Details

Object type

valance

Title

Kimberley throne

Place Associated

England, Norfolk, Kimberley Hall (place of association)

Date

1578

Materials

silk, gold thread, silver thread

Description

Valance from the Kimberley Throne (14.217) in crimson red silk solid cut pile velvet constructed from three narrow lengths sewn selvedge to selvedge decorated with applied cloth of gold and cloth of silver, couched gilt and silver-gilt threads and coloured wash in a strapwork design incorporating a lion’s head and two bunches of fruit, including apples, cherries grapes and pears. Border down sides and along bottom with arabesque floral, including eglantine roses, and foliage design. Short fringe of twisted looped red silk, gilt and silver-gilt threads on sides, long fringe of red silk, gilt and silver-gilt threads along bottom edge.

Made with a matching canopy (14.217.f) and its valance (14.217.e) for the visit of Elizabeth I (1533–1603) to Sir Roger Wodehouse (1540–88) of Kimberley Hall on 22 August 1578. Thrones with a canopy, cloth of estate and sometimes matching chairs or stools, foot stools and cushions are used to denote the status of kings and queens. Tudor examples can be seen depicted in British School, Family of Henry VIII, circa 1545 (Royal Collection Trust) and Lucas de Heere, The Family of Henry VIII: an Allegory of the Tudor Succession (Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales), as well as on illuminated royal charters, such as that attributed to Nicholas Hilliard authorising Sir Walter Mildmay to found Emmanuel College, Cambridge (1584). A contemporary Italian valance in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (37-1903) is similarily decorated with an arabesque design in padded applique silver tissue.

The throne was later re-created with this tester and head cloth and by the early 1700s was written about in guides to the county. F Blomefield, Essay Towards a Topographical History of the County of Norfolk, Volume 1 (1739) states that ‘there is still in the Family a Noble THRONE, which was erected for the Queen, in the grand Hall at Kimberley, it is of Crimson Velvet, richly embroidered with Gold, having on it the Arms of Wodehouse and his Quarterings, with the Supporters, all in curious Work, and on the Top are the same Arms impaling Corbet’.

By the early 1930s the Wodehouse family had sold the throne to London-based antiques dealers and interior decorators Acton Surgey Ltd., who exhibited it in the Art Treasures Exhibition at Christie, Manson & Woods, London, in 1932, which is when the additional velvet panel was added to the bottom of the head cloth. Acton Surgey Ltd. also exhibited others items from Kimberley Hall, including valances made for Henry VIII (1491–1547) and Anne Boleyn (circa 1500–36) and a valance and head cloth that are also in the Burrell Collection ( (29.178.a, 29.178.b, 29.179 and 29.180) and an embroidered waistcoat in Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (43.243).

Provenance: Sir Roger Wodehouse (1540–88), Kimberley, Norfolk; by descent; from whom purchased by Acton Surgey Ltd., by 1932; from which purchased by Sir William Burrell on 20 June 1947 for £2150 as part of the Kimberley Throne (14.217).

Credit Line/Donor

Gifted by Sir William and Lady Burrell to the City of Glasgow, 1944

Collection

Burrell Collection: Furniture

ID Number

14.217.b

Location

In storage