House and Garden 
Flemish tapestry 9 feet 9 by 15 feet, that was sold at the Stanford White sale to T. J. Coolidge, |r., for $1,825. It f> as been 
considerably repaired, the foliage in the upper right hand corner being entirely new. A very interesting composition. Apparently 
the people of the town are endeavoring to persuade the besieger to raise the siege. 
House and Garden I shall endeavor to till up some 
of the gaps, and co-ordinate facts the significance of 
which has never been set forth in print. 
In the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 
if you ask for tapestry the attendant will at once con¬ 
duct you to the real thing—Flemish and Gobelin 
tapestries of the most interesting type, among them 
the incomplete set of arras presented by Mr. Morgan. 
All are picture tapestries with weft surface of wool and 
silk -the silk being used for the high lights in the 
finer pieces—and occasionally gold or silver thread. 
The tapestry center of the world to-day is the 
Gobelins in Paris, a state institution, under the direc¬ 
tion of M. |ules Guiffrey, to whom I am indebted 
for innumerable kindnesses. The Gobelins is not 
merely a State factory for the preservation of an art, 
that otherwise would probably have been lost; it is 
museum, library, school and workshop in one. 
Here come visitors from all parts of the world to 
see the collection of famous old tapestries and to 
watch the weavers at their looms. Here is a library 
of over six hundred books on tapestry, to which I owe 
much. Here is a school of design for apprentices 
who are to maintain the traditions of a glorious past. 
I he famous atelier was established by decree of 
Louis XIV. in 1667. The name comes from the 
family of jean Gobelin, a dyer who settled on the 
banks of the Bievre in 1440. Here, in 1601, at the 
invitation of Henri IV., two Flemish weavers, Marc 
de Comans and Francois de la Planche, set up tapes¬ 
try looms to which Louis XIV’s minister, Colbert, 
sixty years later, added various artisans from other 
parts of Paris, as well as those from Foucquet’s 
looms at Maincy, whence also came Charles Le 
Brun, who was appointed the first director of the 
“furniture factory of the Crown.” 
Among tapestries designed and woven under the 
direction of Le Brun are: The Triumph and the 
Marriage of Constantine, the History of Meleager, 
the Elements, the Seasons, the History of the King, 
the Child Gardeners, the Months or Royal Resi¬ 
dences, the History of Alexander. In the History of 
the King are celebrated all the important events of 
the first twelve years of the reign of Louis XIV.— the 
Baptism of the Dauphin, the Consecration, the Mar¬ 
riage, the Swiss Alliance, the Satisfaction given by 
Spain, the Audience of the Embassador, the Doge of 
Venice at Versailles, the Foundation of the Invalides, 
the Visit of Louis XIV. to the Gobelins, the Reduc¬ 
tion of Dunkirk, of Dole, of Marsal, of Douai, of 
Lille, of Tournai. Everything was done to make 
the suite magnificent. These tapestries were to 
