House and Garden 
will be the blocks of color, the oftener the weaver 
will have to change bobbins, and the more loops of 
loose thread will there be. 
Illustration No. 2a shows a Belleville chair seat, 
made partly by hand and partly by machine. Illus¬ 
tration No. 2b shows the reverse of No. 2a. The 
broche threads that float loose on the back—being 
tied down in tapestry point on the face, where they 
form the pattern, as seen in No. 2a—are extra wefts 
put in by hand. 
Illustration No. 3a shows a Nimes chair back that 
is made entirely by machine, but that is by no means 
to be despised, or to be regarded as merely an imita¬ 
tion. 
It has a technique and quality of its own, and 
an individual beauty. Illustration No. 3b shows the 
reverse of No. 3a. As the reader will discover on com¬ 
paring illustrations Nos. ib, 2b, 3b, it is easy by the 
backs for even a novice to tell a Belleville from a 
Nimes tapestry, and both from an Aubusson. 
A fundamental distinction between them and an 
Aubusson is that they are of uneven thickness, while 
the Aubusson is of the same thickness in every part. 
In the former the figures are produced by extra weft 
threads superposed upon the ground—put in by hand 
in the Belleville type, by the jacquard attachment in 
the Nimes type. In Aubusson and all real tapestries 
the ground stops where the figures begin. In real 
tapestries, too, open slits are usually left between col¬ 
ors that meet parallel with the warp. The presence 
of these slits is easy to detect, even after they have 
been sewed up, which is usual. 
The surface of the real Aubussons is fascinating, 
especially of those that have been woven with woolen 
warp stretched not too tight. The ribbed surface 
curls and twists just enough to give wonderful variety 
of light and shade and texture, and to set this apart 
from all the other arts. 
Of the Belleville and Nimes tapestries the surface 
is more regular. Some of the Nimes tapestries have 
the ground in silk of satin weave, but the more inter¬ 
esting ones have the ground in wool. 
Whether we accept the story of the Saracen foun¬ 
dation of the industry at Aubusson, or not, it is cer¬ 
tain that tapestry weaving there and at Felletin, 
seven miles distant, is of great antiquity. Possibly 
it dates back to the time when the Roman Empire 
still ruled the civilized world—possibly still farther 
back, to the period before Caesar conquered the 
country, as told in his famous Commentaries so dili¬ 
gently studied and so little understood by schoolboys. 
At any rate, the people of the country, theLemovices 
and the Arverni, fought under Vercingetorix, whose 
defeat ended the independence of Gaul. And in 
1664, the tapestry merchants and weavers of Aubus¬ 
son in a report to the king on the condition of the 
manufacture, declared that it had been “ established 
from time immemorial, no person knowing the insti¬ 
tution of it.” 
{To be continued in December issue.) 
^A, A NIMKS CHAIR RACK, FLORAL DESIGN 3 R, REVERSE OF NIMES CHAIR RACK 
152 
