Aubusson Tapestries 
2A, A BKLLEVII.LK CHAIR SKAT 
styles, wherever made—^just as gobelin is a general 
term for large picture tapestries, having supplanted 
the earlier arras, and savonnerie is a general term 
for hand-knotted pile rugs in the French styles. 
That the high-warp loom employed at the Gobe¬ 
lins and at Merton in England was ever used at 
Aubusson is improbable. It is for low-warp work 
that Aubusson is famous. 
But this does not mean that Aubusson tapestries 
are on that account less valuable or perfect. Between 
the finished product of the low-warp and the high- 
warp there is not the slightest difference, and the 
most experienced connoisseur cannot tell them apart. 
In one respect the high-warp is more convenient for 
the weaver. At any stage of the process he can see 
from either front or back a large part of his com¬ 
pleted work, and thus compose color effects freely on 
a large scale. That is why in the Golden Age of 
tapestry weaving the high-warp was preferred for the 
more important tapis series a personnages (tapestries 
into which human figures were introduced). But for 
verdure tapestries and furniture coverings, the low- 
warp has always been faster and more accurate. And 
since the eighteenth century improvements of Vau- 
canson and Neilson, and other nineteenth century 
improvements, its superiority is even more marked. 
Illustration No. la shows an Aubusson back in the 
style of Louis XVI. The ribs that are a distin¬ 
guishing feature of most varieties of tapestry, are 
seen to run vertically with the subject of the minia¬ 
ture picture. In wall tapestries the ribs are horizon¬ 
tal, almost without exception. In furniture tapestries 
the ribs are either vertical or horizontal as is most 
convenient for the weaver. The coverings with ver¬ 
tical ribs are more durable. 
The warp of the tapestry before us is of wool; the 
2B, RHVKRSK OF BELr.HVTI.LH CHAIR SKAT 
weft is of silk and wool, silk being used for the 
lighter colors. Personally I prefer the tapestry cov¬ 
erings of the Renaissance period, which were made 
principally of wool; for wool seems to he the mate¬ 
rial that best adapts itself to the technique of tapestry 
weaving. But the coverings most popular to-day 
are those in the styles of the eighteenth century— 
Louis XV. and Louis XVI.—the light colors of which 
can be secured only in silk. Consequently silk is 
the chief constituent of Aubusson seats and hacks. 
Illustration No. ib shows the reverse of No. la. 
Notice that the pattern is reversed in direction— 
runs from right to left instead of from left to right, 
as in the face—and that the loose threads make all 
sorts of angles with the warp. In broches, such as 
Belleville and Nimes tapestries, the floats on the 
hack are all parallel with the weft—that is to say 
perpendicular to the warp. 
If you want to be quite sure quickly whether a 
covering is real Aubusson, look at the hack. It 
will be covered with loose threads —not parallel — 
that mark the transition of bobbin or flute from 
section to section of the same color. If the loose 
threads are shaved off, the back will he exactly like the 
face, except that the pattern^is reversed in direction. 
Here we have a distinguishing feature of all real 
tapestries—the face and the hack are alike, every 
grain of color on the face being matched by a similar 
grain of color on the back exactly opposite. Most 
tapestries are woven from the back, and all tapestries 
are woven in plain weave—that is to say, with com¬ 
plete alternation of warp and weft threads—and the 
weft is not thrown all the way across the loom, but 
only as far as the particular section or spot of color 
is wide—sometimes no more than two warps. Of 
course the more complicated the design, the smaller 
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