It is not uncommon for early tapestries to be divided up by Gothic pillars and arches after the fashion of a mediaeval folding altar-piece. Sometimes scrolls with explanatory inscriptions run along above and below the scenes. In the latter part of the 15th century a narrow band filled with sprays of flowers began to be used. As the i6th century advanced this inconspicuous border was first elaborated by the addition of ribbons, masks and similar accessories, and then it was widened to include canopies, figures, animals and birds. By the 17th century the border sometimes comes near to being the dominant feature, with historical and emblematical themes, landscapes, heraldry and drapery, or it is architectonic, with base, supporting columns and entablature, en riched with sculpture. In the i8th century the borders tend, as a general rule, to become narrower again ; the imitation of oil paintings imposed upon the weavers by Oudry and his school led to the representation of moulded and gilt picture-frames as borders. Occasionally there was no border except the plain narrow selvedge, the place of the border being supplied by wood panel ling, or other architectural framework.
Tapestries were freely displayed indoors and out of doors at coronations, church festivals, pageants and processions, and on all occasions of ceremony. For domestic purposes they were often carried with the movable household goods as the family migrated during the course of the year from one habitation to another, to enliven the walls, or to be hung on tenter hooks left permanently in the rafters of large halls to facilitate convenient division into smaller apartments when occasion required.
Flemish weavers early took to wandering abroad to places where special inducements were offered for earning a living, and few countries in Europe where tapestry weaving was carried on were able to claim that they owed nothing to such immigrants. Several arrived in England as early as the 14th century, and a high-warp weaver of Arras was met with even in Hungary by a traveller in 1432.
Arras, the most famous tapestry-weaving centre of all, passed from one country to the other in the 15th century. Moreover the dukes of Burgundy, who ruled Flanders with such splendour from 1363 to were members of the royal house of France. High-warp weaving is numbered among the crafts followed in Paris as early as the year 1302, but it is unsafe to assume without question that tapestries ordered or obtained through an agent in Paris were necessarily made there, or even in France.
The known facts concerning the famous tapestries of the Apocalypse in the cathedral of Angers throw light on this problem. The series was begun in the year 1376 for Louis, duke of Anjou. and the panels ultimately passed by bequest to the cathedral of Angers in 1480. The cartoons were prepared by Hennequin de Bruges, and the weaving was started under the supervision of Colin Bataille, citizen, weaver and tapestry-merchant of Paris. Guidance in delineating the scenes was obtained from an illumi nated ms. of the Apocalypse in the library of King Charles V. of France. The ms. (Bibl. nat., Paris, franc. 403) was written at the end of the 12th century, but the scenes were based on an earlier tradition, originating (according to some authorities) as early as the 8th century. The series was added to from time to time until its completion in the 15th century.
The first tapestry factory in France about the origin of which there is definite information was established at Fontainebleau by Francis I. in the year 1535. Its work reflects the Italianate lean ings of French art under that monarch. It is supposed that the weavers of Fontainebleau were transferred to the Hopital de la Trinite at Paris, where tapestry-work was begun under Henry II. Other factories were set up at Paris in the following years, and some outlasted the foundation of the Gobelins factory.
In the provinces, the factory at Aubusson seems to have begun work with the aid of immigrant weavers from Flanders, though at what time is not exactly known. There are records of weaving there from the beginning of the 16th century, but there is no clue to the identification of the tapestries of Aubusson at that time. It is thought possible that the famous tapestries of the "Lady of the Unicorn" from Boussac, now in the Cluny museum at Paris, were woven there. If so, it began well. In the year 1665 the factory at Aubusson was placed under royal patronage, but the standard of craftsmanship there never rivalled that of the royal tapestry factories of Paris, though its work has often shown good decorative qualities. The tapestries of Aubusson at the present day are worthy of the long record of the factory. The tapestry works of Felletin and Bellegarde were largely auxiliary to those of the neighbouring town of Aubusson, and they followed the same tradition. Tapestries were also woven at Reims, Tours, Nancy and Maincy. "Les amours de Gombaut et de Macee," a rhymed story of peasant life of the end of the 15th century, was reproduced several times in tapestry during the two following centuries. Sets are stated to have been woven at Aubusson, Tours and Paris, as well as at Brussels.