▪ I. tapestry, n.
(ˈtæpɪstrɪ)
Forms: 5 tapstery, 5–6 tapestrye, 5–8 tapistry, 6 tapstry, -ye, tappistre, 6–7 tapes-, tapis-, tapstrie, 6– tapestry.
[Corruption of tapesry, tapesserie, tapisry, or other form of tapissery. The t may have developed phonetically between s and r, or may have been aided by words in -istry: cf. tapester. (In Milton and Dryden a disyllable.)]
1. a. A textile fabric decorated with designs of ornament or pictorial subjects, painted, embroidered, or woven in colours, used for wall hangings, curtains, covers for seats, to hang from windows or balconies on festive occasions, etc.; especially, such a decorated fabric, in which a weft containing ornamental designs in coloured wool or silk, gold or silver thread, etc., is worked with bobbins or broaches, and pressed close with a comb, on a warp of hemp or flax stretched in a frame. Often loosely applied to imitative textile fabrics.
| 1434 [implied in tapestry-work]. 1467 Mann. & Househ. Exp. (Roxb.) 387 My mastyr bowte of Skukborow of Cornelle, xij. peces of curse tapstery. 1500–20 Dunbar Poems lxxvii. 49 The streittis war all hung with tapestrie. 1513 Douglas æneis ix. vi. 120 Prowd tapystry, and mekle precius ware. 1545 Rates of Custom C vij, Tapistry wyth sylke the ell xx d. 1570 Levins Manip. 106/13 Tapstrye, tapêtum. 1573–80 Baret Alv. T 62 Tapestrie, or hangings, in which are wrought pictures of diuerse colours. 1590 Shakes. Com. Err. iv. i. 104 In the Deske That's couer'd o're with Turkish Tapistrie. 1633 G. Herbert Temple, Church Porch xlv, I care not though the cloth of state should be Not of rich arras, but mean tapestrie. 1649 Milton Eikon. xxvii. Wks. 1851 III. 513 To be struck as mute and motionless as a Parlament of Tapstrie in the Hangings. 1700 Dryden Pal. & Arc. iii. 104 Rich tapestry spread the streets, and flowers the posts adorn. 1777 Watson Philip II (1839) 47 Arras was famous for tapestries, which still retain the name of that place. 1835 Penny Cycl. IV. 68/1 Bayeux Tapestry, a web or roll of linen cloth or canvass, preserved at Bayeux in Normandy, upon which a continuous representation of the events connected with the invasion and conquest of England..is worked in woollen thread of different colours. 1842 Brande Dict. Sc. etc. s.v., In Painting, tapestry is applied to a representation of a subject in wool or silk..worked on a woven ground of hemp or flax. 1858 Hawthorne Fr. & It. Note-Bks. I. 162 Gobelin tapestry..brilliant as pictures. |
b. transf. and
fig.| 1581 Sidney Apol. Poetrie (Arb.) 25 Nature neuer set forth the earth in so rich tapistry, as diuers Poets haue done. c 1630 Risdon Surv. Devon §175 (1810) 184 A bridge, whose chiefest tapestry is Ivy. 1693 Evelyn De la Quint. Compl. Gard. II. 179 Squares covered with Green Herbs, compleat the tapestry, that adorns the Ground. 1831 Carlyle Sart. Res. i. x. (1858) 38 Looking at the fair tapestry of human life. 1845 Stocqueler Handbk. Brit. India (1854) 215 The rich tapestry of the jungles. 1875 Lowell Under Old Elm ii. iii, Present and Past..inseparably wrought Into the seamless tapestry of thought. |
c. Now
freq. applied to (pieces of) canvas embroidery executed typically with wool in tent stitch.
| 1882 Caulfeild & Saward Dict. Needlework 473/2 Tapestry worked by the needle..differs but slightly from Embroidery. The stitches are made to lie close together, so that no portion of the foundation is visible. 1955 Stitchcraft Mar. 9 The design [for a picture] is worked in tent-stitch by the counted thread..; the chart includes instructions for tent-stitch and hints on stretching tapestry. 1971 Harrods Magical Christmas 9 Tapestry Cushion Pack of tramme canvas, wools and needle. Ibid., If desired, we will stretch and mount the finished tapestry on velvet. 1976 P. Clabburn Needleworker's Dict. 263/3 Nowadays in Britain, any piece of canvas work, large or small, is called tapestry work, which is a misnomer, while America, although not falling into that particular trap, calls canvas work needlepoint, which is also confusing as that word should apply to lace made with a needle. |
2. Short for
tapestry-carpet,
needle: see 3.
