TAPESTRIES Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2016 https://archive.org/details/tapestriesOOwmba “"IPS* \ p yv-'- The modern tapestries in this hook, including the Late Gothic Hunt- ing Scene illustrated in color on the opposite page, were woven on our own looms at Williamsbridge. The ancient ones were pur - chased by us in Europe, and are on exhibition and sale at our showrooms, 715 Fifth Avenue, New York, and 602 South Michigan Avenue, Chicago. TAPESTRY was the first word in decorative textiles. It is also the last. When primitive man wished to make fig- ured stuffs on his crude loom, he wove tapestry because it was easiest. At the Gobelins, Beauvais, Aubusson, Merton, and Williamsbridge, tapestry is still woven slowly and pa- tiently by hand, because no jacquard product can successfully imitate its wonderful texture. The origin of tapestry, it is vain to seek. It long antedates all written records. It marks the beginning of civilization. It was tapestry that Penelope wove while waiting for the return of Ulysses, unravelling at night what she had ac- complished by day, in order to postpone the completion of the piece, which she had promised should be the signal for her to accept the suit of one of the royal wooers. At the time of Hector’s death, Andromache was weaving for him a shroud in tapestry. When Iris summoned Helen of Troy to witness the combat between Menelaus and Paris: Her in the palace at her loom she found; The golden web her own sad story crowned, The Trojan wars she weaved (herself the prize) And the dire triumphs of her fatal eyes. While no Homeric tapestries have been preserved, there are in the Museum of the Hermitage in St. Petersburg several Greek specimens dating from 400 B. C. Like other ancient fabrics they were preserved by burial, the grave being as kind to inanimate objects as it is fatal to the animate ones. They were found in the Tomb of the Seven Brothers on the northeast shore of the Black Sea. The ornament is simple, in one case floral, in another a repeat of ducks with outspread wings. When the Romans absorbed Greece and Greek art, tapestry Copyright, IQ12, by Wm. Baumgarlen b* Co. All rights reserved weaving continued in favor. The most definite and interest- ing ancient description of the process is given by Ovid. The goddess Pallas Athene — from whom the city of Athens was named — has been challenged by the mortal Arachne to a trial of skill. Straight to their posts appointed both repair, And fix their threaded looms with equal care; Around the solid beam the web is tied, While hollow canes the parting warp divide; Thro’ which with nimble flight the bobbins play, And for the weft prepare a way; The weft and warp unite, pressed by the toothy slay. ****** Pallas in figures wrought the heav’nly Pow’rs, And Mars’s Hill among th’Athenian Tow’rs. On lofty Thrones twice six Celestials sate, Jove in the midst, and held their warm debate; The Subject weighty and well known to Fame, From whom the city should receive its name. The subject of Arachne’s tapestry was the Loves of the Gods. Her work was so obviously superior that the goddess struck her and changed her into a spider, bidding her weave on for- ever. Between the tapestries of Ancient Greece and Rome, and the Gothic ones of the Fourteenth Century, a long period of darkness intervenes. The Coptic and Byzantine and Sa- racenic tapestries of the Middle Ages were of the same primi- tive type as Ancient Peruvian and Modern Mexican and Navajo tapestries. The weaving of elaborate pictures was an art that had to be re-discovered and re-developed. Of all the magnificent sets of tapestries that written records show were woven in the Fourteenth Century, only one has Charles Lebrun s “ Feast of Bacchus," a Superb Louis XIV Gobelin Tapestry survived — the Apocalypse set at the Cathedral of Angers. Originally there were 90 scenes on 7 pieces 18 feet high with a combined width of 472 feet — 944 square yards in all. Some of the scenes contain more than 25 personages. Today the height is only 14 feet and the total width 328 feet. The floriated bands at top and bottom, and the inscriptions be- neath the scenes, have worn away during the course of 500 years. Of the 90 scenes, 70 remain intact and there are fragments of 8 others, while 12 have entirely disappeared. The set was woven for the Duke of Anjou — brother of Charles V who was king of France from 1364 to 1380 — to hang in the chapel of his chateau at Angers. The cartoonist was Hennequin de Bruges, Charles V’s court painter, whom the Duke of Anjou borrowed for the purpose, together with an illustrated manuscript of the