Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-06-25

II shall have it packed and sent imme-
diately to you at st. Petersburg
1t was almost the right thing for him
to say and do-except that he should have
packed Il shall have it put upon the
looms Immediately for your majesty
would be the utmost limit OF his rights
1t would have meant that the same
Gobelins mandatory of the French
state would execute a sister piece, more
than a copy. although modern of the old
vintage which the tsarine had admired
That original he had no right to give
even to tsarine. This is not so much
because of it's value-a single modern
copy might cost sJO,OO0-but for patriotic,
sentimental and artistic reasons The
French state must keep it's ancient orig
inals
Yet Felix Faure packed the original to
ST. Petersburg and a copy now takes It's
place in the state furniture lists. 1t
made a great Stir at the time but the
tsarine did not, obviously. read the pa
pers-she never sent the precious antique
back.
Such are the royal traditions Inherited
by the French republic. The old kings
interested themselves in certain splendid
manufactures, Of tapestry, furniture. cut
glass and porcelain. The most famous
that survive to modern times are at
Sevres and the Gobelins."
At the Gobelins they originally made
all kinds of precious furniture for the
royal palaces and chateaux. The Gobe-
Inns family. who gave their name to that
little quarter of Paris, had nothing to do
with it; they actually became immortal
through tapestry without having ever
woven a square inch of it! They were
simply dyers, and having, after three gen
erations, made fortune, they bought
titles, retired and left their name to the
quarter by the little River Vievre itself
called 1.-The river of the Gobelins". and
noted for its water being uniquely Ia
vorable to dyeing.
King Louis XIV bought up their dye
ing factory and united in it all his royal
tapestry workers previously scattered
about Paris. added dyers. elders. join
ers, cabinet makers. painters, carvers.
founders, etc, under the title OF Royal
Mandatory of Crown Furniture, and the
particular direction of two such famous
artists as Ch. Lebrun and Mignard
Sevres was built up in the same way
by King Louis XIV, from the scattered
royal porcelain makers of st. Cloud and
VincenneS.
The royal furniture making soon ceased.
The royal glassware had ceased under
Louis XIII. But GobelinS tapestries and
Sevres porcelains continued to be royal
and national products of world renown.
growing ever more famous through reVo-
luton, republic. empire. restoration. sec
ond empire and republic down to the pres
ent moment
They were the special gifts of great
kings to each other. Little kings could
not afford it. The Tsar Peter /, visiting
. FontainebIeau. unpacked barbaric gifts
for Louis XIV, chiefly furs and uncut
jewels. In return the magnificent French
king gave Peter the History of Louis
XIV series of tapestries to furnish the
bare walls of his wintry palace.
~
The smallest king to whom Louis XIV
presented an entire series, of his own
Hunts tapestries was his own father
in-law, Stanislas of Poland. No one knows
what has become Of them. They may
hang hidden in some obscure Russian
chateau. Their value today would be
several millions.
Private families who were rich enough
could always have Gobelins executed on
: order; but 1t was always much cheaper
to patronize Beauvais or any Of half q
dozen non-state tapestry works. In old
days even small. well furnished houses
r needed tapestries. Plaster was unknown:
!. wall paper nonresident; and some KIND