The style of this tapestry indicates that it was made in Oudeenarde in Flanders, then part of the Spanish Netherlands. It would originally have formed part of a series of tapestries and the subject cannot now be identified with certainty. One possibility is that it shows Rachel giving her servant Bilhah to Jacob (Genesis 30.3). Many Flemish tapestries from the mid sixteenth century show scenes from the story of Jacob.

The tapestry is first recorded at the College in the early nineteenth century, but it may have been acquired much earlier and was perhaps among those purchased for the Warden of New College’s chamber in 1575. It appears in an illustration of Audit Room in Charles Radclyffe’s Memorials of Winchester College (1846).

Literature: H. Chitty, The Winchester College Tapestries (Winchester, 1912)

Provenance: Unknown, at Winchester College by the early 19th century

Location: Not on display