Apocalypse, which is now in the Public Library of the City of Cambrai. The cartoonist followed the manuscript illustrations closely. The tapestries were woven in Paris in the factory of Nicolas Bataille, who received, as the treasury books of the Duke show, 3000 francs for three, which is at the rate of 1000 francs apiece or about 6^ francs a square yard. The value of the franc then was about $10, and the total cost of the set $60,000. When tapestries went out of fashion at the end of the XVIII century, the Canons of the Cathedral of Angers decided to sell the Apocalypse tapestries which had been presented to the Cathedral in 1480 by King Rene. But no purchaser could be found. So against their will they were obliged to retain their greatest treasure. Not believing that anything Gothic could be beautiful, they decided to make the Apocalypse tapestries useful. They employed them in the greenhouse to protect orange-trees from the cold. They spread them over parquet Flora, One of a Set of Five Seventeenth Century Brussels Tapestries floors while the ceilings were being painted. They cut them up into rugs and used them as carpet lining. They even nailed them in strips on the stalls of the bishop’s stable, to prevent the horses from bruising themselves. Finally, in 1843, a sale was effected. These priceless examples of the art of the XIV century brought 300 francs — $60. Fortunately the purchaser was wiser than the administration, and restored them to the Cathedral, of which they are once again the chief glory. By the beginning of the XV century, the art of weaving picture-hangings had reached a high point of perfection. Kings and great nobles vied with one another in the owner- ship of magnificent sets rich with gold, and when they wished to make presents, could find none more splendid to give or welcome to receive than Arras tapestries. Of tapestries woven at Arras, however, there remains only one set that can be positively identified, the Story of Saint Piat and Saint Eleuthere at the Cathedral of Tournai in Belgium. But as if to make up for our lack of information about other ancient tapestries that may have been woven at Arras, we not only know that the Saint Piat and Saint Eleu- there tapestries were woven there, but we also know the exact month and year of their completion, the name of the maker, and the name of the donor. For one of the pieces now lost bore the following inscription which was fortunately copied and preserved by XVIII century writers: Renaissance Tapestry Picturing a Scene from the Trojan War. Hector batters down the door Ces draps furent faicts et acheves En Arras par Pierrot Fere L’an mil quatre cent et deux En Decembre mois gracieux and a little lower down: Veuillez a Dieu tous saincts prier Pour l’ame de Toussant Prier which translated read: These cloths were made and completed In Arras by Pierrot Fere The year one thousand four hundred two In December gracious month Will all the saints kindly pray to God For the soul of Toussaint Prier. Of us ;11 eiiropaai jjf dalle fer-mt helldx)ntem cm bc-Kacrix arthenia ,fert fuppetas .fcg This Toussaint Prier who gave the tapes- tries to the Cathedral of Tournai was a canon there in 1402, but later became chaplain to Philip the Good and died October 15, 1437. The most important early XV century tapestry in the United States, and one that deserves to be mentioned side by side with the treasures of Angers and of Tournai, is the Burgundian Sacraments presented to the Metropolitan Museum of New York by Mr. Morgan. It now consists of five fragments, two of which contain two scenes each, making seven scenes in all. Originally all of these were part of one very large tapestry containing fourteen scenes, the upper seven of which illustrated the Origin of the Seven Sacraments, the lower seven the Seven Sacraments as Celebrated in the XV Century. Between the upper and lower rows ran a descriptive series of French verses in Gothic letters. This splendid tapestry was woven in Bruges, about 1440, for Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, as a decoration for the chamber of his son, the youthful Count of Charolais, known to history as the rash and unfortunate Charles the Bold, sever- al of whose tapestries, captured in battle, have since been in the Swiss city of Berne. The price paid by Philip was 317 livres and the weave is coarse, about 12 ribs to the inch. Of Gothic verdures with personages, none is more fascinating than the Lady with the Unicorn, a set of six at the Cluny Museum. What the story is, no one knows. There is absolutely nothing to justify the tradition that gives them an Oriental origin