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By Jack Beresford
Senior Reporter
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A man is convinced he's stumbled upon a medieval English tapestry dating back 700 years in a thrift store in Virginia. Newsweek got an expert's opinion.
Rafi Hoq was browsing the shelves of Savers in Fairfax when he spotted a vivid red tapestry, along with black and gold brass rubbing. He immediately sensed there was something special about them.
"I always tell people that the secret to antiquing is to look out for physical qualities that are unique compared to those of modern counterparts," Hoq told Newsweek. "What drew me in was the massive, intricate and impossibly heavy gold gilt frame. As for the art, the canvas was stained in a brilliant shade of red symbolizing the blood of Christ, which felt intense and graphic. The frame and the design were very unique and unlike anything I've ever seen."
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More specifically, there was something about the stitching of the tapestry that had him convinced he may have just found a diamond in the rough.
"It was unlike anything I've seen," Hoq said. "The way it's stitched is incredibly intricate and requires a lot of skill. The silver and gold thread and the velvet it's stitched on has that rustic quality of a relic which is hard to describe without going to a museum to see one up close."
After doing a little digging, he learned that the tapestry and brass rubbing had come from the "leftovers of a nearby estate sale." Priced at $150, Hoq happily handed over the cash for the tapestry as well $15 for the brass rubbing before taking them home to investigate further.
In the meantime, he turned to social media for help in identifying their potential origins, posting a clip of the two pieces to his TikTok page, goodwillgang.
It was there that, through the combination of comments from a user claiming to have a Master's in Art History, decades of experience as a teacher and museum worker, and Hoq's own research online, he hit upon the potential origin of the tapestry.
Based on what he found online, the tapestry matched the description of Opus Anglicanum, a piece that dates back to somewhere between the 12th and 14th century and was noted for its silk, gold and silver thread.
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The brass rubbing matched the description of a work titled St. Margaret of Antioch, which depicts a medieval English legend about a Christian martyr who was swallowed by a dragon but then escaped.
Hoq hasn't been able to ascertain what the tapestry would be worth, if genuine. "They're all in museums, which actually makes sense since most were destroyed during the reformation," he said. "There are relatively few living examples."
However, he believes Virginia's status as one of the "richest states in America" means it's not impossible that the tapestry is the real deal.
"We're also next to Washington D.C., so there are many well-travelled, well-connected and wealthy residents," he said. "Estate auctions filled to the brim with antiques are a common occurrence. This would be the place to find something like this."
Hailey Widrig, art advisor at Art Partners Advisory, is not so convinced though.
"It would be exciting if this discovery was a 12th century textile but I don't think this is the case," Widrig told Newsweek. "The textile appears to be a reproduction, or perhaps an original work made after the Gothic period, probably a European ecclesiastical textile (17-18th century). The border motifs are not in keeping with Opus Anglicanum work from the 12th or 14th centuries. It looks like thin metallic rope has been applied around the edges of the figures and border on the tapestry, rather than the very fine metallic threadwork we would expect from that period."
She added: "Also, the embroidery on the clothes of the figures in Opus Anglicanum work was usually done in a herringbone pattern and that does not seem to be the case here. It would be interesting to see the reverse side of the textile as well, it looks like it has been attached to fabric that looks like new burlap for support before framing."
Widrig said Hoq would ultimately be best served by getting the piece appraised by either the Appraisers Association of America, American Society of Appraisers or the International Society of Appraisers.
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