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Cundall & Co.
Bayeux Tapestry
1873 (taken)
Photograph
Victoria and Albert Museum
Accession nummber: E.573:1 to 25-2005
LL/120407
Curatorial description (Accessed: 30 May 2022)
The Bayeux Tapestry is an embroidered strip of linen over 65 metres long telling the story of the events starting in 1064 that led up to the Battle of Hastings and the Norman Conquest of England in 1066. Believed to date from the 11th century, it is made up of eight conjoined sections of different lengths and displays over 70 scenes, with decorative borders running along the top and bottom. The tapestry has been on permanent display in Bayeux, Normandy, since 1842.
In 1873, Joseph Cundall and his assistants made photographs of the tapestry for the Department of Science and Art, a British government body. These would be published by the Arundel Society in the same year. It took over two months and over 180 glass plates to produce the photographs. The prints are the same size as the tapestry and are hand-coloured. Two of the copies were acquired by the South Kensington Museum (later the V&A); one divided into 25 separate sections of 2.5 metres and the other on a 65 metre roll. The latter was the model for a replica of the tapestry made in 1885 by a team of English women embroiderers under the direction of Elizabeth Wardle, now on display in the Museum of Reading.
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