A French Hunting Tapestry, Felletin 18th century

within a four-sided floral border on a sable coloured ground, with the town and weaver's marks within the lower selvedge, MR.DE. FELLETIN.DE.F.D

D & P. Chevalier, and P.F Bertrand, Les Tapisseries d’Aubusson et de Felletin, Lausanne, 1988, Les tapisseries tissées sous le rées sous le règne de Louis XIV, pg.97.

Colours lighter and more attractive than in the photograph. Crisp and defined in appearance in reality. Colours not as strident as in the photograph. There are some old repairs generally, visible as small areas of different colour, often mustard or terracotta shades. See for example to terracotta shade of speckles in the sky, and in the lower left corner of brown ground. There is a patched repair in the centre of the water area in the lower right corner. Balanced composition and colour overall. Some charming details to figures, including faces, and in different tree varieties, and the figures are of diminutive size and not overwhelming. Highly decorative wall covering with lovely border. Tapestry is lined. Velcro needs replacing for hanging purposes in the future.
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Both Aubusson and the nearby town of Felletin had workshops recorded in the 16th century, during the reign of Henri III and wove verdures, landscapes, Biblical and mythological tapestries. Into the 17th century, under King Henri IV, the small various workshops produced distinctive `forest work' and `exotic verdure' compositions, which along with the hunting tapestries and religious subjects remained popular under the Valois kings.

The workshops of the area were conferred with special benefits by the Crown and in 1620 were again exempted from custom duties on tapestries made in their factories and sent to Paris. The town marks, clearly legible as the town names (Manufacture Royale de Aubusson - or Felletin), were followed by initials (not always recorded) and sometimes included the names of the weavers.

For a comparable La Marche area hunting tapestry, with a variant of an acanthus leaf border, with the figures on a smaller scale, signed J.Pradaux, MR Aubssson, see Sotheby's, Zurich, 3rd June 1997, lot 99. A similar tapestry depicting the virtually identical left hand side of the composition of the present tapestry was sold at Sotheby's, London, 7th December 1979, lot 21 and it was attributed to Aubusson, circa 1750, and was within a simpler frame pattern border, no town or weaver's marks.