tapestry. 
of, till each division was perfected in the 
loom. Vaucanson superadded an easy and 
ingenious mechanism, to examine with 
pleasure the progress of thei work; but 
the manufacture continued to be guided by 
a servile routine.” 
The last director introduced three im- 
provements, which cannot very well be ex- 
plained, but the result has been of great ad- 
vantage in the manner of weaving, and as 
more judgment has been evinced in the se- 
lection of pictures for copying, the style of 
colouring partakes more of the taste of each 
master than when it was the custom to 
make all the tints vivid and gaudy ; besides, as 
they have ceased to use silk, the tapestry is 
much less subject to fade. “ Yet,” adds 
Mr. Pinkerton, “ the colours are suffici- 
ently bright and various to represent, with 
exquisite truth, all tlie fine tints of beautiful 
liowers. It is however to be regretted 
that ffiese splendid tapestries become so 
expensive, from the length of time required 
in the workmanship, that even the rich 
tremble ; and the sale to the government, 
which presents them to distinguished fo- 
reigners, affords the chief if not sole con- 
sumption. The sum annually allowed, to 
support the manufacture in its greatest 
activity, is estimated at one hundred and 
fifty thousand francs.” 
As it is not in our power to obtain the 
precise improvements made in the manner 
of weaving tapestry, we are compelled to 
describe the mode by which that now re- 
maining in England was made, and which is 
undoubtedly the basis of the present method 
in use at the Gobelins. The loom employ- 
ed for this purpose stands perpendicularly, 
and is composed of four principal pieces, 
two of w'hich are long planks, and the 
others rollers or beams of considerable dia- 
meter ; the planks are placed upright, and 
the beams cross them at either extremity 
of the loom, the lower at about twelve 
inches from the fioor, each have trunnions 
which suspend them on the planks, and they 
are turned with bars. The rolleis are 
grooved lengthways, in which ai-e fastened 
long cylinders of wood with hooks ; the use 
of these is to fasten the ends of the warp 
to, the, latter of twisted woollen thread en- 
circles the ^qpper roller, and it is worked as 
last as wove oq the lower. 
The planks already mentioned are seven 
or eight feet in height, from fourteen to fif- 
teen inches broad, and tliree or more in thick- 
ness; their interiorsurfacesare pierced into 
holes the whole length, for the admission of 
tliick pieces of iron with hooks at their 
ends, which are intended to support what is 
called the coat-stave ; tiiose irons are also 
pierced to r eceive pins, by which the stave 
is contracted or expanded at pleasure. The 
coat-stave, three inches in diameter, extends 
the whole length of the loom, and on it are 
fixed the coats or threads, and thus the 
threads to the warp cross each other, in this 
particular having nearly the same effect 
with the Spring-stave and treddles in tlie 
common looms. Tiie coats, as tliey are 
called, are threads tastened to each thread 
of tlie warp by a sliding knot; those keep 
the w^arp open, and thus the broaclies bear- 
ing the material for weaving are passed 
freely through, according to the will of the 
workman ; besides the process is further fa- 
cilitated by small pieces of wood, witich are 
used to make the thread of the warp iuter- 
sect each other, and that those may keep 
their due situation, a packthread is run 
among the threads above the stick. 
. We will now suppose the loom prepared 
with the warp, the operator then proceeds 
to sketch the principal outline on the 
threads composing it from the picture or de- 
sign to be copied, and this is done by 
placing the painting, or a cartoon, on the 
back of the intended tapestry, and tracing 
it with a black-lead pencil; after accom- 
plishing the transfer, the original is rolled 
on a cylinder, and placed behind the work- 
man, who unrolls it in the same progressioir 
with which he weaves. Exclusive of the 
instruments already mentioned, a broach a 
reed, and an iron needle, are required for 
introducing the silk or wool of the woof 
amongst the threads of the warp ; the first 
is about two-tihrds of an inch thick, and 
seven or eight Indies in length, terminating 
at one extremity in a point with the other, 
formed into a kind of handle, and is made of 
hard wood; this broacli, as it is termed, 
serves as a shuttle, the silk, wool, gold, or 
silver tliread being wound on it. Tlie reed 
is a kind ot comb, made of W’ood, eight or 
more inches in length, and an inch thick at ' , 
the back, tapering thence to tlie teeth 
which vary in their distance from each 
other, according to the fineness of the ta- 
pestry. Tiie needle varies from the com- 
mon instrmiient of that name only in its 
size, and its use is to press the material close 
in those pai lx wliere any defect is observed. 
TLhe most singular part ot the weaving of 
tapestry is the position of the weaver who 
works on the wrong side of the piece, and 
with his back to the picture he is to imitate, 
