1. History

2. Mission

3. Archive

4. Other archives, collections and photos
     Institutions    Private collections    Galleries  

5. Research projects
    Surveys 

6. Lost and stolen

7. Other uses of the documentation

8. References

9. Further reading
    General  Museum collections  Flemish tapestry  French tapestry  German tapestry  British tapestry  Italian tapestry  Other 

10. External links

The Franses Tapestry Archive and Library in London is devoted to the study of European Tapestries and figurative textiles. It is the world’s largest academic research resource on the subject.^[1]

History

Established in 1987, the archive was co-founded by Simon Franses, a director of the Franses Gallery and Tom Campbell,^[2] a tapestry scholar. After 7 years of full-time work Dr Campbell moved to New York to take up a curatorial post at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He went on to curate two landmark Tapestry exhibitions Tapestry in the Renaissance: Art and Magnificence (2002)^[3] and Tapestry in the Baroque: Threads of Splendor (2007).^[4] In 2008 he was appointed director of the museum.

The vast collection of images began to be collected by Dr Campbell with a team of research assistants, and was gathered from across Europe and America. The Archive has continued to expand over 29 years. It now holds over 240,000 visual records of European tapestries accessible by subject, date, country of manufacture and place of origin. These records have been collected and catalogued from several hundred museums, libraries, auction houses, trade and private collections, and allows precise identification of individual works (as well as visual reconstruction of dispersed sets of tapestries).

Mission

• To collect images and data on every significant European tapestry and figurative textile.
• To identify, classify, cross-reference and conserve these.
• To increase knowledge by collecting books, related articles, and documentation on design, commissioning, origin, production, use, value, provenance.
• To increase appreciation and understanding of this art form.

Archive

The images are stored under almost 900 main headings from Landmark Series of European Tapestries to more modest works, altar frontal, table carpets, cushions and upholstery.

The Collection includes:

• Visual records: 240,000 +
• Reference Books: 2,760
• Articles: 3,600
• Catalogues of major collections: 450
• Sale catalogues and periodicals: 20,000

Other archives, collections and photos

Institutions

• The V & A Marillier Tapestry Subject Catalogue,^[29] fifty volumes of script and photographs, donated to the Nation in 1945
• Musée Royaux d’art et d’histoire, Brussels, Archive of Flemish Tapestries
• The Burrell Collection, Glasgow
• Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris

Private collections

• Donald King, donated by Monique King
• Edith Standen
• Jack Franses

Galleries

• Bernheimer, Munich
• Duveen, New York
• S Franses, London
• French & Company, New York
• Hamot, Paris
• C John, London
• Mayorcas, London
• Perez, London
• Rosenberg & Steibel, New York
• Seligman, Paris

Research projects

The Archive has undertaken a number of research projects. A joint survey with the National Trust of the Tapestries in their 200 historic houses was carried out. Assistance is given to academics and scholars^[30][31] and where copyright is owned, images are made available for publication.^[32]

A project with Glasgow City Art Gallery and Museum assembling documentation from the Archive on Sir William Burrell’s collection of medieval tapestries. The Burrell Collection has appointed two international tapestry scholars to catalogue this Tapestry collection.^[33] The archive assisted with the academic research and securing loans for the "History Woven in Threads" an Exhibition of Medieval and Renaissance Tapestries held in 2014 at Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania, Vilnius.^[34]

Surveys

• National Trust Survey
• US Public Collections Survey

Lost and stolen

Several missing or stolen pieces have been recovered through the Archive – in 1993 two Gobelins Tapestries stolen from the Institute of Fine Arts, New York, were located and returned, and a Brussels Tapestry stolen from North Mymms Park, England. In 2001 The Art Loss Register deposited images of missing or stolen tapestries and textiles.

Other uses of the documentation

The documentation is also used to provide appraisals for government indemnity in the case of inter-museum loans, grant-giving bodies and Acceptance in Lieu.

References

Further reading

General

• {{cite book|last1=Joubert|first1=Fabienne|last2=Lefébure|first2=Amaury|last3=Bertrand|first3=P-F|title=Histoire de la Tapisserie: En Europe, du Moyen-Âge `a nos Jours|date=1995|publisher=Paris: Flammarion|isbn=2-08-010969-3}}
• {{cite book|last1=Heniz|first1=Dora|title=Europäische Wandteppiche I. Von der Anfängen der Bilderwerkerie bis zum Ende des 16 Jahrhunderts|date=1963|publisher=Klinkhardt & Biermann|location=Brunswick}}
• {{cite book|last1=Thomson|first1=F P|title=Tapestry, Mirror of History|date=1980|publisher=David & Charles|location=Newton Abbot|isbn=0-7153-7686-1}}
• {{cite book|last1=Thomson|first1=W G|title=A History of Tapestry from the Earliest Times Until the Present Day|date=1973|publisher=EP Publishing Ltd|location=Wakefield|isbn=0-85409-768-6|edition=Third Edition, Revised by F.P. and E.S. Thomson}}

