Several other tapestry manufactories existed in Paris from the early days of the Gobelins, and a new kind of tapestry-carpet called the Savonnerie—a kind of velvet carpet made in imitation of the Oriental Turkey-stitch, was introduced into France under the patronage of Henri IV. (1580-1610), the looms being set up in the Louvre. This carpet manufactory was united to the Gobelins factory in 1826.
At Beauvais a celebrated manufactory of low warp tapestry has been in existence from early times, and though some of the Beauvais compositions are equal to the high warp productions of the Gobelins, the work as a rule consists of a smaller and more ornamental character of design.
Rheims, Aubusson, and Felletin have also been centres of the French tapestry industry. Aubusson carpets and tapestry have been noted for their soft and delicate textures, and have been used very much for furniture upholstery.
Italy has produced some good storied tapestry in the sixteenth century (Fig. 275), but has been more celebrated for its velvets, &c.
England has been content to import more tapestry than it has ever manufactured, although many important works have been executed at different times in this country. Probably the earliest piece of genuine English tapestry is that which still adorns the old St. Mary’s Hall or Council-chamber in Coventry, and may have been made in the fourteenth, or early fifteenth, century.
In the laws of Edward IV. (1344) tapestry making is mentioned, and in the reign of Henry VIII., and the year 1509, Sheldon and Hicks set up a tapestry manufactory at Barcheston in Warwickshire.
Fig. 275.—Dismissal of Hagar and Ishmael by Abraham; Italian Tapestry; Sixteenth Century.
The most important tapestry works were those set up at Mortlake, near London, in the reign of James I., by Francis Crane, and which were liberally supported by James and his son Charles I. During the reign of the latter monarch the Mortlake works furnished a great many important hangings for the royal palaces of Windsor, Hampton Court, Greenwich, and St. James’s, among which were the reproductions of the celebrated cartoons of Raphael, which Charles I. had purchased from Brussels. Some of these tapestries are now preserved in the “Garde Meuble” at Paris. Mythological subjects, framed with rich borders, were designed by Francis Cheyne, a native of Saxony, who was the principal artist employed at the Mortlake works. During the wars of the Commonwealth the factory was closed, but was re-opened at the Restoration of Charles II., who passed some Acts for the encouragement of English tapestry making, and put restrictions on the great importations of foreign tapestries. The latter king employed Verrio the painter to make designs for the Mortlake textiles. On the death of Francis Crane, the founder, in 1703, the works were finally closed.
Unimportant tapestry works were in existence at Soho and Fulham about the middle of the eighteenth century. Another attempt at tapestry weaving was made by a French Protestant refugee named Passavant, who established a factory at Exeter about the end of the seventeenth century, and of late years there has been an attempt made to carry on tapestry weaving at Windsor under the patronage of Her Majesty.