Mrs Finney first offered the group of seven Art of War tapestries to the museum, in memory of her husband, Oswald J Finney, in April 1962. They were then under sequestration in Alexandria (Mrs Finney was resident in Rome). The tapestries were released and sent to Rome in 1971. They were received by the Museum in July 1972.
The tapestries had been purchased by Mr Finney for his house in Alexandria some time in the late 1920s or 1930s. Mrs Finney remembered that her husband became interested in the tapestries when some of them were shown at an exhibition in America, and that a dealer in Paris was commissioned to acquire them. Hefford explains that the seven Finney tapestries appear to have been acquired in at least five separate transactions.
The first 'Art of War' series was designed by the tapestry cartoon painter Lambert de Hondt and woven in the Brussels workshops of Jerome Le Clerc and Gaspar van der Borght. This tapestry is from the second series woven by de Vos and probably designed by Philipp de Hondt. Some sets of the second series include scenes and figures borrowed from the cartoons of the Marlborough Victories at Blenheim Palace.
Five of the 'Art of War' tapestries belonging to Mr Finney are believed to be from the set of the second Art of War which was made for Augustus the Strong of Saxony, and was formerly at Dresden. Hefford sets out in detail the justification for this attribution. 'The March', 'The Camp' and 'Cutting Fascines' were illustrated in Ackerman's publication on the Dresden tapestries in 1926. 'The Siege' and 'The Ambush', not known to Ackerman, appear to be part of the same set, which is noted in the Marillier tapestry catalogue, anecdotally quoting Bernheimer, to have been of eight pieces. Of the two further pieces from Dresden illustrated by Ackerman, 'The Halt' is now in the National Museum, Warsaw, and the tapestry after 'Blenheim' was sold at Sotheby's, London, in 1964. It is now in the Toms collection, Lausanne. The eighth, missing piece may have been similar to Marlborough's tapestry of 'Malplaquet' for the Dresden set was known as 'Die Schlachten bei Höchstädt und Malplaquet'.
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Mrs Finney first offered the group of seven Art of War tapestries to the museum, in memory of her husband, Oswald J Finney, in April 1962. They were then under sequestration in Alexandria (Mrs Finney was resident in Rome). The tapestries were released and sent to Rome in 1971. They were received by the Museum in July 1972.
The tapestries had been purchased by Mr Finney for his house in Alexandria some time in the late 1920s or 1930s. Mrs Finney remembered that her husband became interested in the tapestries when some of them were shown at an exhibition in America, and that a dealer in Paris was commissioned to acquire them. Hefford explains that the seven Finney tapestries appear to have been acquired in at least five separate transactions.
The first 'Art of War' series was designed by the tapestry cartoon painter Lambert de Hondt and woven in the Brussels workshops of Jerome Le Clerc and Gaspar van der Borght. This tapestry is from the second series woven by de Vos and probably designed by Philipp de Hondt. Some sets of the second series include scenes and figures borrowed from the cartoons of the Marlborough Victories at Blenheim Palace.
Five of the 'Art of War' tapestries belonging to Mr Finney are believed to be from the set of the second Art of War which was made for Augustus the Strong of Saxony, and was formerly at Dresden. Hefford sets out in detail the justification for this attribution. 'The March', 'The Camp' and 'Cutting Fascines' were illustrated in Ackerman's publication on the Dresden tapestries in 1926. 'The Siege' and 'The Ambush', not known to Ackerman, appear to be part of the same set, which is noted in the Marillier tapestry catalogue, anecdotally quoting Bernheimer, to have been of eight pieces. Of the two further pieces from Dresden illustrated by Ackerman, 'The Halt' is now in the National Museum, Warsaw, and the tapestry after 'Blenheim' was sold at Sotheby's, London, in 1964. It is now in the Toms collection, Lausanne. The eighth, missing piece may have been similar to Marlborough's tapestry of 'Malplaquet' for the Dresden set was known as 'Die Schlachten bei Höchstädt und Malplaquet'.