and connects them with Renaissance Tapestry of Unusual Merit as Regards both Design and Weave Of Van Aelst’s success in interpreting the cartoons Vasari thirty years later wrote: “One is astonished at the sight of this series. The execution is marvelous. One can hardly imagine how it was possible, with simple threads, to produce such delicacy in the hair and beards and to express the sup- pleness of flesh. It is a work more Godlike than human; the waters, the animals, and the habitations are so perfectly represented that they appear painted with the brush not woven.” However, in the midst of all these Italian Renaissance pic- tures, there were two Flemish painters who held their own — Barend Van Orley and Lucas Van Leyden. To the latter are attributed the Months of Lucas in 12 pieces; to the former the Hunts of Maximilian in 12 pieces, otherwise known as the Belles Chasses de Guise because of the famous set owned by the Duke of Guise, woven by Francois Geubels of Brussels, and now in the Louvre. Both sets were immensely popular in the XVII and XVIII centuries as well as in the XV century, and both were reproduced at the Gobelins over and over again. Another important set in seven pieces designed by Van Orley, of which the Louvre has the original sketches, was the Battle of Pavia presented by the Netherlands to Charles V in 1531. It illustrates the Capture of Francis I, his Departure for Spain and his Captivity at Madrid. For two and a half centuries the name most famous in tapes- try weaving has been the Gobelins, since September, 1667, when Colbert, as it is put in French by the inscription on the right of the entrance gate, “established in the buildings of the Gobelins the furniture factory of the Crown under the direction of Charles Lebrun.” The Gobelins is a most interesting place, open to visitors on Wednesday and Saturday afternoons from i to 3. The trip is an easy one by street car or motor bus from the Halles across to the left bank of the Seine and out the Avenue des Gobelins. The entrance to the courtyard of the establishment with LES GOBELINS on the gate beneath RF is simple but impressive. On each side of the gate are tablets bearing inscriptions. The one on the left shows where the works got the name: "Jean and Philibert Gobelin, merchant dyers of scarlet, who have left their name to this quarter of Paris and to the tapestry factory, had their works here at the end of the XV century.” Part of the inscription of the right of the entrance gate of the Gobelins has already been quoted. The rest reads: "April, 1601, Marc de Comans and Francois de la Planche, Flemish tapestry weavers, instal their workrooms on the Banks of the Bievre.” Although the partnership was formed and became active in January, 1601, for the manufacture of tapestries and other commercial operations in France, the Royal Edict of Henry IV officially incorporating the business, is dated 1607. It was a copy of this edict that helped the English organize the works at Mortlake. The Manufacture Royale des Meubles de la Couronne formally established at the Gobelins by royal decree in 1667, with Charles Lebrun as art director, was not merely a tapestry factory. It was a general furniture factory as the word meubles suggests — a factory for the preparation of the various kinds of interior decorations and furnishings needed for the royal residences of Louis XIV. To-day the activities of the Gobelins are confined to tapestries and savonnerie rugs. The tapestries that made the Gobelins famous were those magnificent compositions assoctuieu Residences. To the latter series belongs the Chateau de Chambord illustrated above , which sitrpas the French National Collection. For details , see M. Fenaille’s monumental volumes on the Gobe personality of Louis XIV the two series picturing the Story of the King and the Royal not only other Gobelins in the United States, but also the other Gobelins on the same subject in The tapestry part of the plant was not created new or im- ported from Flanders. It was a combination of various tapestry works already established — those of Planche and Comans, of theTrinite and the Louvre, and of Maincy, from which, after the fall and disgrace of Foucquet came Lebrun to satisfy Louis XIV’s desire to emulate the example of decorative magnificence set by his financial minister. For the supplying of new tapestry designs, Charles Lebrun had many capable assistants, at the head Adam Francois Vandermeulen who entered the service of Louis XIV in 1664, and remained there until his death in 1691. The Royal Residences show the 12 palaces that the King liked best, used to background