[Illustration:  Fig. 269.—­Inlaid stool, Eleventh Dynasty.]

[Illustration:  Fig. 270.—­Royal throne-chair, wall-painting Rameses III.]

[Illustration:  Fig. 271.—­Women weaving.  From wall-scene in tomb of Khnumhotep, Beni Hasan, Twelfth Dynasty.]

We learn from the tomb paintings that netted or cane-bottomed chairs were covered with stuffed seats and richly worked cushions.  These cushions and stuffed seats have perished, but it is to be concluded that they were covered with tapestry.  Tapestry was undoubtedly known to the Egyptians, and a bas-relief subject at Beni Hasan (fig. 271)[74] shows the process of weaving.  The frame, which is of the simplest structure, resembles that now in use among the weavers of Ekhmim.  It is horizontal, and is formed of two slender cylinders, or rather of two rods, about fifty-four inches apart, each held in place by two large pegs driven into the ground about three feet distant from each other.  The warps of the chain were strongly fastened, then rolled round the top cylinder till they were stretched sufficiently tight.  Mill sticks placed at certain distances facilitated the insertion of the needles which carried the thread.  As in the Gobelins factory, the work was begun from the bottom.  The texture was regulated and equalised by means of a coarse comb, and was rolled upon the lower cylinder as it increased in length.  Hangings and carpets were woven in this manner; some with figures, others with geometrical designs, zigzags, and chequers (fig. 272).  A careful examination of the monuments has, however, convinced me that most of the subjects hitherto supposed to represent examples of tapestry represent, in fact, examples of cut and painted leather.  The leather-worker’s craft flourished in ancient Egypt.  Few museums are without a pair of leather sandals, or a specimen of mummy braces with ends of stamped leather bearing the effigy of a god, a Pharaoh, a hieroglyphic legend, a rosette, or perhaps all combined.  These little relics are not older than the time of the priest-kings, or the earlier Bubastites.  It is to the same period that we must attribute the great cut-leather canopy in the Gizeh Museum.  The catafalque upon which the mummy was laid when transported from the mortuary establishment to the tomb, was frequently adorned with a covering made of stuff or soft leather.  Sometimes the sidepieces hung down, and sometimes they were drawn aside with bands, like curtains, and showed the coffin.

[Illustration:  Fig. 272.—­Man weaving hangings, or carpet.  From Beni Hasan, Twelfth Dynasty.]

[Illustration:  Fig. 273.—­Border pattern of cut leather canopy of Isiemkheb, Twenty-first Dynasty.]