In 1739 John Pine (1690-1756) published ‘The Tapestry Hangings of the House of Lords’, it is considered by many the finest engraved work produced in England. In celebration of the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588 Robert Adams produced a series of eleven charts which were engraved by Augustine Ryther showing the progress of the battle through the English Channel. Lord Howard of Effingham who had been in charge of the English fleet commissioned a Dutchman Hendrik Cornelius Vroom to design a series of tapestries based on the Adams charts. They were woven by Francois Spierinck from Delft who was paid £743 for the work. The noted eighteenth century engraver John Pine reproduced the tapestries in a series of engravings which he published in 1739. It is one of these which are offered here. The tapestries eventually hung in the House of Lords until they were sadly destroyed by a fire in 1834. ‘It is somewhat poignant that at the opening of the preface, the author explains that ‘because time, or accident, or moths may deface these valuable shadows, which, by being multiplied and dispersed in various hands, may meet with that security from the closets of the curious, which the originals must scarce always hope for, even from the sanctity of the place they are kept in’ (NMM). This third tapestry image depicts the first engagement between the Spanish and the English Fleets. Following this the English gave chase and the Spanish drew themselves up into a roundal. ‘There has also been some attempt made to colour the images, through printing a blue/green finely textured wash over areas of the sea, in a process called mezzotint. This is an early English example of this particular technique’ (NMM). It is decorated with an elaborate border. Almond, Adrian ‘Maps of the Spanish Armada’ IMCoS Journal no. 109 pp. 7-13; Schrire, Jonathan ‘Adams’ & Pine’s Maps of the Spanish Armada’, in Map Collector’s Circle no. 4; Shirley (2004) G.Pin 1b no. 7.