FRENCH FABRICS

On plate 55 are some interesting borders. In three of thesethere is the small subsidiary border which is a characteristic featureof Indian and Persian ornamentation.

At the end of the 17th century many sumptuous brocades,often richly interwoven with gold and silver threads, were producedat Venice, Milan, and elsewhere. Plate 54 is a Sicilian examplein particularly bright colouring. These fabrics, although rich inmaterial, do not compare favourably with the earlier ones in point ofdesign, as there is sometimes a greater insistence on textures thanon good proportion and beauty of form.

FRENCH FABRICSLyons

It is perhaps singular, that in France, during the 13th, 14th, and15th centuries, when so many magnificent abbeys and cathedralswere built and equipped with splendid statuary and carvings, stainedglass and goldsmiths’ work, but few records are found of the produc-tions of the sumptuous woven fabrics which must have been largelyin request for the vestments of the numerous dignitaries and officersof the Church.

Most of these rich vestments were no doubt obtained in France,as in England, by gifts or by purchase from the famous workshopsof Sicily or of North Italy.

In 1480 Louis XI. introduced the manufacture of woven silksat Tours, and in 1520 Francis I. brought together many skilledweavers from Italy and Flanders, and established some at Fontaine-bleau under the direction of Salomon de Labaines, the King’s weaver,for the production of tapestry, and others for the weaving of silkenbrocades at Lyons, which latter town soon became the chief centrefor the production of silken fabrics in Europe, a position that it stillmaintains.

The reign of Henri II. (1547—59) was a period of remarkableartistic activity in architecture and the decorative arts, yet even atthis period the rich fabrics that necessarily formed a part of thereligious, civic, and social life were still largely of Italian production.

In 1589 Henri IV. founded the Royal carpet and tapestryfactory of the Savonnerie; for it is recorded that an ordinance wasgranted to Pierre du Pont, for the making of carpets and otherworks from the East, in gold, silver, silk, and wool, for eighteen years.His apprentices, one hundred in number, were lodged in the Maisonde la Savonnerie et Chaillot.

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