THE STRAGGLETHORPE TAPESTRY

Flemish circa 1660

Depicting the Finding of Moses, within an intricate strapwork border.

Woven in silks and wools.

Size: 9 ft. 9 in. x 11 ft. 2 in. (298 x 338 cm.)

Provenance:

Gildings, Market Harborough, Leicestershire,

10 January, 2006, Lot 1121.

Stragglethorpe Hall, Stragglethorpe,

Lincolnshire.

The Stragglethorpe Tapestry shows a narrative taken from the Old Testament, in which the Pharaoh's daughter discovers the infant Moses:

EXODUS 2:3 (King James version):

"And there went a man of the house of Levi, and took [to wife] a daughter of Levi.  And the woman conceived, and bare a son: and when she saw him that he [was a] goodly [child], she hid him three months. And when she could not longer hide him, she took for him an ark of bulrushes, and daubed it with slime and with pitch, and put the child therein; and she laid [it] in the flags by the river's brink.  And his sister stood afar off, to wit what would be done to him.  And the daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash [herself] at the river; and her maidens walked along by the river's side; and when she saw the ark among the flags, she sent her maid to fetch it."