Besides the establishments we have here passed in review, many others will doubtless yet be discovered. On the other hand, as we have already remarked as regards Italy, there are many works about the nationality of which there can be no question, but which, for want of sufficient proof, cannot be attributed to any known ateliers. Such is a valuable tapestry that we regard as French, and that many connoisseurs have proposed to refer to the Fontainebleau manufactory. In a landscape where the prevailing tints are bluish-green, a number of figures in bright-coloured costumes of the Henry IV. period are assisting and taking part in the death of the roebuck The scene is framed in a rich border of fruits, flowers, and animals. Slightly but very tastefully touched, this border reproduces at intervals those little lap-dogs of which Henry III. was so fond. On the brown margin is embroidered this mark in white, and above it this shuttle filled in with pink and white silks. Many might be tempted to recognise the cipher of Babcu in the crowned letter. But if so, we would have to ask was he still director under Henry IV., or whether the establishment had not ahead)' yielded to the rivalry of the Trinity, if not actually ruined by political events.

M. Vail exhibited an equally remarkable hanging, though without signature. Doubtless forming part of a series illustrating the Seasons, above was Venus and the sign of the Virgin; below Ceres, goddess of the harvest; in the centre a Parisian landscape, with Montmartre in the background, and figures in the costume of the Henry IV. epoch engaged in rural pleasures; on the left a feast under an arbour; on the right, lovers whom Cupid himself is intoxicating with the wine of the country. This piece was attributed to the Maison des Jésuites, Faubourg Saint-Antoine. The border of twisted pattern intersected by rosettes, surmounting another and a broader frame adorned with feathering acanthus leaves, and branches of foliage, in indented pattern, all doubtless may belong to this epoch; but the point is very far from being absolutely certain.

In the Garde Meuble, or storehouse of the furniture of the State, is another hanging which may have come from the same workshop, as it is subsequent to the year 1600. We see on the border, above and in the centre, the crowned escutcheons of France and Navarre; below, the cipher of Henry IV. with the sword in pale and the two sceptres in saltier united by a scroll, with the legend, Duos protegil unus; at the corners is the monogram of Marie de Mediais crowned and encircled with palms, the whole accompanied by genii and groups of flowers and fruits on a brown ground. This piece must therefore have been made either for or after the marriage of the king with Marie. The theme itself, taken from Roman history, seems to have no interest in the matter beyond its careful and delicate execution, recalling the Italian rather than the Flemish manner, and the profusion of gold and silver heightening the effect of the work. Where the question becomes exciting is where we find upon the blue margin, first this mark in gold on the left; then, on the right, also in gold, the signature apparently that of an artist, and the sign traced on the side margin to the right.

The fleur-de-lis belongs by right and privilege to the royal establishment, and we accordingly meet it again both at the Gobelins and at Beauvais; but may not the signature be that of one of the workers in gold and in silk brought from Italy, and placed under the orders of Laurent and Dubourg? At least the form of the N and 1 would agree well enough with this tempting suggestion. As to the sign, in which we may detect an I. a V", and an E, it remains unexplained.

The piece here described must have been the starting point of a whole series. We meet with one of more recent date, with a blue border, where the escutcheons and ciphers are encircled with rich foliage. The subject, less overloaded with silver and gold, is purely mythological - Apollo in a car, preceded by two canephorae, is surrounded by a train of the muses.

Amongst the many problems suggested by the Exhibition of Costume, must be mentioned the following. Large tapestries, apparently forming a series, were characterised by a framework composed of tall caryatides, supporting an entablature, in the centre of which two Amorini were bearing a wreath of flowers. All the subjects, with figures and costumes of the sixteenth century, had reference to the chase - the departure, the meet, the find, and the preparations of a rural entertainment for the return. These pieces were regarded as Flemish, and there was a certain style of Rubens about them that did not belie this conjecture. But the margins bore a silver shield of these diverse shapes, with the cross in gules, which seems to have been the mark of a town. Would it be Genoa or Treves, places not mentioned as centres of fabrication? Accompanying one of the escutcheons were the initials F. P., which throw no light on the subject, more especially as this particular tapestry which bears it was in quite a peculiar style. On an almost white ground is represented an offering to the god Pan, in which children dancing or playing with a he-goat follow in the suite of a bacchante and some fauns. The border was a simple torus or moulding of laurel in imitation of gold.

How much research then is required to elucidate this branch of the art. Nor is this all. Even the most authentic documents are to be mistrusted. We all know that a fine series was executed in Brussels, each piece bearing the legend, FRUCTUS BELLI. But one similar was also executed in France, and we have ourselves seen pieces signed I. SOVET and L. CROIX. P. Thus from the time of Francis I. to Louis XIV., from Brussels to the Gobelins, the famous cartoons of Giulio Romano have occupied the workers of high-warp tapestry. The same may be said of the tapestry of Scipio and many others.

There remains to be mentioned a species of tapestry of a peculiar description, occupying a middle position between painting and tapestry. At one of the exhibitions of the Union Centrale there were shown some large pieces representing the grandest compositions of Raffaellc executed in " fast dyes." They were neither cartoons nor models for tapestry, but true tapestries, of which the process has since been continued. Thus, at the Exhibition of Costume every one noticed a fine piece painted at the Gobelins in the time of Louis XIV., representing the great Conde ordering some military manoeuvres. Executed upon a cotton rep, this tapestry is still remarkably fresh. Later, the process become more general and vulgarised, and in a little book published in 1779-80, entitled "le Guide Marseillais," there occurs this curious notice: -

MELCHIOR BARD1ER, maker of painted tapestries, outside the Place de Noailles;

A. JOSEPH DUPRE, maker of painted tapestries, Place Saint-Martin.

Thus at this period Marseilles was the principal centre of this industry, which is now once more reviving, thanks to the initiative of M. Guichard. It was he who, after the most painstaking researches, re-discovered the secret of this art of painting, so well adapted for the decoration of apartments.

Nor is this all. We are led to believe that painting on textiles, probably inspired by the Indians, dates back to remote times. St. Jerome, one of the fathers of the Church, speaks of painted carpets in use in his time. The Madonna of Vercelli, said to be the work of St. Helena, mother of Constantine, is a sort of mosaic of pieces of silk sewn together, the head and hands being painted. It is, at all events, certain that in the sixteenth century the process was general. Felibien speaks of hangings "painted on cloth of silver" with light colours, executed by Primaticcio, and which, after being in the possession of M. de Montmorency, adorned the Hotel de Conde. In Spain and Italy there existed works in the same manner by the same painter, which are thus quoted by Vasari in his biography of that artist. "For the Cardinal of Augusta he made seven historical pieces painted on cloth of silver, which were greatly admired in Spain, whither they had been sent by this Cardinal to be presented to King Philip for the decoration of an apartment. Another similar cloth of silver, painted in the same manner, may now be seen in the Church of the Chiesini of Forli".