hunting scenes, promenades, cavalcades, balls — each scene appropriate to the time of year — framed on each side by columns and pilasters, while in the foreground valets in the royal livery spread rich stuffs over the balustrades. During the King’s life it was rewoven at the Gobelins more often than any other set. The greatest series of all, and the one that first suggests itself to all who know about Gobelin tapestries, is the Story of the King. Here we find the solemn and official glorification of all of the important events of the life of Louis XIV during the first twelve years of his reign. As the King grew older and France less successful in war and commerce, the opportunities for glorification became fewer. The nature of the subjects chosen for tapestry changed. In- stead of the Story of the King, we have the Story of Moses in ten pieces, 8 after Poussin, 2 after Lebrun. Even before this, ancient models had been reproduced, notably Raphael’s famous Acts of the Apostles. But now there was a distinct movement backwards, away from contemporary history to Biblical and Greek and Roman, and to the reproduction of XVI century cartoons. Of all XVIII century Gobelin tapestries, the Don Quixote series was most admired and most reproduced. All the 28 scenes were the works of Charles Coypel, who was barely 20 when he completed the first in 1714, which for a long time caused part of the credit to be given to his father Antoine. Charles Coypel added a scene a year until 1734, and finally in 1751, a few years before his death, the last, "Don Quixote with the Kitchen Maids.” While the Furniture Factory of the Crown at the Gobelins was a State institution organized by Colbert to produce tapestries and other art objects for the King, the business at Beauvais was a private one established by Louis Hinart, a native of Beauvais who was an experienced maker and mer- chant of tapestries, having a shop in Paris where he disposed of the goods made at his factory in Flanders. Colbert gave him every encouragement to transfer his looms to France, and on August 5, 1664, the King signed an edict subsidizing and conferring special privileges on "the royal manufactures of high and low warp tapestries established at Beauvais and other places in Picardy.” Of the amount necessary for the acquisition of real estate and buildings, the King agreed to advance two-thirds, up to 30,000 livres. The king also lent Hinart another 30,000 livres for the purchase of wool, silk, dyes, etc. It was for the Beauvais Tapestry Works that Francois Boucher made his most famous tapestry designs. In 1736 the Italian Fetes in fourteen pieces, some of which were re- produced sixteen times (113 tapestries in all); in 1741 the Story of Psyche in five pieces, reproduced seven or eight times; in 1743 the Chinese Set for which Dumons painted the cartoons after Bou- cher’s sketches; in 1749 the Loves of the Gods in nine pieces; in 1752 Opera Frag- ments in five pieces; in 1764 the Noble Pastoral in six pieces for the apartments of the Dauphine at Fontainebleau (the Fountain of Love, the Flute Player, Bird Catching, the Fisherman, the Luncheon). Aubusson tapestries are woven in the little town of Aubusson in France, 207 miles by rail south of Paris. In 1664 the tapestry merchants and weavers of Aubusson, 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 Tapestry Woven at Williamsbridge , after a Modern Painting institution of it.” But the first documentary evidence that has been discovered of tapestries woven in the Aubusson district, is in the will dated 1507 of the Duchess of Valen- tinois, who had the somewhat doubtful distinction of being the widow of the notorious Caesar Borgia. In the will are enumerated numerous tapestries from the looms of Felletin, mostly verdures, several of them being described as “tappicerie de Felletin a feuillages.” Of Italian looms, the most important Fifteenth Century ones were those set up at Mantua under the patronage of the Gonzagas, and at Ferrara under the patronage of the Estes. It was for the Mantuan plant that Mantegna painted his famous Triumphs of Caesar acquired over a century later by Charles I of England, and now at Hampton Court. In the Sixteenth Century the Ferrara works were revived after a long period of rest by Duke Hercules II. At Florence the Medici imitated the example of the Estes and for two hundred years — from 1546 to 1737 — the Arazzeria Medicea flourished. The proprietors were Jean Roost and Nicolas Karcher who had previously been employed at Ferrara. iTi/y ij'i U »vs‘ppi>pppt>ppppppt>pppp \X. j The most famous English tapestry works were at Mortlake near