TAPESTRY. This name is 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, and used as a lining or covering for the walls of apartments. It is probable that many of the early tapestries were embroidered by hand or worked with the needle: This kind of work, of which the Bayeux tapestry is a cele brated example, was continued long after the practice of weaving tapestry in the loom had become common The 16th century, which was an age of general improvement in France, gave a new impulse to the production of tapestry. Fran cis I. founded the manufactures of Fontaine bleau, in which threads of gold and silver were skilfully introduced into the work. It was, we are informed, with this new impulse that the practice was commenced of weaving tapestry in a single piece, instead of composing it, as. before, of several small pieces joined together. Francis spared no pains in the encouragement of this department of the fine arts. He engaged Flemish workmen, whom he supplied with silk, wool, and other mate rials, and paid liberally for their labour ; and documents exist to prove that he also patron ized the tapestry-makers of Paris. ifertry II., the son and successor of Francis, continued to encourage the manufactory at Fontaine bleau, and established a manufacture of tapestry on the premises of the Hapital de la Trinite, which attained its highest celebrity in the reign of Henry IV., and produced many fine tapestries. In 1594 Du Bourg, the most eminent artist connected with this establish ment, made there the celebrated tapestries of St. Uteri, which were in existence until a recent period ; and these pleased Henry IV. so much, that he determined to re-establish the manufacture of tapestry at Paris, where it had been interrupted by the disorders of the preceding reigns. This he did in 1597, bringing Italian workers in gold and silk to assist in the work. In 1605 were laid the foundations of new edifices for the tapestry weavers, in the horse-market at Paris ; and at that time, or a little later, Flemish work men were engaged to superintend the maim facture. The establishment languished, if it
did not become quite extinct, after the death of Henry IV. ; but when the royal palaces, especially the Louvre and the Tuileries, were receiving their rich decorations, in the reign of Louis XIV., his minister Colbert revived it, mid from that time the celebrated royal tapestry manufactory of the Gobelins dates its origin. Foreign artists and workmen were engaged, laws were drawn up for the protec tion and government of the manufactory, and everything was done to render it, what it has continued to he, the finest establishment of the kind in the world. Le Brun, when chief director of the establishment, made many designs for working after ; and M. de Louvois caused tapestry to be made from some of the finest designs of Raphael, Julio Romano, and other Italian painters. The manufacture declined greatly at the Revolu tion, but was revived under the government of Napoleon, and has ever since been carried on successfully, though by no means to the same extent as formerly.
The introduction of tapestry-weaving into England is usually attributed to a gentleman named Sheldon, late in the reign of Henry VIII. At Burcheston were worked in tapestry, on a large scale, maps of Oxfordshire, Wor cestershire, Warwickshire, and Gloucester shire, some fragments of which were, it is stated, in Walpole's collection at Strawberry Hill. Little snore is known of this establish-. mcnt. James I. endeavoured to revive the manufacture of tapestry by encouraging and assisting in the formation of an establish ment at Mortlake, about 1010, under the management of Sir Francis Crane. James I. gave 20001. towards the formation of this establishment. After the Restoration, Charles II. endeavoured to revive the manufacture, and employed Verrio to make designs for it, but the attempt was unsuccessful. During its period of prosperity, this manufacture pro duced the most superb hangings, after the designs of celebrated painters, with which the palaces of Windsor Castle, Hampton Court, Whitehall, St. James's, Nonsuch, Greenwich, &-c., and many of the mansions of the nobility, were adorned.