-craft of weaving. They had a pretty
gift indeed to bestow, for at that time, as in ages before, the
world's best fabrics came from the luxurious East. And so the
Saracens, defeated at Poitiers by Charles Martel, wandered to nearby
Aubusson, wove their cloths and gave the town the chance to set its
earliest looms at a date far back in the past.

The centuries went on, however, without much left in the way of
history-fabric or woven fabric until we approach the time when
tapestry-history begins all over France, like sparse flowers glowing
here and there in the early spring wood.

When the Great Louis, with Colbert at his sumptuous side, was by way
of patronising magnificently those arts which contributed to his own
splendour, he set his all-seeing eye upon Aubusson, and thought to
make it a royal factory.

He was far from establishing it--that was more than accomplished
already, not so much by the legendary Saracens as by the busy populace
who had as early as 1637 as many as two thousand workers. Going back a
little farther we find a record of four tapestries woven there for
Rheims.

It was, perhaps, this very prosperity, this ability to stand alone
that made Louis and Colbert think it worth while to patronise the
works at Aubusson. But it must be said that at this time (1664) the
factory was deteriorating. Tapestry works are as sensitive as the
veriest exotic, and without the proper conditions fail and fade. The
wrong matter here was primarily the cartoons, which were of the
poorest. No artist controlled them, and the workers strayed far from
the copy set long before. Added to that, the wool was of coarse,
harsh quality and the dyeing was badly done. All three faults
remediable, thought the two chief forces in the kingdom.

So Louis XIV announced to the sixteen hundred weavers of Aubusson that
he would give their works the conspicuous privilege of taking on the
name of the Royal Manufactory at Aubusson. And, moreover, he declared
his wish to send them an artist to draw worthily, and a master of the
important craft of dyeing fast and lovely colours.

Colbert drew up a series of articles and stipulations, long papers of
rules and restrictions which were considered a necessary part of fine
tapestry weaving. These papers are tiresome to read--the constitution
of many a nation or a state is far less verbose. They give the
impression that the craft of tapestry weaving is beset with every sort
of small deceit, so prote