Under the direction of Charles Lebrun, from 1663 until his death in 1690, the manufacture, which employed about 250 workmen, executed nineteen high-warp pieces of tapestry, measuring 4,110 square ells, and thirty-four low-warp pieces of a surface of 4,294 ells, representing a clear value of more than ten millions of francs. These were: the "Acts of the Apostles," copied from Raphael; the "Elements" and the "Seasons" after Lebrun; the "Months," and "1 'Histoire du Roy," after Lebrun and Van der Meulen; the "Battles of Alexander," the models of which Lebrun had painted at the Gobelins; the "History of Moses," after Poussin and Lebrun; the paintings of the Loggie of the Vatican by Raphael; the pictures of the Galerie de Saint Cloud, from P. Mignard.

The other directors were : -

1690-1695. P. Mignard, first painter to the king.

1699-1735 Robert de Cotte, architect.

1735-1747. De Cotte, son, architect.

1747-1755. D'Isle, architect.

1755-1780. Soufflot, architect

1781-1789 Pierre, first painter to the king.

1789-1792. Guillaumot. architect.

1792-1793. Audran. son. formerly chef d'atelier.

1793-1795. Augustin Belle, painter.

1795. Audran, son, reinstated. 1795-1810. Guillaumot, architect, reinstated.

1810. Chanal, head of a department at the Ministere de l'lnterieur, temporary director. 1811-1816. Lemonnier, painter.

1816-1833. Le Baron des Rotours, formerly superior officer. 1833-1848. Lavocat. 1848-1850. Badin, painter. 1850-1860. Lacordaire, architect and engineer.

i860. Badin. painter, reinstated. Alfred Darcel.

The work was confided until 1792, to contractors, who nearly always signed the tapestries executed under their direction. The following is a list of their names: -

1662-1691. Jans, father (high-warp).

1663-1670. Laurent (high-warp).

1663-1700. Lefebvre, father (high-warp).

1663-1714. Jean de la Croix (low-warp).

1663-1693. Mosin (low-warp).

1691-1731. Jans, son (high-warp).

1693-1737. De la Croix, son (low-warp).

1693-1724. Souette (low-warp).

1693-1729. De la Fraye (low-warp).

1697-1736. Lefebvre, son (high-warp).

1701-1751. Lc Blond (low-warp).

1703-1734. De la Tour (high-warp).

1730-1749. Monmerque (low-warp, from 1730 to 1736; high-warp, from

1736 to 1749). 1733-1772. Audran (high-warp). 1736-1788, Cozette (low-warp, from 1736 to 1749; high-warp, from 1749 to 1788). 1749-1788. Nielson (low-warp). 1775-1779. Nielson, son (low-warp).

1772-1792. Audran, son (high-warp), afterwards director. 1788-1792. Cozette, son (high-warp), afterwards chef d'atelier.

Amongst the oldest tapestries of the Gobelins may be mentioned the pastoral subjects in the ancient style, nymphs dancing, shepherds and nymphs playing music, etc.; the borders have a checquered groundwork, with arabesques, canopies, small figures, vases, globes, and trophies; on the top appear the arms of France, and at the bottom, en a shield, the cipher of two L's. Some are signed IANS, and others LEFEBVRE; the latter bear, besides, a monogram which is sometimes found alone on the margins.

It would not be impossible that these hangings, which are foreign to the style of Lebrun, should have been executed previously to the establishment of the Gobelins, that is to say, at the Tuileries, or at the Louvre.

The series of all others the most admired for the perfection of its design and workmanship, and the great value of its material, is the "Histoire du Roy." The oldest piece we have seen was signed with the cipher of Lefebvre and bore this inscription: "Siege de Dovay, en l'annee MDCLVII, ov le Roy Lovis XIV. sortat de la tranchee le canon de le uille tve le cheual d'un garde du corps proche de Sa Majeste".

Then follows the audience granted by King Louis XIV. at Fontainebleau to Cardinal Chigi, nephew and legate a latere of Pope Alexander VII., the XXIX. July, MDCLX1V, to obtain satisfaction for the insult offered at Rome to his ambassador. This piece of tapestry was executed from 1665 to 1672.

The next, and this was without question the most valuable, and that which attracted all eyes at the Exhibition of Costume, was "Louis XIV. visiting the manufactories of the Gobelins, where the sieur Colbert, superintendent of his public buildings, conducts him into all the ateliers, for him to see the different works which are being carried on there." Executed from 1673 to 1679, this magnificent piece described an anterior occurrence, which the "Gazette de France" relates in these terms: "On the 15th October, 1667, Louis XIV., after having visited the works at the palace of the Tuileries, where he was about to take up his residence, went to the Gobelins to see the tapestries which are made there, and especially those which were executed during the campaign, and which His Majesty had ordered before his departure. The sieur Colbert called his attention to the manner in which his ideas and the drawings he had fixed upon, had been followed out, and the sieur Lebrun, who has the special direction of it, had caused the works to be arranged with so much industry and care, that nowhere could be found so rich and so well regulated a collection brought together. The entrance to the courtyard where the pavilion is situated was ornamented with pictures, statues, trophies, and inscriptions, which formed a most magnificent sort of triumphal arch, and the great courtyard was hung round with the superb tapestries manufactured in the place, with a buffet nine fathoms in length, raised in twelve tiers, on which were arranged, in a manner as ingenious as it was magnificent, the rich goldsmith's works, which are made in this same establishment. This buffet was composed of twenty-four large basins, each with its vase, and stand to carry them (brancard), of two bowls, each from five to six feet in diameter, four large pedestals for lights (gueridons), twenty-four vases for orange trees, and of several other pieces, the whole in chased silver, but of a workmanship surpassing even the value of the material, although weighing more than twenty-five thousand marcs. . . . After having examined all these beautiful articles, His Majesty went into all the places where they make the pictures, works of sculpture, miniatures, and wood for inlaid work, as well as the high and low-warp tapestries, and carpets in the Persian style. His Majesty also saw several pieces of goldsmith's work of another buffet, begun with a different design, which agreeably surprised him, as well as the Prince de Conde and the Duke d'Enghien, who accompanied him with a great number of nobles".