In 1663, during the lavish reign of Louis XIV, Les Gobelins factory was founded in Paris employing over 800 artisans in the production of tapestries for the royal court. Other European countries followed, opening factories on behalf of their rulers. They employed Flemish weavers who by now had to complete a twelve year apprenticeship. Louis XIV's estate inventory at his death listed 2,155 Gobelins tapestries. Henry VIII's collection totalled over 2,000 in seventeen royal residences.

Rococco landscapes were popular in the 18th century typified by the designs of Francois Boucher (1703-70), director of the royal workshops at Beauvais for 30 years. His cartoons produced over 400 tapestries.

During the French Revolution the social changes of the times so decimated the tapestry market that the French Directory ordered 190 be burnt in 1797 rather than retain them for their value complete. They considered the gold and silver threads to have greater value. A positive development of this period however was the invention of the Jacquard mechanical loom in Flanders in 1804. It processed perforated cards, like pianolas or like early IBM computers, which fed the coloured yarns to the shuttle. It enabled tapestries to become accessible to a wider market and it still forms the basis of the techniques used today.

By the late 1800's the Gobelins dyeworks produced a colour range of 14,000 tones. Producing tapestries with such detailing had not surprisingly become very expensive. Furthermore little creativity existed with most pieces being based on earlier designs.

Modern tapestry weaving owes much to the vigour and freedom bought by the Arts and Crafts Movement headed by William Morris in England. He revived many old crafts; tapestry weaving being one of the beneficiaries of his fresh vision and creative energy. He visited French weavers in 1878 and described the workshops at Aubusson as 'a decaying commercial industry of ..rubbish'. A year later he had a high-warp loom built in his bedroom where he taught himself to weave from an 18th century French craft manual. With colleagues and friends he designed tapestries, like the Woodpecker, based on medieval styles and techniques. The weavers at Morris and Co. achieved commercial success and , more importantly revived the ailing craft.

Today few tapestries are hand-woven. Most are reproductions of originals in museums. Modern yarns and techniques allow us to enjoy superlative copies of works of art at affordable prices (often cheaper than a framed print). Nonetheless, much work is still required to produce these, especially in the design processes. The selected design and its colouring has to be transposed onto the cartoon with one square representing each single stitch. A series of up to 36,000 Jacquard perforated cards are prepared for each tapestry: these determine the movement of each warp yarn intertwining with the weft yarns. Fortunately some use can be made of computers to reduce the time involved but much skill and experience is still required. The weavers match the yarn colours from a selection of about 1,000 shades. The loom is threaded with about 12,000 horizontal warp threads which are placed in the correct order on the loom and passed through the eye of each of the corresponding 12,000 vertical loom heddles. Smaller tapestries utilize cotton (with rayon) for its fine detailing whilst larger ones introduce wool for greater fullness and richness. Once an acceptable trial result has been achieved the weaving can commence, supervised by a fully apprenticed weaver.

We offer hundreds of such designs, often in several sizes, from many European weavers. Some tapestries have matching cushion covers too. These art heirlooms of the future are a wonderful feature in any home. Catalogues are available and we are always glad to discuss your particular requirements.