Statistics. brought Vanrobais from Holland, 
—Y~" tent, and settled him and his wor 
Of the Ga- 
belins ta- 
pestry. 
71s 
ted him a 
en at Abbeville. 
a this t, which was dated in October 1669, Van- 
is obliges himself to set on foot thirty woollen looms, 
with as many fulling-mills as should be necessary, -and 
procure fifty Dutch workmen to be employed in the 
manufactory. Encou ents and privilages: similar 
to those granted to C u, were bestowed on him. 
In 1681, having punctually fulfilled his ents, 
he obtained a renewal of his patent for fifteen * amy 
on condition of setting up fifty looms instead of thirty 
In 1698, a third renewal was granted for ten years, to 
the brothers and sons of the projector, who now 
eighty looms in their manufactory. In 1708, the looms 
exceeded a hundred ; and there were about six hundred 
men, women, and children, employed upon the spot, 
in picking the wool, winding, warping, weaving, shear~ 
ing, &c. At this time, a fourth patent was granted, 
in which the King gave permission to all noblemen to 
enter into partnership, without derogation to their titles 
or honour; and, to encou the sale of these and 
other French woollen in Turkey, he advanced 
money to the merchants of Marseilles out of his trea- 
nll to be repaid after the return of their ships from 
urkey. 
8. We have already mentioned, that Henry IV. esta- 
blished a manufacture of tapestry in the suburbs of the 
metropolis, but that it does not seem to have succeeded. 
This manufacture was revived with more success by 
Colbert: it obtained the name of Gobelines, because 
the house where the manufacture is carried on was 
built by two brothers, whose names were Gobelines, 
who first brought to Paris the secret of the beautiful 
searlet dye, which has preserved their name, as has 
also the fittle river Bievre, upon whose banks they first 
settled. Colbert purchased the ground from these bro- 
thers, for the purpose of establishing there a manufac- 
ture of tapestry, similar to that of Flanders. He was 
particularly anxious on this point, in order that he 
might procure suitable furniture for the royal palaces, 
which he had rebuilt and ornamented, particularly the 
Louvre and Thuilleries. With this view, he collected 
er some of the most able workmen in the cn i 
dom, in all sorts of manufactures and arts, particularly 
painters, tapestry-weavers, engravers, goldsmiths, and 
workers in ebony. The tapestry-weavers were pro- 
cured from Flanders ; separate superintendants of the 
raised and of the smooth tapestries were appointed ; 
and another Fleming was vested with the management 
of the wool-dyeing department. The manufacture of 
tay ies commenced in 1663, but did not flourish till 
1066, when it was endowed with many privileges, and 
denominated, in the edict, the Royal Manufactory of 
the Crown Furniture. At length, the celebrated ter 
Le Brun was appointed chief director of the Gobelin 
manufactures, to which he communicated that beauty 
and grandeur, which his admirable talents were so 
well calculated high pag pelted ta ies were 
brought to a high state of ection during the ad- 
Seinieerallag of Colbert and Louvois. "During the 
administration of the fomer, Alexander's battles, the 
four seasons, the four elements, and the history of 
the principal acts of Louis XIV. from his iage to 
his first conquest of Franche Compté, were wrought 
at the Gobelines, from the designs of Le Brun. Lou- 
Vois caused tapestries to be made, during his admi- 
nistration, after the most beautiful originals in the 
king’s cabinet of Raphael, Julio Romano, and other fa- 
mous painters in the schools of Italy, which were first 
FRANCE. 
as La Fosse, the two Coypels, Jouvenet, 
erson, &c. The at one pe- 
riod, adecline. Great abuses had into. 
it; to remedy which, and revive the establishment,. 
many committees were held at the house of M. Fagon, 
the ier, in 1787. At this time also considerable 
improvements were made in ing 
secon! see Pae nation, and are also 
— sree Bsns. sae 
used in the tapestries are d in a 
manufactory appropriated to that Lag 
riety of tints and shades, which are The ma~ 
terials are ready spun wools from the south of France, 
and the silks of Lyons. 
4, Louis XIV. seems to have been particularly anxious 
Venice, and the king, for their encouragement, 
the directors and proprietors many privileges Eaton 
munities, and supplies of money. He was not, however, 
disheartened by his failure at but by. verance 
at length succeeded to such a degree, that the glass 
manufactured at St Gobins was superior to that of 
Venice, both in quality and quantity. In order. to fa- 
cilitate and secure a good market for this manufacture, 
Louis, by an edict, laid a duty upon foreign glass im-— 
rted into France to such an amount, as nearly to pro« 
ibit it; and a few years afterwards, finding that the 
home manufacture had still need of further ion 
and encou ent, he absolutely prohibited the im- 
portation of foreign glass. One circumstance in par- 
ticular seems to have retarded the establishment and 
progress of this manufacture at first. We have already 
mentioned, that in the reign of Henry II. and Henry 
IV. it was ap oo in the ig stage 3 vicinity of the 
metropolis; the consequence was a sci 
wood was felt; and it was removed inte the neigh- 
bourhood of a large forest, with the advantage of a 
. This forest was. 
that of St Gobins, whence the manufacture took its_ 
river, to ease the expence of carriage. 
name. The whole is situated at the of a small 
hill, close to the vi of St Gobin, near La Fere and 
Chaumy, two towns in Picardy. The very white sand 
used in the manufacture is 
bourhood of Creil, a place 11 distant from Pa- 
ris: the glasses are sent by water to the 
af are polished and silvered.| 
those which we have just mentioned. By an edict 
of the 19th of October 1688, he granted to Noel de 
Varennes different immunities, to encourage him to 
on the manufacture of Drap de Londres, or cloth 
e in imitation of what was sent from London to 
Turkey, in the province of Languedoc, Afterwards 
that province was obliged to furnish Magi and his part~ 
ners with 30,000 livres to on the same manufac- 
ture at Clermont and Sette. It also appears by another 
edict that this Monarch yearly appropriated a million 
of livres, exclusive of ind: ces In the customs, to en« 
and reward skilful masters and artificers, who un- 
Pac to set up fabrics of cloth, silk, camel and 
pu , as it would 
be otherwise very difficult to procure the infinite va~. 
_ of. 
brought from the neigh- _ 
capital, where - 
V. encouraged other manufactures besides - 
Glass 
nufacture 
at St Gow 
bins. 
