“The elegant manufacture of tapestry is carried on without Saint Barbe's gate, at the entrance of the promenade of Los Altos, or Chamberi; it was established in 1720 by Philip the Fifth, at whose invitation John Dergoten, of Antwerp, was induced to undertake its superintendence, an office at present filled by his descendants. The productions of this manufactory are carpets and tapestry, the subjects of which are often drawn from fable or history; it sometimes copies pictures executed by superior artists, and affords daily employment to eighty persons, including dyers, drawers, designers, and all its various branches.”—Laborde (about 1800).
[49] Licentiate Gaspar Gutierrez de los Ríos, Noticia general para la estimación de las Artes y de la manera en que se conocen las liberales de las que son mecánicas y serviles.
[50] Riaño estimates them at this number. See his Report on a collection of photographs from tapestries of the Royal Palace of Madrid; London, 1875; and also Tapices de la Corona de España, with 135 plates in phototype, and text by Count Valencia de Don Juan; Madrid, Hauser and Menet, 1903.
[51] Müntz, La Tapisserie, pp. 217, 218. Wauters, Les Tapisseries Bruxelloises, pp. 76, 77. Houdoy, Tapisseries représentant la Conqueste du Royaulme de Thunes par l'empereur Charles-Quint.
[52] See an article on these tapestries by Señor Lamperez y Romea, published in No. 55 of the Boletín de la Sociedad Española de Excursiones; and also Nos. 156 and 157 of the same publication, for an article on the Crown and other Spanish collections, by Elías Tormo y Monzó.
[LACE]
Although the Spaniards have enjoyed, and still enjoy, a widespread fame for lace-making, their written records of this craft are unsubstantial. Originally, perhaps, they borrowed it from the Arabs or Venetians. Certainly, the earliest Spanish lace was such as is made with a needle, that is, point, not pillow lace. In this form, à la aguja, and in the sixteenth century, the Spaniards possibly conveyed the secrets of its manufacture to the Netherlands, receiving from the natives of this country, in exchange, the art of making lace by means of bobbins, including the characteristic “Flemish net,” or red flandés.
Towards the sixteenth century the parts of Spain where lace was manufactured in the largest quantity were some of the Manchegan towns and villages, the coast of Finisterre, and nearly the whole of Cataluña. In La Mancha lace was made, and still is so, at Manzanares, Granatula, Almagro, and other places. That of Almagro (the celebrated punto de Almagro, resembling the lace of Cataluña), is mentioned by nearly all the older travellers. In Don Quixote, Teresa writes to Sancho Panza that their daughter Sanchita was engaged in making bobbin-lace at a daily wage of eight sueldos.
