TAPESTRY. 



«)»ii ready to bfgiii, he places himfelf on the wrong fido of 

 the piece, with his back towards the defign ; fo tliat he 

 works, as it were, blindfold, feeing nothing of what he does ; 

 and being obliged to quit his poll, and go to the other 

 fide of the loom, whenever lie would view and examine the 

 piece, to correct it with his prefling-necdle. 



To put any filk, &c. in the warp, he firft turns and 

 looks at his defign ; then taking a broach full of the proper 

 colour, he places it among the threads of tlie warp, wliich 

 he brings acrols each other with his fingers, by means of the 

 coats or threads failened to the llaff : this he repeats every 

 time he is to change his colour. 



The filk, or wool, being placed, he beats it with his reed, 

 or comb ; and when he has thus wrought in feveral rows 

 over each other, he goes to fee the cffedl they have, in 

 order to reform tlje contours with his needle, if there be 

 occafion. 



As the work advances, they roll it up on the lower 

 beam, and unroll as mucli warp, from the upper beam, as 

 fuffices them to continue the piece : the like they do of the 

 defign behind them. When the pieces are wide, feveral 

 workmen may be employed at once. 



We have but two things to add : the firft, that this high- 

 warp tapeftry goes on much more flowly than the low-warp, 

 and takes almoit double the time and trouble. The fecond, 

 that all the difference the eye can obferve between the two 

 kinds confifts in this, that in the low warp there is a red 

 fillet, about one-twelfth of an inch broad, running on each 

 fide from top to bottom-; which is wanting in the high 

 warp. 



ManufaBure of Tapejlry of the Loiu Warp. — The loom, 

 or frame, on which the low warp is wrought, is much like 

 that of the weaver's : the principal parts of it are two 

 ftrong pieces of wood forming the fides of the loom, and 

 bearing a beam, or roller, at each end : they are fuftained at 

 bottom with other ftrong pieces of wood, in manner of 

 treftles ; and to keep them the firmer, they are likewife 

 faftened to the floor with a kind of buttreftes, wliich prevent 

 any (baking, though there are fometimes four or five work- 

 men leaning on the fore-beam at once. 



The rollers have each their trunnions, by which they are 

 fuftained : they are turned by large iron pins three feet long. 

 Along each beam runs a groove, in which is placed a iv'ich, a 

 piece of wood of about two inches diameter, and almoft of 

 the length of the roller : this piece fills the groove entirely, 

 2nd is l^ftened in it, from fpace to fpace, by wooden pins. 

 To the two wiches are faftened the two extremities of the 

 warp, which is wound on the farther roller ; and the work, 

 as it advances, on the nearer. 



Acrofs the two fides, almoft in the middle of the loom, 

 paffes a wooden bar, which fuftains little pieces of wood, 

 not unlike the beam of a balance : to thefe pieces are 

 faftened ftrings, which bear certain fpring-ftaves, with which 

 the workman, by means of two treddles, under the loom on 

 which he fets his feet, gives a motion to the coats, and makes 

 the threads of the warp rife and fall alternately. Each loom 

 has more or fewer of thefe fpring-ftaves, and each ftaff" 

 more or fewer coats, as the tapeftry confifts of more or 

 fewer threads. 



The defign or painting, the tapeftry-man is to follow, is 

 placed underneath the warp ; where it is fuftained from 

 fpace to fpace with ftrings, by means of which the defign is 

 brought nearer the warp. 



The loom being mounted, there are two inftruments ufed 

 in working of it : w'z. the reed, and the flute. The flute 

 does the office of the weaver's (huttle ; it is made of an hard 

 polifhed wood, three or four lines thick at the ends, and 



fomewhat more in the middle, and three or four inchcj lonp. 

 On it are wound the filks, or other matters, to he ufed a> 

 the woof of the tapeftry. The comb or reed is of wood or 

 ivory ; it has ufually teeth on both fides ; it is about an inch 

 thick in the middle, but diminillies each way to thi- ex- 

 tremity of the teeth : it ferves to beat th<- threads of the 

 woot clofe to each otlier, as faft as the workman lias pafted 

 and placed them with his flute among tiie threads of tiie 

 warp. 



The workman is feated on a bench before tiie loom, with 

 his breaft againft th<- beam, only a eiilhion or pilloW between 

 them ; and, in this pofture, feparating, with his fingers, the 

 threads of the warp, that he may fee the defign under- 

 neath, and taking a flute, mounted with a proper colour, 

 he pafl'ea it among the tlireads, after having raifed or 

 lowered them, by means of the treddles moving the fpring- 

 ftaves and coats. 



Laftly, To prefs and clofe the threads of the filk or yarn, 

 &c. thus placed, he ftrikes each courfe (/'. e. what the 

 flute leaves in its paffing and coming back again) with the 

 reed. 



What is very remarkable in the manufafture of the low 

 warp, is, that it is all wrought on the wrong fide ; fo that 

 the workman cannot fee the right fide of his tapeftry, till 

 the piece be finiftted and taken out of the loom. 



M. Le Blon, in endeavouring to 'iw the true harmony of 

 colouring in painting, found that all vifible objefts may be 

 reprefented by the three primitive colours, red, yellow, and 

 blue ; becaufe out of thefe, all others, even black itfelf, 

 may be compounded. 



From the principle of producing any vifible objeft with 

 a fmall number of colours, and from obferving the com- 

 pounded colours wliich were reflected from two pieces of filk 

 of different colours, placed near to one another, he arrived 

 at the fliill of producing in the loom all that the art of paint- 

 ing requires. In weaving, indeed, he hath been obliged to 

 make ufe of white and black threads, befides red, yellow, 

 and blue ; and tliough he found that he was able to imitate 

 any pifture with thefe five colours, yet for cheapnefg and 

 expedition, and to add a brightnefs where it was required, 

 he found it more convenient to make ufe of feveral inter- 

 mediate degrees of colours. 



In his new way of weaving tapeftry in the loom with a 

 draw-boy, it may be performed almoft as expeditioufly as 

 fine brocades ; for when the loom is once fet and mounted, 

 any common draught-weaver, unacquainted with drawing or 

 painting, and indeed hardly knowing what figure he is about, 

 may exaftly produce what the painter hath reprefented in 

 the original pattern : and thus a piece of tapeftry may be 

 woven ni a month or two, which, in the common way of 

 working, would take up feveral years \ and what in the 

 common way cofts a thoufand pounds, may, by tliis mcana, 

 be afforded f-ner and better for a hundred. 



The main fecret of this confills in drawiiig the patterns, 

 from which any cominon draught-weaver can mount the 

 loom ; and when that is done, llie piece may be made of any 

 fize, by only widening the reeds and the warp : and a re- 

 verfe may be made with the fame cafe ; wliich is done by the 

 boy's puOing the lafties up again in the fame order in which 

 he pulled them down before : by which contrivance the 

 tapeftry may be fuited to any room, whether the light comes 

 in on the right, or on tiie left. The patterns are painted 

 upon paper, on which are printed fquores from copper, 

 plates, and thefe fubdiN-ided by as many lines aa anfwer to 

 the threads of the warp, which run lengthwife ot the piece ; 

 then they try how m.any threads of the {hoot anfwer in 

 breadtk to every fubdiyifion of the fquwes. Every tiircad 

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