Tapestry is an ornamental textile used for the covering of walls and furniture, and for curtains and hangings. In its method of manufacture it is intimately related to oriental carpets, which are made in precisely the same way as certain kinds of tapestry, the only distinction being that carpets are meant for floor-coverings alone. Fine storied tapestries are, however, much more elaborate and costly than any carpets, and they have altogether different artistic pretensions. Tapestries are divided into two classes, according as they are made in high-warp (haute lisse) or low-warp (basse lisse) looms. The former in manufacture have their warp-threads stretched in a vertical manner with a roller at the top around which the warps are wound, and another at the bottom for receiving the finished tapestry. On the low-warp looms the warp is extended horizontally, there being an arrangement in both for shedding or separating the warp into two leaves, front and back, as in ordinary weaving. It is in high-warp looms that the most elaborate storied or pictorial tapestries are made, low-warp looms being more largely devoted to the production of still-life and non-pictorial decorative compositions. Notwithstanding these differences, it is difficult to distinguish between tapestries which have been made on high and low warp looms respectively, although the latter are more rapidly and consequently less expensively woven. In reproducing a design on the high-warp loom the workman has the portion of the cartoon he is copying behind him. He works from the back or wrong side of the tapestry, and to guide him the outline of the subject is slightly indicated on the warp threads. He has an endless number of shades and tones of wool and silk (formerly gold and silver threads were also used) which, with little shuttles, he shoots through the number of warp threads required for each particular shade, and with such wefts he covers and entirely encloses the warp-threads. In the reproduction of a design the utmost skill and experience are essential, not only to outline the figures and composition generally with accuracy, but also for the proper grading and hatching in of tones to secure the rich and mellow harmonies which constitute the principal charms of a picture. In low-warp tapestry-weaving the design to be copied is placed under the warp, and, as the workman here also weaves from the back, the design is reversed in the finished production. Of late years only it has become the habit to trace a reverse drawing on the warp-threads, whereby the tapestry is made to show the design as originally composed. The difficulty of examining low-warp work as it proceeds prevents the elaborate and delicate work being produced by this method which it is possible to secure on high-warp looms.
The art of tapestry-working is of high antiquity, and it may be that the curtains of the tabernacle 'of blue and purple and scarlet, with cherubim of cunning work' (Exod. xxvi. 1), were a kind of tapestry, though more probably they were of needle-work. The so-called Bayeux Tapestry (q.v.) is really embroidered work of the period of William the Conqueror. The art of tapestry-working, and indeed all fine weaving, came to Europe from the East, and so well was this recognised that during the middle ages the fabric was generally known as Sarrazinois. So far as is known the art of high-warp tapestry-weaving was first practised in Flanders towards the end of the 12th century, and it flourished in the rich and prosperous towns of Arras, Valenciennes, Lille, Brussels, &c., and from the predominant importance of the first of these towns storied tapestries came to be generally known as 'Arras.' The disasters which overwhelmed the land during the contest with the Spanish power led many of the most skilful of the tapestry-weavers to seek an asylum in foreign lands, and thus the art spread to various European centres. Repeated attempts had been made in France from the middle of the 16th century onwards to establish the industry, but it was not till two Flemish workers, Comans and De la Planche, were engaged for an establishment formerly occupied by a family of wool-dyers called Gobelin (q.v.) that the industry was successfully founded and the famous Gobelins factory begun. From the early part of the 17th century to the present day the Gobelins has continued to be the source of the richest and most artistic of high-warp tapestries anywhere produced, and indeed that establishment may be regarded as the only source of fine storied tapestries of modern times. The manufactures of the Savonnerie, an establishment founded by Henri IV. for velvet-pile carpets and hangings, was in 1826 combined with the Gobelins, and the two industries are now carried on together by the state. There is also a state factory for low-warp tapestries at Beauvais; and at Anbusson and Felletin commercial tapestries are very largely made for furniture covering, &c., in establishments which in earlier times were celebrated for their tapestries de luxe. Tapestries were also made at an early period in England, and it is worthy of remark that English wool has always formed the staple for the finer qualities of the fabric. In 1619 an establishment was founded at Mortlake by Sir Francis Crane, and under his skilful guidance works of the very highest merit were produced. Throughout all the troubles of the Great Rebellion period Crane's factory continued in operation, and it was only in 1703 that it was closed. In 1872 some French tapestry-weavers were brought to Windsor, and a factory established there under royal patronage, which survived till 1888.
Tapestries—especially the high-warp storied varieties—are the textiles of kings. In earlier times the monarchs of Europe resorted to the Netherlands for pieces for the decoration of their palaces; and when the manufacture came to be more disseminated it was almost entirely under state supervision and control that the work was carried on. The pieces made were almost exclusively reserved for royal use, and to be given as presents in connection with great state celebrations and functions. The very foremost artists devoted their best energies to the production of designs and full-sized cartoons for the guidance of the weavers; and it was as patterns for tapestry that Raphael produced the immortal series of cartoons illustrating the acts of Christ and the Apostles which were executed in Brussels for the Sistine Chapel. Seven of these cartoons, purchased by Charles I. under the advice of Rubens, are now in South Kensington Museum. It is worthy of remark that the earlier artists generally understood the conditions of tapestry design much better than the more recent painters who have supplied cartoons for copying. The cartoons of the early artists were simple in motive and decorative treatment, the masses were bold and broad, and the colour scheme harmonious without complexity. By modern artists the mistake was made of attempting, if not to rival, at least to copy oil-paintings with all their subtle harmonies and minuteness of detail. The mistake is now recognised, and among the regulations of the Gobelins is one that no tapestries will be there produced except from approved copies or cartoons made expressly for that purpose.
See A. de Champeaux, Tapestry (1878); Eugène Müntz, Short History of Tapestry (Eng. trans. by Sparkes, 1885); A. S. Cole, Tapestry and Embroidery (1888); the South Kensington Descriptive Catalogue (1888); French works by Guiffrey (1878), Havard (1889), and Gerspach (1892); works on special collections by Darcel, Loriequet, and Farabulini, and on ancient oriental tapestry by Ricgl (Leip. 1890); also BAYEUX TAPESTRY.