Tapestry : Mirror of History

Newton Abbot, Devon, UK: David & Charles PLC. Very Good/Very Good. 1980. Hard Cover. 4to 0715376861 Dust jacket complete, unclipped. Brown cloth with bright gilt titling on spine. No ownership inscription. 114 pages clean and tight. For more than two thousand years the `elegant art' of tapestry has been regarded as the noblest form of decor. Countless designers and craftsmen have worked to produce superb and colourful wall-hangings, tonlbcovers, altar and table cloths, and castle or palace decorations; and, in more recent times, motifs to grace the interiors of -twentieth-century buildings. The latter in particular have helped to change tapestry from being the hobby of kings and emperors - who often used the gift of elaborate tapestry as a bribe - to being an art form of the people, with many new looms being set up in homes and schools. This is a history of tapestry and 'tapestry making from its emergence in prehistory as a separate artistic form, to the present, when it is undergoing dramatic changes in style. F P Thomson - who has been closely associated with the production and design of tapestry for more than fifty years - believes that it cannot be studied and appreciated in isolation from other contemporary or historic textile design and weaving techniques, and that the richness of tapestry owes much to the ideas and methods generated in carpet, rug and general textile workshops. The book discusses the development of tapestry design against the world of textiles from which it emerged as the most notable art form. It will appeal to connoisseurs of antiquities and art; artists, designers and decorators; textile specialists and the general public - many of whom seek leisure-time fulfilment in artistic self-expression and find rich contentment in this elegant art. .