London, established in 1619 under the patronage of Charles I, then Prince of Wales, and his _____ bosom friend “Steenie” the Duke 0 f Buckingham, with Sir Francis Crane as proprietor, Philip de Maecht as manager, and Francis Cleyn as art Furniture Coverings Woven at Williamsbridge Tapestry after Boucher , Woven at Willianisbridg< director. The first important set of tapestries woven was Vulcan and Venus, in nine pieces, bearing the monogram of Charles in cartouches in the side borders, the three feathers of the Prince of Wales in the cartouche in the top border, and in the bottom border four sceptres crossed and a ribbon with the inscription in Latin, “Sceptres foster the Arts.” It was for the Mortlake works that Charles bought the Raphael cartoons, from which was woven the splendid set now in the French National Collection. The prosperity of the Mortlake Works ended with the death of Sir Francis in 1636. In America the honor of introducing the art of tapestry weav- ing belongs to the late William Baumgarten, who in January 1893 set up the first loom at 321 Fifth Avenue, New York, with M. Foussadier as manager. The first piece of tapestry woven, he set aside to be preserved as an heirloom in his family. The second, a duplicate of the first, is in the Field Columbian Museum at Chicago. Four more weavers soon followed Mr. Foussadier, and the infant industry was moved to Williamsbridge in New York City, and located in a building formerly a French restaurant and hotel, in the midst of a French colony that welcomed the new arrivals from Aubusson. The first year was employed in the production of portieres, borders and furniture coverings, to show as samples in secur- ing orders. In April, 1894, an exhibition was made under the auspices of the National Society of Sculpture, and Mr. Baumgarten read a paper that attracted the attention of art lovers all over the country. The next month the exhibition was continued at the Baumgarten showrooms on Fifth Avenue, and the opportunity came to execute an important commission for Mr. Widener, of Philadelphia, amounting to over $20,000. A much damaged fragment of Sixteenth Century Tapestry , being repaired at Wil- liamsbridge. When the repairs were completed , it was difficult to distinguish the slightest difference between the old parts, and the neiv parts built upon the new warp threads that are prominent in our illustration . It included thirteen wall panels, in the pastoral style of Boucher, with furniture coverings and portieres to match, and was on the looms for fifteen months. Mr. Widener’s tapestries were hardly begun when through the influence of the architects, McKim, Mead & White, an important order was received for wall panels in the Director’s Room of the New York Life Insurance Company. They were in coarse point — landscape effects with columns and draperies. Among other important commissions have been wall panels, draperies and fur- niture coverings for Mrs. Sheperd’s din- ing room in Scarborough; verdures for the hall, figure panels for the music-room and hunting scenes for the frieze of the breakfast room, of Mr. Harrison, of Glenside, Pa. ; large Boucher panels with Slimmer, one of a set of the Four Seasons designed by Wm. Baum gar ten Co., and Woven at Williamsbridge sofas, tapestry panels for screens, and tapestry rugs (popu- larly called Aubussons) for floors. Among such rugs designed and woven for clients last year, was one 35 feet square. Through their Paris house, Wm. Baumgarten & Co., are ex- tensive importers of antique tapestries, rugs, furniture and other works of art. The collection of Flemish and Italian XVI century tapestries, and of French XVII and XVIII century tapestries, shown in their New York galleries, would enrich a museum. The collections of antique furniture and Oriental rugs are also noteworthy. As decorators and furnishers, Wm. Baumgarten & Co., are in a position to guarantee perfect workmanship, as well as superior artistic quality. Besides the tapestry works, they also have their own Compo and Caen Stone, Furniture and Woodworking, and Upholstery and Drapery plants, in New York City. This means much to those who have suffered from the inferior manner in which “farmed-out” contracts are often filled. Correspondence relative to tapestries and decorations should be addressed to the new shop at 715 Fifth Avenue, where visitors are welcome, and where appointments will be made for those interested to visit the tapestry works at Williams- bridge. WM. BAUMGARTEN & CO. 715 Fifth Avenue New York 12 Place Vendome 602 South Michigan Avenue Paris Chicago Renaissance Screen with Ancient Tapestry Panels