This is a manufactory established in the department of the Creuse, the origin of which is both ancient and uncertain; but dating from the seventeenth century, the registers of the archives have afforded us more documents concerning its history than any other. Its regulations are seen from Letters Patent of the 28th May 1732, registered the 2nd July following; a decree of Council of the 23rd November, 1767, appoints Pierre-Leonard Mergoux to be sorter of wools and silks in the manufactory in the place of Jean Nouet, first proposed for this office; finally, on the 13th August, 1773, a fresh decree replaces Mergoux by the sieur Francois Picqueaux.

On the 17th August, 1774, there is another decree of Council, recalling the Letters Patent of the 28th May, 1732, and a decree of the 24th September, 1748, appointing Jean-Francois Picon, in the room and place of the sieur Montezer, to instruct the Aubusson dyers in the art of making the great and good dyes, regulates afresh the organisation of the manufactory, and designates Pierre Picon, as successor to his father, who died in 1761, assigning him 50 livres a year. The manufactory possessed besides its special draughtsmen, and by a decree of the 24th September, 1770, the sieur Roby, a painter, had been appointed to repair the Aubusson designs. He was then working with another painter called La Corre.

The establishment had the mission of making foot carpets in " point de Turquie"; we seek in vain for these carpets; but we find some charming hangings; one in the Garde Meuble, representing a Mountain surmounted by a Chinese pavilion, at the foot of which is a stork under the shade of an apple tree; at the bottom is written: MRDaubusson-Mingounat. Should we not be inclined to read : Manufacture royale d'Aubusson? The other tapestry, belonging to Madame Heine, again exhibits a Chinese subject, after Boucher, that is, the conventional Chinese invented entirely by the artists of the eighteenth century; in this piece personages in a singular costume are busily engaged in rustic occupations near a habitation, and in a landscape of the most fantastic taste.

At the Exhibition of Costume, M. Fellenot exhibited some pieces which brought us back at least, if not to the foot carpet, to the true style of the Aubusson products: on white grounds, or pale grey damasked with ornaments of a darker grey, were framed medallions suspended by garlands of flowers; some of them containing the four seasons, others pastoral scenes such as blind-man's buff, puss-in-the-corner, the swing, etc.