DOI Heft:
No.141 (November, 1908)
DOI Artikel:Vallance, Aymer: Some examples of tapestry designed by Sir E. Burne-Jones and Mr. J. H. Dearle
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.28256#0049
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TAPESTRY ALTAR-PtECE
tapestries, down to and inciuding those executed
at Merton in Morris's own lifetime. The point is
a technical one, arising out of the nature of the
process. It shouid be expiained that the almost
invariable custom has been, and still is, to build
up the pattern in the high loom at right angles to
the direction in which the work is eventually to be
hung. In other words the warp threads, vertical
during execution, run in the hnished work from
side to side. The result is, that whiie the vertical
junctions, crossing the warp and being held in
position by the latter, remain steadfast and secure,
the horizontal joints, wherever there is a sharp
transition from one colour to another, have a natural
tendency to strain open with the weight of the web.
To obviate this inherent weakness the ancient
system was, after the weaving, to run the two raw
edges together with needle and thread. The latter
availed to make the web cohere weh enough when
new, but in process of time was apt to perish and
leave the tapestry a mass of disintegration. In
small panels the strain is not serious enough to
signify, but in all large pieces its gravity is in direct
ratio to the size of the web. Under Morris the
traditional plan was always fotlowed, but the hrm
have since adopted the modern French method,
whereby the horizontal joints are all secured in the
loom by intertwisting the warp wools with one
another at the back. Thus resort to thread is
DEStGNED BY J. H. DEARLE FOR MORRIS & COMPANY, LTD.
dispensed with, and, while there is no ridge nor
any token of knotting to be seen on the face, the
weakest points of the web are alt so hrmly welded
together that it becomes a compact whole, better
calculated, to last than any specimens
whose joints are sewn together in the old-fashioned
way.
An interesting point is that, though in ancient
days, as witnesses the memorable instance of
Penelope, tapestry was undoubtedly recognised as
women's work; in the middle ages, on the con-
trary, while the guild system prevailed, only males,
being members or apprentices of the weaver's
guilds, were allowed to practise the craft. And
Morris himself preferred to take boys, or young
men, and train them for the purpose. However,
times have altered; and the young man of the
present day arrives, sooner or later, at an age when
he finds weaving too sedentary an occupation to
suit him. To supply, then, for a threatened dearth
of arras-weavers, the present heads of the Srm have
engaged a lady to be trained with a view to her
being capable, in her turn, of training other women
or young girls as weavers, that so, in an organised
school, a succession of qualihed executants may be
maintained.
In conclusion, if it be a permissible indiscretion
to refer to matters already relegated to the ob-
scurity of a Parliamentary Blue Book, it may be
TAPESTRY ALTAR-PtECE
tapestries, down to and inciuding those executed
at Merton in Morris's own lifetime. The point is
a technical one, arising out of the nature of the
process. It shouid be expiained that the almost
invariable custom has been, and still is, to build
up the pattern in the high loom at right angles to
the direction in which the work is eventually to be
hung. In other words the warp threads, vertical
during execution, run in the hnished work from
side to side. The result is, that whiie the vertical
junctions, crossing the warp and being held in
position by the latter, remain steadfast and secure,
the horizontal joints, wherever there is a sharp
transition from one colour to another, have a natural
tendency to strain open with the weight of the web.
To obviate this inherent weakness the ancient
system was, after the weaving, to run the two raw
edges together with needle and thread. The latter
availed to make the web cohere weh enough when
new, but in process of time was apt to perish and
leave the tapestry a mass of disintegration. In
small panels the strain is not serious enough to
signify, but in all large pieces its gravity is in direct
ratio to the size of the web. Under Morris the
traditional plan was always fotlowed, but the hrm
have since adopted the modern French method,
whereby the horizontal joints are all secured in the
loom by intertwisting the warp wools with one
another at the back. Thus resort to thread is
DEStGNED BY J. H. DEARLE FOR MORRIS & COMPANY, LTD.
dispensed with, and, while there is no ridge nor
any token of knotting to be seen on the face, the
weakest points of the web are alt so hrmly welded
together that it becomes a compact whole, better
calculated, to last than any specimens
whose joints are sewn together in the old-fashioned
way.
An interesting point is that, though in ancient
days, as witnesses the memorable instance of
Penelope, tapestry was undoubtedly recognised as
women's work; in the middle ages, on the con-
trary, while the guild system prevailed, only males,
being members or apprentices of the weaver's
guilds, were allowed to practise the craft. And
Morris himself preferred to take boys, or young
men, and train them for the purpose. However,
times have altered; and the young man of the
present day arrives, sooner or later, at an age when
he finds weaving too sedentary an occupation to
suit him. To supply, then, for a threatened dearth
of arras-weavers, the present heads of the Srm have
engaged a lady to be trained with a view to her
being capable, in her turn, of training other women
or young girls as weavers, that so, in an organised
school, a succession of qualihed executants may be
maintained.
In conclusion, if it be a permissible indiscretion
to refer to matters already relegated to the ob-
scurity of a Parliamentary Blue Book, it may be