| 1879 Cassell's Techn. Educ. IV. 390/1 In the Brussels the coloured wools make up the bulk of the carpet, while in the ‘tapestry’ the wool..is..all on the surface. 1895 Montgomery Ward Catal. Spring & Summer 88/1 Needle Case... Contains—..Crewel..Tapestry..Bodkin. 1968 J. Ironside Fashion Alphabet 94 Tapestry, a needle which has a blunt point and large eye, used for embroidery with wool. |
3. attrib. and
Comb., as
tapestry artist,
tapestry covering,
tapestry hall,
tapestry-hanging,
tapestry-maker,
tapestry-making,
tapestry-man,
tapestry room,
tapestry table-cover,
tapestry wool;
tapestry-covered,
tapestry-like adjs.;
tapestry beetle, a dermestid beetle,
Attagenus piceus, the larva of which is destructive to tapestry, woollens, etc.;
tapestry-carpet, a carpet resembling Brussels, but in which the warp-yarn forming the pile is coloured so as to produce the pattern when woven;
tapestry-cloth, a piece of tapestry;
spec. a corded linen prepared for ‘tapestry-painting’ (
Cent. Dict.);
tapestry-moth, a species of clothes-moth, as
Tinea tapetzella;
cf. carpet-moth;
tapestry needle, a blunt needle with a large eye used in tapestry-making and canvas embroidery;
tapestry-painting, painting on linen in imitation of tapestry; material thus prepared;
tapestry-stitch, properly
= Gobelin stitch; also applied to the cross- and tent-stitch work on fine canvas (
tapisserie au petit point);
tapestry-weaver, one who weaves tapestry; also, a species of spider;
tapestry-weaving, the weaving of tapestry; the method of weaving by bobbin and comb, used in making tapestry, as distinct from weaving in a loom with a shuttle. See also
tapestry-work.
| 1908 Times, Lit. Suppl. 3 Sept. 286/3 Designs prepared by a *tapestry artist from bird's-eye views specially drawn by William Van de Velde the Elder. |
| 1858 Simmonds Dict. Trade, *Tapestry-carpets, the name generally given to a..two-ply or ingrain carpet, the warp or weft being printed before weaving, so as to produce the figure in the cloth. |
| 1579 Tomson Calvin's Serm. Tim. 656/2 Long and large *tapistrie clothes. |
| 1552 Huloet, *Tapestry couerynge, instratum. |
| 1634 Milton Comus 324 Honest-offer'd courtesie Which oft is sooner found in lowly sheds With smoaky rafters, than in *tapstry Halls And Courts of Princes. |
| 1552 Huloet, *Tapestrye hangynges for noble mens houses. 1700 Congreve Way of World ii. vi, Like Solomon at the dividing of the Child in an old Tapestry Hanging. |
| 1884 J. Tait Mind in Matter (1892) 95 *Tapestry-like designs. |
| 1611 Cotgr., Tapissier, a *Tapistrie-maker. |
| 1876 Rock Text. Fabr. 95 The art of *tapestry-making. |
| 1727–41 Chambers Cycl. s.v., The design, or painting the *Tapestry-man is to follow, is placed underneath the warp. |
| 1815 Kirby & Sp. Entomol. viii. (1818) I. 233 T[inea] tapetzella, or the *tapestry moth, not uncommon in our houses, is most injurious to the lining of carriages. |
| 1888–9 T. Eaton & Co. Catal. Fall & Winter 64/2 The Household Needle Case contains darners, glovers, square-carpet, yarn, chenille, *tapestry,..and crewel needles. 1967 E. Lemarchand Death of Old Girl xvii. 196 Tim Pollard watched her..as she plied a tapestry needle. |
| 1817 M. Edgeworth Harrington xviii. 496 Mr. Montenero..asked, in particular, about a *tapestry room,—a picture of Sir Josseline. 1977 R. Player Month of Mangled Models vi. 105 The casements of the Tapestry Room were wide span, and the Camelot curtains had been pulled back. |
| 1859 W. Collins Q. of Hearts (1875) 23 A rugged *tapestry table-cover. |
| 1796 Morse Amer. Geog. II. 345 The Flemings formerly engrossed *tapestry-weaving to themselves. 1889 Alan S. Cole Cantor Lect., Egyptian Tapestry i. 8 The process [anciently] employed is the same as that which was used by the great Flemish weavers..for making their splendid war tapestries, and is now commonly known as the tapestry weaving or Gobelins process. |
| 1880 L. Higgin Handbk. Embroidery i. 4 *Tapestry Wool is more than twice the thickness of crewel... Tapestry wool is not yet made in all shades. 1960 G. Lewis Handbk. Crafts 36 The most usual wool for this work is that with a slight twist to it called ‘tapestry’ wool, but other kinds may be used according to the mesh of the canvas. |
▪ II. tapestry, v. (
ˈtæpɪstrɪ)
[f. prec. n. See also tapister.] 1. trans. To cover, hang, or adorn with, or as with, tapestry. (Chiefly in
pass.)
| c 1630 Risdon Surv. Devon §192 (1810) 206 The ruins..is..tapestried with ivy. 1798 C. Smith Yng. Philos. II. 102 The hardiest plant that tapestries the rude bosom of the North. Ibid. 165 My walls..were tapestried with the rock lichen. 1881 Mrs. C. Praed Policy & P. II. 14 The grape-leaves with which the verandah was tapestried. |
2. To work or depict in tapestry.
| 1814 Scott Wav. lxiii, Remnants of tapestried hangings. 1876 T. Hardy Ethelberta II. xl, Where Elizabethan mothers and daughters..had tapestried the love-scenes of Isaac and Jacob. |
Hence
ˈtapestried ppl. a., adorned with tapestry; woven in the manner of tapestry.
| 1769 Sir W. Jones Pal. Fortune 24 Some tap'stried hall, or gilded bower. 1794 Southey Retrospect 104 Still with pleasure I recall The tapestried school, the bright brown-boarded hall. 1814 [see 2]. 1848 Thackeray Bk. Snobs xlii, Making covers of..net-work for these tapestried cushions. |