‘Le Cheval Fondu’ (Leap-Frog), A late Louis XV pastoral tapestry, Aubusson, from the series Les Amusements Champêtres', after Jean-Baptise Huet or Jacques-Nicolas Julliard, late 18th century

woven with young men playing `Leap-Frog’ and another young man walking towards the group from a house emerging from the left side, a young lady and child seat upon a log looking on, within a woodland clearing and large stone fountain, with a distant fisherman walking over a bridge in the centre background, and lady looking on from the doorway of a building on the far right, within an associated four-sided banded border with twisted floral and foliate trail, and acanthus and cabochon corners

Les Amusements Champêtres, designed as a set of eight by J.B. Oudry, was originally woven in the Beauvais workshop between 1730-1733, and is listed in J. Badin, Tapisseries de Beauvais, Paris, 1909, p.58, of which `le cheval fondu’ (leap-frog) is the first. The second series of 1761 attributed to Aubusson, is noted in Badin, opcit. pg.83. 

D. Chevalier, Tapisseries d'Aubusson et de Felletin, Paris, 1988, p.149 discusses the Aubusson series, attributed to the workshop of Pierre Dumonteil (1732-1787) and p.178 refers to the numerous subjects associated with the series including le cheval fondu.

See Sotheby’s, 4^th October 2000, lot 130, and Thierry de Maigret, Paris, 10^th December 2003, lot 308, for tapestries of le cheval fondu, both with frame pattern borders with floral motifs and scrolling leaves surrounding cabochon and in addition see The property of Lord and Lady Hesketh Easton Neston, Northamptonshire, Sotheby’s, 17^th-19^th May 2005, lot 71, for a version of this design within a scrolling floral and acanthus leaf border.