Studio: international art (3.1894)

The Revival of Tapestry- Weaving

Buildings, you speak of the Art of Tapestry-
weaving, at least as regards this country, in the
past tense."

" Quite so; but the lecture to which you refer
is by no means a recent one. It must have been
as far back as sixteen years past that we, that is
Mr. Dearie and myself, began to experiment in
tapestry-weaving. At that time the art had ceased
to be practised in England."

" Was not the Windsor tapestry factory then
open and at work ? "

"Yes; but the method employed there was
quite distinct from that which we have revived.
For the Windsor tapestry the horizontal loom only
was in use, in which case the weaver sees the face
of the web as he works; whereas ours is executed,
as you may see any day if you go down to the
works at Merton Abbey in Surrey, in high warp
looms—we have three of them, by-the-by—where
the weaver works, sitting at the back and only sees
the front of the web by reflection in a mirror.
Well, when it occurred to me to revive the art as
anciently practised there was not at hand any
loom at work which I could take as a model; so
I had to pick up the practical details of the craft
from an old technical work on the subject, written
in French somewhere in the seventeenth century.
Our first efforts were confined to floral designs,
with the occasional introduction of birds into the
composition. The earliest figure subject was the
Goose Girl, from a cartoon of Mr. Walter Crane's.
That was about the year 1881. From that time,
except in one instance, the figures have always
been designed by Sir Edward Burne-Jones. Our
first large work, and perhaps the best known, was
the Star of Bethlehem, designed originally for
Exeter College, Oxford. We have made a replica
for Mr. Wilfrid Blunt, and are about to execute
the same cartoon for the third time. Our largest
and most important work is the series of tapestries
for Mr. DArcy of Stanmore. The subject is the
Legend of King Arthur. The pieces vary in width,
according to the several spaces they are to occupy
on the walls. The height of each of the upper
panels is eight feet. Underneath is a band, woven
separately, nearly five feet high. It represents
deer in a thicket, upon the branches of which
hang the shields, with their proper heraldic charges,
of the knights of the Round Table. Along the
top of this band runs a scroll, with a legend giving
a brief explanation of the particular subject which
is represented immediately above. We have been
engaged on this work for upwards of three years.
The tapestry is now finished and placed in situ,
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with the exception of the last three panels, one
of which is only just out of the loom, while the
two others are in process of weaving and rapidly
approaching completion."

The panel alluded to, as the latest finished, is
not one of the largest, yet, in point of beauty, it is
second to none of the set. It contains but two
figures. In the foreground Sir Lancelot is lying
asleep, his back leaning against the stone side of a
water cistern, his feet pointing towards the door,
shut against him and guarded by an Angel of the
Temple of the Holy Grail. The Angel's wings,,
blue as the depths of a sapphire, harmonise with
the paler blue of his sleeves, while his white and
yellow brocaded robe contrasts with the rich
crimson surcoat of the mailed knight who is
encased partly in plate, partly in chain, armcur.
The execution of the latter needs almost as much
technical skill as do human features. However,
the difficulty in this instance has been greatly-
enhanced by the fact that the whole composition
is in a subdued tone, with a strong light streaming
through the chinks of the door and glinting, where
it falls, on the armour and the blades of grass. A
masterly reserve together with the utmost delicacy
of treatment must have been required to save a
scene like this from degenerating into melodrama.
Two of the series are here reproduced.

" Of the two examples of tapestry contributed
by you to the last Arts and Crafts Exhibition, was
not one of coarser make than the other ? "

" That is so. You will readily understand that
the thicker the wool the fewer the stitches, and
therefore the less work there is in a given space.
We did at one time try to obtain in coarser
tapestries a better finish to the faces, &c, by
introducing in those parts more warp threads and
a finer wool, but the result was not satisfactory,
and we have not renewed the attempt. In the
Stanmore tapestries, large as their scale is, the web
is moderately fine and of a uniform texture—i.e.,
the warp threads 16 to the inch, throughout."

" You are your own dyers, are you not ? "

"Yes ; our vats are at Merton, and all the wool
we use is dyed on the spot."

" Returning to the subject of the Royal Tapestry
Works at Windsor, am I right in supposing that
they are now closed ? "

" I believe so—that is to say, they are no longer
turning out tapestries, and the staff is dispersed.
Several of them, by the way, are now engaged at
Merton, although, as I have already stated, the
two systems of weaving are so distinct that it took
them some time to acquire the technique of the