Tapestry with coat-of-arms

Ambrosius Höchstetter von Burgwalden the Elder (Augsburg 1463-1534) and Anna von Rehlingen of Regensburg
Flandern ca. 1483
Wool and silk, dimensions: 96 x 373 cm

 
This superbly preserved tapestry woven from precious silk and wool in the ‘millefleur’ style that first arose in Flanders and France in the 14th and 15th centuries. ‘Millefleur’ is the name given to a characteristic ornamental motif designed for tapestries in the Late Gothic era, i.e. in the late 15th and early 16th centuries. The main manufactory for millefleur tapestries is thought to have been in Tournai, which belonged to the Duchy of Burgundy, a leading culture and a major centre of the cloth trade and for the production of finest textiles. Millefleur décor was used as a background in secular or allegorical religious scenes showing various figures, and contained many plants, mostly flowers. An outstanding example is the six-part series of tapestries known as The Lady and the Unicorn, now in the Musée National du Moyen Âge in Paris.
The floral and figure design of this Augsburg tapestry is richly varies in the border as well as in the tapestry itself. Blossoms and leaves in different colours surround the coats-of-arms. The fauna include superbly executed figures of a hare and a fox on the bottom edge.
The alliance coat-of-arms are inserted symmetrically in ornamental frames on the left and right, over the millefleur background. The coats-of-arms can be identified as follows: the one with the dividing notches belongs to the   von  H ö c h s t e t t e r  family from Augsburg, who were raised to the imperial nobility in the year 1518, the one with the two rose-crowned peaks to the   von  R e h l i n g e n  family, who were raised to the imperial baronhood in the year 1666.
The Höchstetters were descendants of Stauffian ‘Ministerialen’ (knights) from Höchstädt on the Danube, the first documentary mention of whom dates from the end of the 13th century. Under Ulrich V, the family flourished in wholesale and foreign trade in textiles and spices. His son, Ambrosius the Elder, was trained in Brûges and founded a manufactory in Antwerp in the year 1486. In 1483, he married Anna von Rehlingen of Regensburg, who likewise came from an important patrician family. 1483 is also the earliest possible dating for the tapestry, since the coat-of-arms had not occurred previously in this combination. The marriage was probably the occasion that the tapestry was made to mark.
Like the Fugger and Welser families, the Höchstetters were one of the most powerful families in German commerce. At the beginning of the 16th century, they owned a large trading company and bank in Augsburg, with branches in Antwerp, Brûges, Venice, Lisbon and Lyons, and among things were the owners of the Steineberg smelting works in Tyrol.