After the Hunt

   A rare English Hunting tapestry, c 1730.

Woven  and signed by Bradshaw and Stranover,

Soho, London.

   Height:  298cm  (9ft 9in)       Width:  267cm  (8ft 9in)

Various Bradshaws are recorded in the 18th century, working within the upholstery and tapestry trade, and William Bradshaw (1700-1775) was an important cabinet maker, upholsterer and 'tapissier', he took over the Frith Street workshop from Joshua Morris, and was joined by the artist Tobias Stranover (1684-1756) in 1730. Bradshaw's short association with Stranover came to an end in 1732, and Bradshaw moved to workshops at 27 Soho Square, extending into 59 & 60 Greek Street, and this latter Greek Street location (no.59) he retained until 1754.

Tobias Stranover was born in Hermannstadt, Transylvania, in 1684.  As a painter he specialized in birds, flowers and still life, and after settling in London, he married the daughter of the noted Hungarian émigré painter, James Bogdani, some of whose work is at Hampton Court.

Bradshaw tapestries are at Holkham Hall, Norkolk and at Ham House in the Queen’s Bedchamber.

Provenance

Martin Van Straaten,

Vigo-Sternberg Galleries,

Private collection, Germany.

Literature

W.G. Thompson, Tapestry Weaving in England, Batsford, London, 1914.

Vigo-Sternberg Galleries, Four Hundred Years of English Tapestries, exhibition

catalogue, 1971.