ght
shades were not pleasing. There was a trick of dividing a large square
into strips so that several looms might work upon it at once. And
there was all manner of slighting in the weave, in the use of the comb
which makes close the fabric, in the setting of the warp to make a
less than usual number of threads to the inch. In fact, men tricked
men as much in those days as in our own.

The fame of the city's industry was in danger. It was the province of
the guild of tapestry-makers to protect it against its own evils.
Thus, in 1528, a few years after the weaving of the Raphael
tapestries, the law was made that all tapestries should bear the
Brussels mark and that of the weaver or the client. Small tapestries
were exempt, but at that time small tapestries were not frequent, or
were simple verdures, and, charming as they are, they lacked the same
intellectual effort of composition.

The Brussels guild stipulated the size at which the tapestry should be
marked. It was given at six ells, a Flemish ell being about 271/2
inches. Therefore, a tapestry under approximately thirteen feet might
escape the order. But that was the day of large tapestries, the day
of the Italian cartoonists, and important pieces reached that measure.

The guild of the tapissiers in Brussels, once started on restrictions,
drew article after article, until it seemed that manacles were put on
the masters' hands. To these restrictions the decadence of Brussels is
ascribed, but that were like laying a criminal's fault to the laws of
the country. Primarily must have been the desire to shirk, the intent
to do questionable work. And behind that must have been a basic cause.
Possibly it was one of those which we are apt to consider modern, that
is, the desire to turn effort into the coin of the realm. All of the
enormous quantity of orders received by Brussels in the days of her
highest prosperity could not have been accepted had not the master of
the ateliers pressed his underlings to highest speed.

Speed meant deterioration in quality of work, and so Brussels tried by
laws to prevent this lamentable result, and to protect the fair fame
of the symbol woven in the bordering galloon. The other sign which
accompanied the town mark, of the two letters B, should have had
excellent results, the personal mark of the weaver that his work might
be known.

In spite of this spur to personal pride, the standard lessened in a
few years, but not until certain weav