In 1872, a photographer from the South Kensington Museum – now the Victoria and Albert – travelled to France to take pictures of the Bayeux tapestry, the most famous piece of medieval art in the world.
Photography was in its infancy and the images of the 70-metre (230ft) work depicting the 1066 invasion of England by William the Conqueror and the Battle of Hastings, including the killing of King Harold, were produced on glass plates and coloured by hand, a process that took two years.
At some point in the subsequent 150 years, one of the six photographic reproductions found its way into the hands of the Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts, who died in 2021. Now it is with the tapestry, which has been displayed for centuries in the Normandy town of Bayeux.
The Bayeux Museum acquired the lifesize Victorian replica of the tapestry, presented on two original oak supports 140cm tall, for just £16,000 last year at an auction of Watts’s private collection. It has only now made the purchase public.
Clémentine Paquier-Berthelot, of the museum, said the object was the longest panoramic photograph of the 19th century and was not only a precious historical artefact but a vital tool in tracking the deterioration of the tapestry. She said only three examples of the copy were believed to still exist: one in a private collection in Wales, a second that is in storage at the V&A, and the one owned by Watts.
“It’s extremely rare and in a very good state for its age and the price was much lower than we expected,” Paquier-Berthelot said. “As well as its heritage value as the first photographic document of the tapestry and a faithful reproduction of it at the time, we are able to use it to track the deterioration and alterations to the tapestry.”
In 2018 it was reported that the French president, Emmanuel Macron, had agreed to lend Britain the tapestry when the Bayeux Museum closed for renovations, a promise greeted with scepticism by museum officials six years ago.
A museum spokesperson confirmed to the Guardian that the tapestry would not be crossing the Channel or going anywhere else because of its fragile state.
Paquier-Berthelot said: “Unfortunately, we can see that the first scenes and the last have deteriorated in the last 150 years.”
The photographs took two months to complete and were then painted by artists from the National Art Training School in London, who worked next to the tapestry in Bayeux to ensure the colours they used were as near as possible to the original. The completed “reels” were presented at the Universal Exhibitions in London in 1873 and Chicago in 1893 and were the first images of the tapestry circulated around the world to be later reproduced on cards and posters.
It is not known when Watts acquired the rare reel. The V&A, which has been a partner to the Bayeux Museum since 2022 to collaborate on studying the tapestry, still has the 180 glass photographic plates taken in 1872.
As part of a €35m (£30m) renovation of the Bayeux Museum, which will close towards the end of 2025, a new building will be constructed to improve the conservation and presentation of the tapestry, which is owned by the French state. The museum is expected to reopen in 2027, the 1,000th anniversary of the birth William the Conqueror, when the photographs, bought for the museum with state and regional funding, will be put on display with the tapestry.
The Bayeux tapestry, which is in fact an embroidery using wool yarn on woven linen, is 50cm tall (20in) and is listed as a world heritage object by Unesco. It weighs 350kg (772lb) and comprises 58 scenes, 25 of which take place in France and 33 in England, including 10 depicting the Battle of Hastings and the fatal shooting of England’s King Harold in the eye with an arrow.
“The tapestry is not simply the narration of a military operation; it is also a spiritual relic that describes how the breach of an oath is punished,” the museum said.
It has been on display at the museum since 1982 and attracts about 400,000 visitors every year.
In the late 19th century, a group of Victorian embroiderers made a reproduction of the Bayeux tapestry that is displayed at Reading Museum.
