HOUSE AND GARDEN 
February, 1912 
tapestry the design is an integral part of the tex¬ 
ture. William Morris, that reviver of craftsman¬ 
ship, calls it “a mosaic of pieces of color made of 
tied threads.” Such work, of course, demands 
hand labor and of an experienced and extremely 
high type. 
This, then, in brief is the fabric which was so 
beautifully and wonderfully developed in Arras, 
in Flanders; in Aubusson and at the Gobelin shops 
in France, and at Mortlake, England. Here art¬ 
ists sent their painted cartoons and the weavers 
worked them into mosaics of colored wool, or 
sometimes silk and gold and silver threads. The 
Gobelin tapestries are still made today, but until 
William Morris established his Merton Abbey 
workshops the tapestry lover had to look to the 
antique, and in most cases this was almost pro¬ 
hibitive in cost; but in general the antiques af¬ 
forded the available supply. Since the greatest 
artists made the models for tapestries — Raphael 
designed cartoons for the Sistine Chapel and 
Charles Le Brun for the Gobelins — there was an¬ 
other factor of value besides rarity, age and diffi¬ 
culty of construction. Only the most wealthy 
could afford such antiques and very few were seen 
outside the most palatial mansions or the homes 
of royalty or in museums. 
So popular became the manufacture of these 
tapestries during the Middle Ages that they were 
used for manifold purposes. Indeed, it is thought 
that the coat of arms which we speak of was once 
the brilliant tapestry woven with the heraldic de¬ 
sign of the warrior, and which he threw over his 
shield as a distinguishing mark in contests. 
The antique tapestries picture many 
curious scenes of hunting and battle and 
incidents from the great epic cycles, and 
it is largely from them that we have ob¬ 
tained such accurate ideas of the man¬ 
ners, customs and apparel of the early 
days. Some of them are very curious, 
with no perspective, and castles, men and 
ships all of a size and superimposed 
upon one another. The backgrounds and 
foregrounds were drawn chiefly from 
conventional themes of curious little 
combinations of leaves and flowers, very 
much like the decorative work of the il¬ 
luminated manuscripts. ■ 
The men who have chosen to revive 
this art of tapestry weaving have more 
to induce them to take up such a work 
than the fact that this appears to be a 
time when patrons can be found to en¬ 
courage it. Not only is the craft one of 
intrinsic merit and highly developed, but 
the works themselves are of real utility. 
Tapestry’s greatest field is in wall dec¬ 
orations and in upholstery. William 
Morris, writing of the lesser arts, advises, 
‘‘Whatever you have in your rooms, think 
first of the walls, for they are that which 
makes your house a home, and if you 
don’t make some sacrifice in their favor 
you will find your chambers have a kind 
of makeshift lodging-house look about 
them however rich and handsome vour 
movables may be. One of the best services of 
tapestry is its accomplishment of the purposes sug¬ 
gested here, and in one of the best ways possible. 
The connotation of such hangings is of itself an 
asset. They suggest manorial halls and fine 
apartments and all the romance of a chivalrous 
age. They are at once picture and background 
with colors that are not hampered by the reflected 
glass of frames. There is no forced arrangement 
or collection of many different odd sizes. The 
hanging itself is decorative, and has the elements 
of design as one of its first considerations. For a 
tapestry does not imitate nature; it translates it 
through convention with ideas of relation and 
position, and thus appeals to the sense of order 
as well as to the imagination. 
With the desire to perpetuate a notable craft, to 
make the finest of hangings and furniture cover¬ 
ings, several artists have gone earnestly to work 
in this country. Artisans from Flanders and 
Aubusson, with the heritage of their fathers’ skill 
and cunning, have been set at work to bring tap¬ 
estry-making up to present requirements. Just 
as Morris, with Burne-Jones’ cartoons, made a 
new English type that had as much vigor and 
strength as the old works had, these men are pro¬ 
ducing an American type. The conventions of the 
old are modified to fit the new; perspective, for in¬ 
stance, is added. There is great care taken in the 
choosing and matching of colors, the combinations 
of few strong tones being preferred to the thou¬ 
sand shades of the effete Louis XIV works. Won¬ 
ders of richness and beauty have been evolved 
after a thoroughgoing study of the art and what it 
offered for present-day conditions. The 
variety of subjects is large, and the most 
prominent schools of the middle ages are 
represented. There are the knights and 
ladies and classical subjects of Flemish 
origin, as well as the panels with their 
scrolls and flowers that we associate with 
the early Gobelins, and those which renew 
the Oriental motives. These are made to 
be hung flat with guimpe or molding bor¬ 
ders or to be framed in with woodwork, or 
they are procurable for hanging from 
hooks. In this last case they may be re¬ 
moved for renovation with little difficulty. 
In writing of tapestries it is but fair to 
mention the machine-made varieties. These 
technically are not true tapestries, for 
threads are carried across the entire work, 
and they are chiefly of cotton—the wool 
threads in a large piece would be too bulky 
if the design were intricate and many 
colors used. At best they are an inferior 
substitute, but have their place if they are 
frankly used as the machine-made variety, 
and do not pretend to be more. There 
are many good designs obtainable in panels 
with designs after the antiques, or in piece 
goods. Landscape effects or foliage in 
various tones are the best of these. They 
are sold by the square yard; the panels 
may be had at prices in the vicinity of 
eight dollars, the piece goods patterns in 
good taste, for considerably less. 
The designs of old masters 
are reproduced 
Such a panel is suitable for rooms decorated in 
the period styles and is framed in molding 
