IMGR66

THE CENTRES OF PRODUCTION

aaMtt tim fiom (opad. TKcrc it no reason why decoratcd lcadier should noc have Oafned li M paacni and k may wdl be (hu careful study of che dctails of designs lA oficn remi in 'Englishness' thai n morę eloquem an advocaie for a naiivc origin chan che Kamy ficcual cvidence to far ivadable.

On ooounercial grounds alooe chcre can be no doubc chat che manulacture of gili locha łungingt, nudę in che prevailing tatce, cominued in Engiind chroughout che sewnteenth and cightcernh cencuriei and 10 a decreasing enent throughout che ninctanih. It n potable chat a muli amounc was madę bert during che axceemh ccntury akfaoogh (hot is no potttfa cvidcnct co pcove this. The ievtial panems chat may be English arc all devdoped fiom cfaone of Spain and che Iow Countrics, buc have bccn modified to lok che (asm of English patroni, and che abdities of a young indusery. Two fomu of omamenunoo - flocking and embroidermg - may havc bccn evo!vcd herc (sec pages Mott richly appointed houses at one mne had tomc gilt leathcr hangings ot funushings (a smpnsńg numbet of which tuli ocisc) and akhough many, pohapt mon, wat of fberign origin, impon on any eonsidctable scalę would inevitably havc sumubted pcodoctioBhcic,asluppenedco(xiDiuIłyino(herfickk^l Itttcertiinthatmtheeighieeotłi amury gik leathcr hangings wat madę hot co a standard as high as to make che Fiench dcspondenc, and chat some of (his work was ezpotted. This high standard surcly did not spring up suddcnly but rcsulted fiom long expcrience, tradiuon and business acumea

Portugal

We noted chat Portuguesc gik leathcr was being sold in Berlin in 171$.* Thcre is also endenoe char a certain amounc of gik leathcr was brougbf into the port of Antwcrp fiom Luboń in 1644 for sale at Amsterdam.¹ We havc also soggested chat che simple geomcthcal panem on che wafls of the Dining Room at Ham House, dating fiom about 1675, may be PottngucK becausc such panems arc rypkaOy Iberian and thoe werc strong com-merdal linki bcrwccn England and Portugal in the seycnteenth and eighceenth centurics.⁴ While this is merely a suggestion, the cvidence given in the first two tcntences of this paragraph prove chat some sortofan indusery ocisted in Portugal during the sccond half

1 Oae amfie fiom joabtr field nuy be menoaned. In the sixtecnth and sewnieemh anturia pdr arpm mara wmfa 1 ipcdłl bot wat impwted fiom Anatolia. The «dmjque wu copicd in EagLnd and jmed tafccy »«k\

*SttpagejŁ

1 Sn ]. Dffurf,    m * tjś CmOr. 7k>m ^Fmfirn*. Anwtrp. 19) 1.17- The diipmew

uj of two bo*« conuining two 'ommat gówien lm‘, i.e. two cHimbm wotth of ailt laificr.

4 far oample, contanamiy mvtnwia freaoently iododed 'Portugal mas'. Woollen goods wett« aufor nglish aport to PottogaJ, cfcoune, ba fianiiutc wm also eapoited.

61