the
prosperity of the first half of the Seventeenth Century, which was its
best period, but a strong, healthy productiveness which has lasted
ever since. Two articles of faith it adheres to--that the looms shall
be invariably low, and that the threads of the warp shall be of wool
and wool only.

Large quantities of strong-colour verdures from La Marche and notably
from Aubusson are offered to the buyer throughout France. They are as
easily adapted to the wood panels of a modern dining-room as is stuff
by the yard, the pattern being merely a mass of trees divisible almost
anywhere. The colour scheme is often worked out in blues instead of
greens; a narrow border is on undisturbed pieces, and the reverse of
the tapestry is as full of loose threads as the back of a cashmere
rug. For the most part these fragments are the work of the Eighteenth
Century. Older ones, with warmer colours introduced bring much higher
prices.

CHAPTER XVI

SAVONNERIE

Those who hold by the letter, leave out the velvety product of La
Savonnerie from the aristocratic society of hangings woven in the
classic stitch of the Gobelins. They have reason. Yet, because the
weave is one we often see in galleries, also on furniture both old and
new, it is as well not to ignore its productions in lofty silence.

Besides, it is rather interesting, this little branch of an exotic
industry that tried to run along beside the greater and more artistic.
It never has tried to be much higher than a man's feet, has been
content for the most part to soften and brighten floors that before
its coming were left in the cold bareness of tile or parquet. It crept
up to the backs and seats of chairs, and into panelled screens a
little later on, but never has it had much vogue on the walls.

When we go back to its beginnings we come flat against the Far East,
as is usual. The history of the fabric which is woven with a pile like
that of heavy wool velvet, and which is called Savonnerie, runs
parallel to the long story of tapestry proper, but to make its scant
details one short concrete chronicle it is best to put them all
together.

From the East, then, came the idea of weaving in that style of which
only the people of the East were masters. Oriental rugs as such were
not attempted in either colour or design, but one of the rug stitches
was copied.

We have to run back to the time of Henri IV, a pleasing time to turn
to with its demonstration of how much a