udio of Jean de Rome, of the Brussels
ateliers, through the years lying between the close of the Fifteenth
Century and the Raphael invasion.

Even that important event brought no consequence of that sort. The
freemasonry among celebrities in those days showed its perfection by
this very lack of signed work. Everybody knew the man by his works,
and the works by their excellence.

Tapestry marks were non-existent as a system until the Brussels edict
of 1528 made them compulsory in that town. Documents and history have
been less unkind to those early workers, and to those of us who like
to feel the thrill of human brotherhood as it connects the artist and
craftsman centuries dead with our own strife for the ideal. Nicolas
Bataille in 1379 cannot remain unknown since the publishing of certain
documents concerning his Christmas task of the _Apocalypse_, and there
are scores of known master weavers reaching up through the ages to the
time when marks began.

The Brussels mark was the first. It was a simple and appropriate
composition, a shield flanked with two letters B. These were capitals
or not. One was reversed or not, with little arbitrariness, for the
mark was legible and unmistakable in any case, even though the weaver
took great liberties--as he sometimes did. The place for this mark was
the galloon, and it was usually executed in a lighter colour, but a
single tone.

[Illustration: BRUSSELS]

So much for the town mark, which has a score or more of variations. In
addition to this was the mark of the weaver or of the merchant who
gave the commission. A pity it was thus to confound the two, to give
such confusion between a gifted craftsman and a mere dealer. One was
giving the years of his life and the cunning of his hand to the work,
while the other did but please a rich or royal patron with his wares.
But so it was, and we can but study over the symbols and glean at
least that the tapestry was considered a worthy one, reached the high
standard of the day, or it would have had no mark at all.

For it was thus that the marks were first adopted. They were for the
protection of every one against fraud. High perfection made Brussels
famous, but fame brought with it such a rush of patronage that only by
lessening the quality of productions could orders be filled in such
hot haste.

Tricks of the trade grew and prospered; there were tricks of dyeing
after a tapestry was finished, in case the flesh tints or other li