Metropolitan Museum acquires the Crocker tapestry from Franses
This remarkable late 16th century English tapestry was acquired by the Museum to hang in the Crowe Room – an Elizabethan panelled room, acquired in the 1960’s. It is one of a series of important period rooms at the Museum (illustrated below).
This unique English renaissance tapestry, previously owned by the Crocker family of San Francisco was recently unveiled in London and provoked a wave of interest in the national press. It was subsequently exhibited in New York and acquired by The Metropolitan to hang in the Crowe Room, an early 17th century oak panelled room with chimneypiece from a house on Hall Quay, Great Yarmouth in Norfolk, England. The tapestry border contains a number of similar decorative motifs to those found on the panelling. The room has been transformed by the colour, richness and perspective of this unique tapestry.
The tapestry was first proposed as English by the scholar Phyllis Ackerman when it was lent by William Crocker to the landmark retrospective loan exhibition European Tapestries held in the San Francisco Museum of Art in 1922. The tapestry had been owned previously by Duveen brothers and acquired for Crocker by the celebrated interior designer Elsie de Wolfe.
