Gobelins Royal Manufactory

Timeline

1. 1662–1663Gobelins workshop, Faubourg Saint-Marcel · ParisColbert bought the Gobelins property on behalf of the crown, concentrating tapestry forces from the Louvre, the Faubourg Saint-Germain, and Maincy into one site, converting it into housing and workshops. The painter Charles Le Brun was appointed artistic director, requiring craftsmen to work on site so designs could be corrected at any time.
2. 1667–1690Gobelins Royal Manufactory · ParisIn 1667 the workshop received the title 'Royal Furniture Manufactory,' with the charter specifying apprentice quotas and years required for promotion. Tapestry, cabinetmaking, bronze, and gold and silver craftsmen supplied royal residences such as Versailles in the same workshop and produced diplomatic gifts. Le Brun visualized Louis XIV's wars and tours through complete tapestry sets such as the History of the King.
3. 1694–1699Gobelins Royal Manufactory · ParisThe Nine Years' War shrank the treasury, and the royal luxury workshop closed in 1694. After reopening around the turn of the century it no longer produced a full range of court furniture, specializing instead in tapestry. High-warp and low-warp workshops continued producing for the crown and for export, with quality still among Europe's best, but the comprehensive organizational form of the 'Royal Furniture Manufactory' had contracted.
4. 1699National Gobelins Manufactory · ParisIn the 18th century the workshop continued weaving designs by Boucher, Oudry, and others for the Bourbon court. After the Revolution the institution was nationalized, and in the 19th–20th centuries it was incorporated into the state furniture system. Today the Gobelins Manufactory still trains weavers and accepts state commissions at its original site, one of the few continuously operating descendants of a 17th-century royal workshop in Europe.