Need help with old tapestry

I found this old tapestry in the bottom of a trunk several years ago and cant find out anything about it. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Measures about 6 x 4 ft
Dont know what the words on front say.
Has threads with strips of gold wrapped around silk

 

Im no textile expert,but that sure looks like the real thing to me.

 

A little "eye candy" for the experts.

 

The hennin (/ˈhɛnɪn/; Dutch: henninck ‘cock’ (cf. English surname: Hancock) > French: hennin[1]) was a headdress in the shape of a cone, "steeple", or truncated cone worn in the late Middle Ages by European women of the nobility.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/medieval-europeans-pointy-shoes

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/237072367858290806/

I am going 15thC European nobility scene.

 

The placement of the words suggests they are the names of the figures, but you have not shown them well & 2 of them not in closeup at all, so our headway there may be limited. Identifying the lady may tell the whole story.

 

I will upload a pict of the words

 

What is written across the lady's skirt?

 

I can't make out the words, but the scene suggests this is part of a larger group of tapestries, apparently the dress of the lady in the (missing) panel to the left appears but the figure not shown, guessing in the next panel?
Could be part of a wedding or coronation scene?
Maybe a three or four panel affair?

I think we are looking at the rightmost panel, the column is likely repeated in the opposite leftmost panel.

 

Elizabeth I coronation scenes?
https://www.greatbigcanvas.com/view...hJhV-1Q19UEAnaK9Ld8h3bbcIiZp3_GBoCQjgQAvD_BwE

Note similarity with facial features, jeweled collar, hair color, slim figure, etc.

The tapestry size (4x6' approx) tells me that the tapestry/ies if more than one, were intended to hang on castle or palace walls to commemorate the queen coming into power.

More writing on the wallhanging at center in the background: W L C.

I have no idea what these letters stand for but I suspect they may be cryptograms of [possibly] latin versions of the names and/or titles of the persons depicted. The letters on the skirt may identify the Queen.

 

The hennin was a bit before Elizabeth I's time.

Debora

 

The fleur-de-lis border would lead one to France. And I don't think old, old. 20th century to my eye. If I had to guess, I'd think 1940s.

Debora

 

@Deborah. As was mentioned in the [linked] article about pointy shoes, poulaines, the fashions back then hung around for a long long time. With the absence of fashion magazines, movies, ability to read (and IT) fashions changed very very slowly as news spread slower in those days. The so called hennin was still around several hundred years later, in slightly different forms. The "Marie Antoinette" hairdo of the early 1960s, hair piled high, would be a small comparison that some fashions never completely died. The hennin is mentioned by flipper as being at the height of fashion in the mid 1400s. Q.E's time was around 100 years later. Not all that much had changed.

 

Flipper reproduced this in post #9, including mysterious device right in front of it. There is something on the sleeve of the man in the foreground that could be NO. All the others are labeled, so this could be his.

I can't figure what script this is, not something I know anything about. I do wonder whether if we were transliterating to modern English all those characters that look like W would still be Ws. Pcpower did a great job reproducing some of them; think the second letter of the first word is a 'Greek' E, not a weak C.

 

The fashions shown in the tapestry are definitely 15th century, not 16th. Tudor men's shoes are very different. In the early part of the century high class men wore very wide-toed shoes. During the 2nd half of the 16th c. shoes were less extreme in either direction.

It bothers me that the script is so illegible. Tapestries would typically employ the same script used in formal calligraphy of the period. For the 15th century, this would be black letter / Gothic script, as illustrated in this French tapestry from the 1480s:

https://www.wga.hu/html_m/zzdeco/2tapestr/1/index.html

Or (less likely) the more cursive "Littera Bastarda" / Batarde:


I am very skeptical about an actual 15th century tapestry being in such good condition. The weaving structure does appear correct for a traditional handwoven tapestry, however. I would be more inclined to believe it is a later reproduction, perhaps early 20th century (Arts and Crafts period). The problematic script may be a result of whoever made it not understanding genuine medieval writing.

@pcpower - how did you identify the fibers used? What country did you find it in?

 

@2manybooks: The language in above tapestry is not French, however, it's old German. The king figure (crowned head) in the center is identified above (him) as Kaiser Karolus Wilhelm, i e Emperor Karl Wilhelm... [some words illegible], and above the knight, "von Holland zureck.." loosely, "from Holland back."
I'm sure a very precise and fine academic translation from Old German exists somewhere. I could go on but I'll yield the floor to someone better at German than I.

 

Sorry, I got my citations mixed up. I was looking at a lot of tapestries...... Yes, German, from the Historisches Museum, Basel. My point about the type of script is still the same, though.