TAPESTRY, a curious kind of manufacture, serving to adorn a chamber or other apartment, by covering or lining the walls thereof. It is a kind of woven hangings of wool and silk, frequently raised and enriched with gold and silver, representing figures of men, animals, landscapes, histories, &c.
The invention of tapestry is said to have come to us from the Levant; and this seems the more probable, in that the workmen concerned in it were called, at least in France, sarrafin, or sarrafinois. It is supposed that the English and Flemish, who were the first that excelled in making tapestry, might bring the art with them from some of the croisades, or expeditions against the Saracens. Be this as it will, it is certain that these two nations, especially the English, were the first who set on foot this noble and rich manufacture in Europe, now one of the finest ornaments of palaces, churches, &c. and therefore, if they may not be allowed the inventors, they have at least the glory of being the restorers of this so curious and admirable art, as gives a kind of life to wools and silks, scarce inferior to the paintings of the best masters.
Tapestry-work is distinguished by the workmen into two kinds, viz. that of high and that of low warp; though the difference is rather in the manner of working than in the work itself; which is in effect the same in both: only the looms, and consequently the warps, are differently situated; those of the low warp being placed flat and parallel to the horizon, and those of the high warp erected perpendicularly. The English anciently excelled all the world in the tapestry of the high warp; and they still retain their former reputation, tho' with some little change: their low warps are still admired; but as for the high ones, they are quite laid aside by the French. The French have three considerable tapestry-manufactures, besides that of the Gobelins; the first at Aubusson in Auvergne, the second is at Felletin in the Upper Marche, and the third at Beauvais. They were all equally established for the high and the low warp; but they have all laid aside the high warp excepting the Gobelins. There are admirable low warps in Flanders, generally exceeding those of France; the chief and almost only Flemish manufactures are at Brussels, Antwerp, Oudenard, Lille, Tournay, Bruges, and
The usual widths of tapestries are from two ells to three ells Paris-measure.
The Manufacture of TAPESTRY of the High Warp. The loom whereon it is wrought is placed perpendicularly: it consists of four principal pieces; two long planks or cheeks of wood, and two thick rollers or beams. The planks are set upright, and the beams across them, one at the top, and the other at the bottom or about a foot distance from the ground. They have each their trunnions, by which they are suspended on the planks, and are turned with bars. In each roller is a groove from one end to the other, capable of containing a long round piece of wood, fastened therein with hooks. The use of it is to tie the ends of the warp to. The warp, which is a kind of worsted, or twisted woollen thread, is wound on the upper roller; and the work, as fast as woven, is wound on the lower. Withinside the planks, which are seven or eight feet high, fourteen or fifteen inches broad, and three or four thick, are holes pierced from top to bottom, in which are put thick pieces of iron, with hooks at one end, serving to sustain the coat-stave: these pieces of iron have also holes pierced, by putting a pin in which, the stave is drawn nearer or set further off; and thus the coats or threads are stretched or loosened at pleasure. The coat-stave is about three inches diameter, and runs all the length of the loom; on this are fixed the coats or threads, which make the threads of the warp cross each other. It has much the same effect here as the spring-stave and treddles have in the common looms. The coats are little threads fastened to each thread of the warp with a kind of sliding knot, which forms a sort of mash or ring. They serve to keep the warp open for the passage of brooches wound with silks, woollens, or other matters used in the piece of tapestry. In the last place, there are a number of little sticks of different lengths, but all about an inch in diameter, which the workman keeps by him in baskets, to serve to make the threads of the warp cross each other, by passing them across; and, that the threads thus crossed may retain their proper situation, a packthread is run among the threads above the stick.
The loom being thus formed, and mounted with its warp, the first thing the workman does, is to draw on the threads of this warp, the principal lines and strokes of the design to be represented on the piece of tapestry; which is done by applying cartoons, made from the painting he intends to copy, to the side that is to be the wrong side of the piece, and then, with a black-lead pencil, following and tracing out the contours thereof on the thread of the right side; so that the strokes appear equally both before and behind.
As for the original design the work is to be finished by, it is hung up behind the workmen, and wound on a long staff from which a piece is unrolled from time to time as the work proceeds.
Besides the loom, &c. here described, there are three other principal instruments required for working the silk or the wool of the woof within the threads of the warp; these are a broach, a reed, and an iron-needle.
The broach is made of a hard wood, seven or eight inches long, and two-thirds of an inch thick, ending in a point with a little handle. This serves as a shuttle;
the silks, woollens, gold, or silver, to be used in the work being wound on it.
The reed or comb is also of wood, eight or nine inches long, and an inch thick on the back, whence it grows less and less to the extremity of the teeth, which are more or less apart, according to the greater or less degree of fineness of the intended work. Lastly, the needle is made in form of the common needle, only bigger and longer. Its use is to press close the wool and silks when there is any line or colour that does not fit well.
All things being prepared for the work, and the workman ready to begin, he places himself on the wrong side of the piece, with his back towards the design; so that he works as it were blindfold, seeing nothing of what he does, and being obliged to quit his post, and go to the other side of the loom whenever he would view and examine the piece, to correct it with his pressing-needle. To put silk, &c. in the warp, he first turns and looks at the design; then, taking a broach full of the proper colour, he places it among the threads of the warp, which he brings cross each other with his fingers, by means of the coats or threads fastened to the staff; this he repeats every time he is to change his colour. Having placed the silk or wool, he beats it with his reed or comb; and when he has thus wrought in several rows over each other, he goes to see the effects they have, in order to reform the contours with his needle, if there be occasion. As the work advances, it is rolled upon the lower beam, and they unroll as much warp from the upper-beam as suffices them to continue the piece: the like they do of the design behind them. When the pieces are wide, several workmen may be employed at once.
We have but two things to add: the first is, that the high-warp tapestry goes on much more slowly than the low warp, and takes up almost twice the time and trouble. The second is, that all the difference that the eye can perceive between the two kinds, consists in this, that in the low warp there is a red fillet, about one-twelfth of an inch broad, running on each side from top to bottom, which is wanting in the high-warp.