TAPESTRY (French, Tapisserie ; Italian, Tappe=ria). This name is most commonly applied to the textile fabrics, usually composed of wool or silk, and sometimes enriched with gold and silver, woven or embroidered with figures, landscapes, or ornamental devices, arid used as a lining or covering for the walls of apartments. It is derived from the French " tapis," which is from the Latin " tapetutn," a carpet or covering for a bed or couch. The French "tapir," though generally applied to carpets, is also used to express other figured cloths used as coverings, such as the coverings of tables. Of the use of the word tapestry in this more extended sense, there is an instance in Shakepere'e ' Comedy of Errors,' act iv., sc. I.
Although the loom was employed from the earliest times by the Greeks and Romans for the production of ordinary tissues, its applica tion to the weaving of ornamented or figured fabrics was chiefly Oriental. It is probable that many of the early tapestries were em broidered by hand or worked with the needle. This kind of work, of which the Bayeux tapestry is a celebrated example [Bayeux TAITSTRV], was continued long after the practice of weaving tapestry in the loom had become common. The ornamented curtains of the Jewish taber nacle (Exodus, xxvi., xxxv., xxxvi.), are generally considered to have been embroidered by the needle.
Scanty as are the notices of tapestry in ancient writers, our infor mation respecting it during the middle ages is not much fuller. Jubival (‘ Recherches sur l'Usage et l'Origine dee Tapisseries ') observes that we find females ongaged in working tapestry with the needle from the earliest epochs of the French monarchy. Gregory of Tours, writing towards the close of the Gth century, in his description of the rejoicings which followed the profession of Christianity by Clovis and his people, speaks of the streets being shaded with painted cloths or curtains (relic depict is), and the churches being adorned with hangings; and again, in describing the consecration of the church of St. Denis, he mentions tapestries embroidered with gold and garnished with pearls. The fabrication of tapestry hangings by the loom appears to have been introduced into France, at the earliest, about the 9th century, until which time the needle had been used exclusively in their production ; and long after that period; the two processes were practised concur rently. At this time we often find embroidered cloths enumerated among the decorations of churches. From contemporary notices, it is evident that there was a celebrated manufacture of tapestry at Poitiers as early as 1025. Nor was the manufacture of tapestry confined to
France at this period. The inhabitants of the north of Europe also practised it, and English embroidery was much admired and highly prized on the Continent. In the East also, where the art had been cultivated from the earliest antiquity, fine embroidery was productsd in the llth century. Much of the early Oriental tapestry was adorned with grotesque figures; and long after it became usual to depict natural figures and scenery upon tapestry, such devices were often used in ornamental borders.
In the 12th and 13th centuries the use of tapestry extended greatly. It passed from churches and monasteries, in which it had been used for curtains, palls, altar-cloths, vestments, &e., to the residences of the nobility. The use of tapestry in this way is believed by many writers on the eubject to have been one of the luxuries introduced from the East in consequence of the increased intercourse occasioned Ly the crusades. The crusaders brought accounts of the Oriental practice of covering wallet with prepared and ornamented skins, chiefly those of goats and sheep. These, which were probably at first used of their natural size and shape, were, at a later period, cut into rectangular pieces, about two feet high, and rather less in width, and united by scwiog into very solid and handsome hangings, which were well adapted to resist damp. Such hangings, or leather tapestry, were manufactured much at Venice and Cordova, and were sometimes either gilt all over, or ornamented with gilt devices, in which case they bore the tuune of d'or basane. The Oriental origin of the more ordinary kind of tapestry is indicated by the mane Saracens ur Sararinois, which was frequently applied in France to the early manufacturers. In the following centuries tapestry was not only used to cover the interior walls, but was also employed on great occasions, as for instance on the public entries of princes, to decorate streets, and to impart a joyful appearance to towns and public places. It formed part of the decora tions of festal halls, and was employed to ornament the galleries and other erections required at tournaments. Rich embroidery was also much employed in the decorations of the horses and men who formed the actors in those chivalric amusements; and the brilliant, though often grotesque devices of heraldry, which formed so important a part of the display upon such occasions, afforded extensive employment to the workers of tapestry and other ornamented tissues.