before that!

There are six tapestries within this set depicting scenes of rural life these include the cobbler, a bagpiper and his dancing dog, a courting couple (where it was only discovered the man had a luxurious moustache once the tapestry had been cleaned!), a falconer, a peddler carrying his wares and a man resting by a tree after a hunt.  We think they were woven around 1620, and are Flemish in origin.

Image 1. The dancing dog from the bagpiper tapestry is now right on top of the frame and we will soon reach his paws!

Image 2 and 3. Both images show the underside of the tapestry frames where you can see the bagpiper and cobblers faces coming into view.

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