[Illustration:  FLEMISH TAPESTRY, “THE PRODIGAL SON”]

A famous Arras tapestry was made in 1386 by a weaver of the name of Michel Bernard.  It measured over two hundred and eighty-five square yards, and represented the battle of Roosebecke.  At this time a tapestry worker lived, named Jehanne Aghehe, one of the first attested women’s names in connection with this art.  In the Treasury of the church of Douai there is mention of three cushions made of high loom tapestry presented in 1386 by “la demoiselle Englise.”  It is not known who this young lady may have been.  France and Flanders made the most desirable tapestries in the fourteenth century.  In Italy the art had little vogue until the fifteenth.

Very little tapestry was made in Spain in the Middle Ages,—­the earliest well known maker was named Gutierrez, in the time of Philip IV.  The picture by Velasquez, known as “The Weavers,” represents the interior of his manufactory.

A table cloth in mediaeval times was called a “carpett:”  these were often very ornate, and it is useful to know that their use was not for floor covering, for the inventories often mention “carpetts” worked with pearls and silver tissue, which would have been singularly inappropriate.  The Arabs introduced the art of carpet weaving into Spain.  An Oriental, Edrisi, writing in the twelfth century, says that such carpets were made at that time in Alicante, as could not be produced elsewhere, owing to certain qualities in both air and water which greatly benefited the wool used in their manufacture.

In the Travels of Jean Lagrange, the author says that all carpets of Smyrna and Caramania are woven by women.  As soon as a girl can hold a shuttle, they stretch cords between two trees, to make a warp, and then they give her all colours of wools, and leave her to her own devices.  They tell her, “It is for you to make your own dowry.”  Then, according to the inborn art instinct of the child, she begins her carpet.  Naturally, traditions and association with others engaged in the same pursuit assist in the scheme and arrangement; usually the carpet is not finished until she is old enough to marry.  “Then,” continues Lagrange, “two masters, two purchasers, present themselves; the one carries off a carpet, and the other a wife.”

Edward II.. of England owned a tapestry probably of English make, described as “a green hanging of wool wove with figures of Kings and Earls upon it.”  There was a roistering Britisher called John le Tappistere, who was complained of by certain people near Oxford, as having seized Master John of Shoreditch, and assaulted and imprisoned him, confiscating his goods and charging him fifty pounds for ransom.  It is not stated what the gentleman from Shoreditch had done thus to bring down upon him the wrath of John the weaver!

English weavers had rather the reputation of being fighters:  in 1340 one George le Tapicier murdered John le Dextre of Leicester; while Giles de la Hyde also slew Thomas Tapicier in 1385.  Possibly these rows occurred on account of a practical infringement upon the manufacturing rights of others as set down in the rules of the Company.  There was a woman in Finch Lane who produced tapestry, with a cotton back, “after the manner of the works of Arras:”  this was considered a dishonest business, and the work was ordered to be burnt.