PLATE CXIX.
FIGURED SILK.
BY MATHEVON AND B U YARD, LYONS.
Of the rich and beautiful productions, for which the looms of Lyons have so long been celebrated, thespecimen which we have chosen for illustration was one of the most elegant exhibited by the firm of Mathevonand Buvard , who have long enjoyed a high reputation for the magnificence of their brocades and furniture stuffs;and we find their names amongst the class receiving high rewards on the occasions of the National Expositionssince 1823, when they received their first silver medal. They obtained the same distinction at the nextExposition in 1827 ; and the jury in 1834 awarded to them the gold medal, of which they also receivedhonourable rappels in 1839 and 1844. The reputation which these manufacturers have thus so long enjoyedwas well sustained by them in the Great Exhibition of 1851, on which occasion they obtained a prize medal“ for some splendid specimens of rich silks for churches and ecclesiastical vestments, as well as for furniturein lampas, damask, brocatelles, and reps, worked in bouquets of flowers, in gold, silver, and silk, the cost ofsome being above 300 francs per metre, and the mere labour of which costs from sixty to seventy francs permetre,” &c.
The exact period at which silk-weaving was first practised at Lyons appears somewhat obscure; but about1480, Louis XI. attracted some Italian workmen to France and established them at Tours; and it was nottill about forty years later that the manufacture of silk was introduced at Lyons under the protection ofFrancis I., who, having become the master of the Duchy of Milan , induced some of the Lombard silk-weaversto establish themselves in France. In order to relieve France from her dependence upon Italy , both for theraw material as well as for the manufactured silk stuffs, Henri IV . encouraged the home production bygranting patents of nobility to such of the silk-manufacturers as had been engaged more than twelve yearsin this branch of industry. In 1540 Lyons obtained the privilege of being an exclusive depot for silk, and thismonopoly was confirmed by various royal ordinances down to 1717.
According to M. Arles Dufour, one of the highest authorities on the subject of the silk-manufacture in France ,the number of looms at Lyons and in the neighbourhood, rose during the half century preceding the Revocationof the Edict of Nantes in 1686, to the number of about 12,000, a vast amount of manufacturing riches forthat period; but that unhappy measure dispersed the weavers to other countries and ruined the trade of Lyons, sothat in 1699 the number of looms had fallen below 4000. By the middle of the next century the trade at Lyonshad so far recovered itself, that, according to M. Rolland de la Platiere, the number of looms at work averagedabout 12,000 between the years 1750 and 1786. In the two subsequent years the city reached the highestpitch of her manufacturing prosperity previous to the Revolution, and she numbered then at least 18,000 looms.This number was again greatly reduced in consequence of the public agitations of the period, in which the citizensof Lyons took an active part; and at last the siege of the city by the army of the Convention, when 30,000of the inhabitants are said to have perished, again all but annihilated the trade; so that we find the numberof looms employed between 1795 and 1800, varying from 2500 to 3500 only.
It was during these troubled years of the Revolution that Jacquard was labouring at the improvement otthe silk-loom, which has rendered his name so famous. This truly mechanical genius was the son of a simple