LES CARTONS DE TAPISSERIE D'AUBUSSON - THE TAPESTRY CARTOONS FROM AUBUSSON

First edition. Hardcover. Text in French and English. Publisher's original blue cloth with white titles to the upper board and spine, in dustwrapper. Illustrated in colour throughout. A near fine copy, the binding firm, the spine a touch rolled. The contents are clean throughout and without inscriptions or stamps. Complete with the bright original dustwrapper that is without fading, loss or tears. Scarce.

A profusely illustrated study of the design models behind Aubusson tapestries, how they were made, used, neglected, and eventually rediscovered as valuable works of art and historical documents. Aubusson tapestries bear witness to the glory days of a bygone and little-known era. To create a tapestry, the weaver uses a model painted or drawn on a support. This model, called a "tapestry cartoon", serves as the motif to be reproduced. The figures, scenes, and landscapes created in the nineteenth century by the cartoon painters pay homage to these painters, now quietly deceased, and to the life of the tapestry workshops.