Museum collections

• {{cite book|last1=Cavallo|first1=Adolfo Salvatore|title=Medieval Tapestries in the Metropolitan Museum of Art|date=1993|publisher=The Metropolitan Museum of Art|location=New York|isbn=0-87099-644-4}}
• {{cite book|last1=Joubert|first1=Fabienne|title=La Tapisserie Médiévale au Musée de Cluny|date=1987|publisher=Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication / Éditions de la Réunion des Musées Nationaux|location=Paris|isbn=2-7118-2-094-7}}
• {{cite book|last1=Standen|first1=Edith Appleton|title=European Post-Medieval Tapestries and Related Hangings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. (2 vols.)|date=1985|publisher=The Metropolitan Museum of Art|location=New York|isbn=0-87099-406-9}}
• {{cite book|last1=Wingfield Digby|first1=G F|title=The Victoria and Albert Museum. The Tapestry Collection : Medieval and Renaissance|date=1980|publisher=Her Majesty's Stationery Office|location=London|isbn=0 11 290246 4}}
• {{cite book|last1=Adelson|first1=Candace J|title=European Tapestry in the Minneapolis Institute of Arts|date=1994|publisher=The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, New York : Abrams|location=Minneapolis|isbn=0-8109-3262-8}}
• {{cite book|last1=Bennett|first1=Anna Gray|title=Five Centuries of Tapestry : The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco|date=1992|publisher=Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco|location=San Francisco|isbn=0-8118-0213-2}}
• {{cite book|last1=Cavallo|first1=Adolph|title=Tapestries of Europe and Colonial Peru in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. (2 Vols)|date=1967|publisher=Museum of Fine Arts|location=Boston}}
• {{cite book|last1=Junquera de Vega|first1=Paulina|last2=Carretero|first2=Concha Herro|title=Catalogo de Tapices del Patrimonio Nacional. (2 vols.)|date=1986|publisher=Editorial Patrimonio Nacional|location=Madrid|isbn=84-7120-102-X}}

Flemish tapestry

• {{cite book|last1=Delmarcel|first1=Guy|title=Flemish Tapestry|date=1999|publisher=London: Thames & Hudson|isbn=0-500-01972-X}}
• {{cite book|last1=Göbel|first1=Heinrich (trans Robert West)|title=Tapestries of the Lowlands|date=1974|publisher=Hacker Art Books|location=New York|isbn=0878171320|edition=Reprint}}
• {{cite book|last1=Göbel|first1=Heinrich|title=Wandteppiche I. Die Niederlande. (2 Vols)|date=1923|publisher=Klinkhardt & Biermann|location=Leipzig}}
• {{cite book|last1=d'Hulst|first1=R-A|title=Flemish Tapestries from the Fifteenth to the Eighteenth Century|date=1967|publisher=Arcade|location=Brussels}}

French tapestry

• {{cite book|last1=Badin|first1=Jules|title=La Manufacture de Tapisseries de Beauvais depuis ses origines jusqu’a nos jours|date=1909|publisher=Sociéte de propagation des livres d’art|location=Paris}}
• {{cite book|last1=Bertrand|first1=P-F|last2=Chevalier|first2=D & P|title=Les Tapisseries d’Aubusson et de Felletin 1457-1791|date=1988|publisher=Solarge Thierry Editeur|location=Paris}}
• {{cite book|last1=Fenaille|first1=Maurice|title=État général des tapisseries de la manufacture des Gobelins depuis son origine jusqu’à nos jours 1600-1900. (6 Vols.)|date=1903–1906|publisher=Hachette|location=Paris}}
• {{cite book|last1=Göbel|first1=Heinrich|title=Wandteppiche II. Die Romanischen Länder. (2 Vols)|date=1928|publisher=Schmidt & Günther|location=Leipzig}}
• {{cite book|last1=Weigert|first1=R-A|title=French Tapestry|date=1962|publisher=Faber & Faber|location=London}}

German tapestry

• {{cite book|last1=Göbel|first1=Heinrich|title=Wandteppiche III. Die Germanischen und Slavischen Länder. (2 Vols)|date=1933–1934|publisher=Schmidt & Günther|location=Leipzig}}
• {{cite book|last1=Kurth|first1=Betty|title=Die Deutsche Bildteppiche du Miltelalters. (3 Vols)|date=1926|publisher=A Schroll & Co|location=Vienna}}

British tapestry

• {{cite book|last1=Marillier|first1=H C|title=History of the Merton Abbey Tapestry Works, Founded by William Morris|date=1927|publisher=Constable & Co|location=London}}
• {{cite book|last1=Thomson|first1=W G|title=Tapestry Weaving in England, from the Earliest Times to the end of the Eighteenth Century|date=1914|publisher=B T Batsford|location=London}}
• {{cite book|last1=Scottish Arts Council|title=Master Weavers. Tapestry from the Dovecot Studios 1912-80. (Exhibition Catalogue)|date=1980|publisher=Canongate|location=Edinburgh}}

Italian tapestry

• {{cite book|last1=Viale Ferrero|first1=M|title=Arazzi italiani|date=1983|publisher=Electa|location=Milan}}

Other

• {{cite book|last1=Buri|first1=Anna|last2=Stucky-Schürer|first2=Monica|title=Zahm und Wild : Basler und Straßbuger Bildteppiche des 15. Jahrhunderts|date=1990|publisher=Verlag Phillip von Zabern|location=Mainz|isbn=3-8053-1174-5}}
• {{cite book|last1=Baldass|first1=Ludwig|title=Die Wiener Gobelinsammlung. Dreihundert bildtafeln mit beschreibenden text|date=1920|publisher=Osterr. Verlagsgesellschaft Ed. Hölzel & Co|location=Vienna}}
• {{cite book|last1=Bremmer-David|first1=Charissa|title=Woven Gold: Tapestries of Louis XIV|date=2015|publisher=Getty Publications|location=Los Angeles|isbn=978-1-60606-461-0}}

External links

• V&A http://www.vam.ac.uk/page/t/tapestry/
• Met http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/tapb/hd_tapb.htm
• West Dean https://www.westdean.org.uk/study/school-of-creative-arts/tapestry-studio
• Dovecote Studios https://dovecotstudios.com/tapestry-studio/about/
• Studies in Western Tapestry https://www.arts.kuleuven.be/studiesinwesterntapestry
• Franses Tapestry Archive http://fransestapestryarchive.org/ (with information for Users Group)

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