This piece from a tapestry border shows a fashionably dressed man out hunting with his dog and hawk. The huntsman is holding the prey, possibly a duck, in his right hand.
The border was probably made in the Sheldon tapestry workshop. In 1570 William Sheldon, a prosperous Worcestershire gentleman, set up a tapestry workshop in his manor house at Barcheston, now in Warwickshire. His intention was to provide a remedy for the high local unemployment which, by training tapestry weavers, would also cut down the level of goods imported from Flanders (now part of Belgium) and the Netherlands, the traditional areas of the weaving craft. His head weaver almost certainly came from those regions and was engaged to teach his skills to local Englishmen.
Few of the Sheldon tapestries rivalled the more sophisticated work produced in Flanders and most of the products attributed to the Sheldon looms are relatively modest in size and style. They were therefore within reach of the middle classes of society. Production continued through the lifetime of William’s son, Ralph, but had almost certainly ceased by 1615.