17908 IMGR57

THE CENTRES OF PRODUCTION

modcHcd with the addition of somc Kamping. In the centrę ii a painting ofihc Virgin and CbU in 10 archcd surround on which u the imaipcion odv wyundei barliche-MUETBR GOTBS • BU fik vns (Thou woadrous Motha of Cod, pny for us) ind che datę 16I1. The tubject is i Citholic one ind this would seem co indicne i South Gennifl origin (Plim 24). Hic woekmimhip ii unsophisticatcd, che painting rather cnide: i( hu 1 somcwhat runie appcarance. Ic wis boughc in Innsbruck miny yeari ago ind ii stated co havc come fiom the South Tyrol front which diuna havc ilso comc leither-comed coflers with inciscd and ttamped ornamcnucion curiously like chat of Spanish cxamplcs.

Encland

Gik leather was of coune used in Englind during the lata Middle Ages and the Rcnaissancc period akhough evidence is noc readily fonheoming. In che Invencory of che Wardrobe of Henry VI, dated 1423, for insuncc, there is mention ofaTcather carptt' which wis probably 1 proteowc covering for sonie kind offumiture. Ałas. no details are given but it could have bccn of git leather cven at this early dace (see page 23). In Th Gtntlmns Mtpzmt for March 1824¹ a correspondenc reported a visit to 'che fine old numion called Greenstreet, in che parish ofEasc Hun, having been the roidence of King Henry the Eighth and his Queen Annę Bolcyn’. The proprictor, then over eighcy, had lived (herc for fifiy years: he drew ittencion to a iquarc tower ofthree scories (originally five at lcasc) which it was said was built by Henry VIII for the pleasure of Annę Bolcyn during what remaincd of the period of mouming for ber dcccased lover, at che end of which Henry would many her. This tower commanded 1 vicw fiom Grcenwich co Gnvesend. The third-scorcy room, said che owner, had formerly been hung with fine gold leather which his predecessor had 'avancioosly_f almost wickedly burtu, 10 collea thcgold which was sold for /30': this vandalism musi have taken place some dme prior to 1774. There is nothing evcn to suggest the souret of these gik hingings buc the nory, if tnie, confirms the use, at times, of real gold leaf. The art of gold-tooling bookbindings is bdieved to have been introduced inco Englind by the binda to Henry VIII: it would not be surprising if the simpla process of gilding leather for hingings, with ill the spień-dour it provided in chat age of mgnificciH display, was devdoped hoe as well as in Spain, France, Icaly and the Low Councries.

There is a rccord of‘eflevin tapestrie ofgilt Icdder' in rooms at Edinburgh Casrle when k was occupied by Mity Quccn of Scott in 1578² buc there is no mention oforigitL An

¹ V«l XVIV (ncw ma), Pan I, p. 219. The 'Bolcyn' tower łus ody (trały bca demolńhoL ¹ bwnftry mi Ritoris tjAr Re/il WtrMt, cdiicd by Thoj. Thomson, iSlj, p. 211.