Cuno van den Steene (NL) – tapestry ‘The Grailknights’, 1949

Cuno van den Steene (NL) had designed 35 designs for gobelins, all carried out at hand weaving and tapijtknoperij Edmond de Cneudt (1937-1984) in Soest/Baarn. This gobelin from 1949 depicts the encounter of Kundry and Parsival in Klingsor’s magical garden with in the background the Grail Castle. Parsival is one of the Knights of the legendary King Arthur. His life story is described at the beginning of the 13th century by Wolfram von Eschenbach in the book Parzival. This tapestry is shown in a sales exhibition at the Rotterdam Art Circle of 22 april to 14 May 1950. The sale price then was FL. 1800,-. For the weaving of this piece Edmond de Cneudt has contracted the Paris handweaver A. Chargelègue. He is a specialist working on the haute-lisse-loom. This tapestry was purchased by the firm Allan in Rotterdam. Literature : Brouwer, Gerard, Weaving in Soest, Baarn and hand weaving and tapijtknoperij Edmond de Cneudt (1937-1984), in: Flehite, historical Yearbook for Amersfoort and surroundings , dl. 9 (2008), p. 74-95.