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Collectibles -> Linens, Fabric & Textiles -> Tapestries

Tapestries are more than just beautiful wall hangings, they’re woven art that served to tell stories in ancient times. The Odyssey and the Iliad were both “told” in woven form as large, rich tapestries. Every period in history has had major events chronicled in tapestry form. Even the Old and New Testaments of the Bible have been the inspiration for large and detailed woven tapestry art. Once a major art form, large tapestries were owned by the wealthy and the aristocracy, with castles often decorated with dozens or even hundreds of these creations. The Parthenon was even believed to have tapestries decorating its walls.

Religious and romantic stories were told in tapestries in the 13th and 14th centuries in what’s known as gothic art. While beauty and artistry were important, the story itself was the focus, with religious symbolism and spirituality being the most common themes of the stories. Woven artwork had gone into a lull for several centuries, with large pieces of art done chiefly by painters and by embroidery. But the gothic art movement brought woven art back into the mainstream.

Renaissance art, on the other hand, that became popular in the 16th century thanks to artist like Raphael, focused on image and illusion more than storytelling. The woven art of tapestries followed the flow of other art into pictorial images in the Renaissance style.

Paris was the tapestry capital of the world, with France being the top and most important tapestry producer from the Middle Ages to the Hundred Years War. During the war, many tapestries were lost to looting and pillaging, or burned for the precious metals they contained in the silver and gold thread.

Most of the ancient tapestries still available today are dated from the 16th century Renaissance period through the 19th century, and are usually made from Italian silk, Picardy wool and silver and gold threads from Cyprus. These original tapestries are chiefly found in homes of the royalty or very wealthy, or in museums, as they command high prices and are extremely valuable. True tapestries are easily identified by a look at the back side of the pieces to see the weaving.

Reproduction tapestries, while they sound like little more than copies or fakes, command high prices as well and can still be valuable to collectors who want the original art in a similar form. Those tapestries that can’t be accurately copied in a true jacquard weave are done by a method of hand-silk-screening and painting that can take years. They are often more expensive that woven reproductions because of the time and effort involved. To get a truly detailed reproduction of a large tapestry, creating the perfect hand-made screen can take 1 to 4 years.

Important considerations when shopping for tapestries is to make sure you understand whether the tapestry is an original or a reproduction. Whether it’s woven or tediously hand-painted is an important point that can greatly affect the value of the tapestry, as well.

Originally posted 2008-10-13 14:00:01. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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