Canal de Bruges from Heirloom European Tapestries- ON SALE NOW!

A year of politics is fully under way in the USA culminating in an election towards the end of the year. History continues to repeat itself over and over again declaring winners and losers whether they are part of a democratic process, battles waged between kings to establish rights to a throne, or a siege to gain territory. The end result is always the same: someone wins and someone loses.

Throughout the centuries these political victories and defeats have been hand woven into tapestries for posterity,  glorifying a king, duke, event or battle scene for us wall tapestry buffs to appreciate, and for historians to document.  A wonderful and classic example of such a hand woven tapestry depicting a victory, is the Bataille de Bruges (Battle of Bruges) woven circa 1670 in Paris, for King Louis XIV – commemorating the victory of the French troops over the Spanish army in the vicinity of Bruges three years earlier (a beautiful reproduction is available from Heirloom European Tapestries in large and extra large size).

Often the commissioning of these tapestries was done by the king or some high ranking nobleman or duke to commemorate a victory of some battle or other.  Often these ‘victory’ wall tapestries were hung in the king’s tent at the current battle scene. This was done as a form of marketing – reminding the noblemen engaged in the current battle that success was meant to be theirs or to intimidate the opposition should there be any negotiations prior to battle or on surrender.  Most of these tapestry wall hangings took years to weave – many were woven incorporating gold and silver threads – making them very desirable as booty in the event of defeat.  Along with gold and silver, tapestries were often used as payment by the defeated king.  One such duke from the 15^th century, Charles the Bold (the last Duke of Burgundy) had over 200 tapestries in his possession (which in the 1400’s was no small feat in itself). He eventually lost most of them along with life in 1477 at the battle of Nancy.

Today winners and losers do not lose their heads, nor do they have to pay ransom to the opposing party, but with high speed media, a wrong move, an incorrect phrase, a miscalculation of his opponents moves  could cost the candidate not only embarrassment, but indeed his candidacy. And so here in the 21^st century, we repeat history – albeit with high speed media – but not so different from our ancestors

'Lady with the Unicorn' tapestries from Heirloom European Tapestries

We are fascinated with unicorns, knights, quests, Holy Grail and the like. Since we were children we have heard stories of knights freeing some beautiful princess in a tower, or slaying some dragon or other. However, our interest in these ‘fantasy’ tales did not stop at childhood but continue into our adult life – after all there is an eternal child that resides in all of us!

For the adult in all of us – many fantasy stories can be found in tapestries through the ages. The most famous of a series of 6 antique tapestries known as the Lady with the Unicorn – and depicts a beautiful damsel flanked by a unicorn on one side and a lion on the other. This series of 6 hand woven tapestries depicts each of the 5 senses (smell, touch, hearing, taste, sight and the 6^th known as To My Only Desire).

These tapestries were discovered by George Sand, a famous author of the 19^th century. The tapestry wall hangings were rolled up in a corner of a dank, dirty castle and left to decay and decompose. It appeared that several of these wall hanging tapestries had been used to cover wagons during transportation of furniture.

Much mystery has surrounded these famous tapestries that are now resident in the Cluny Museum in Paris. The room dedicated to them at the Cluny, with special lighting and under glass is as mysterious as the tapestries themselves. Upon entering you feel like you entered a sacred sanctuary.

There has been much debate among scholars over the centuries as to the purpose, meaning and significance of the lady, the unicorn, the lion and the coat of arms that belongs to the wealthy Le Viste family of the 1500’s. Some scholars have speculated that the lady was the wife of Count, others that the tapestries are allegorical and represent a religious idea (as the last tapestry shows the Lady rejecting worldly possessions in favor of a spiritual life.

Regardless of how the tapestries are interpreted, the result is still the same – beautifully articulated, finely woven and a joy to view either at the Cluny museum or in your own home with wall tapestry reproductions of the originals.

Heirloom European Tapestries presents 'Tuscan Lakeside Villa'

February – the dead of winter – cold, rain, snow, slush, or just good ol’ Jack Frost is biting at your ears, nose and hands. It’s grey, no matter where you are – some places pray for more rain or snow, others for less. Regardless how you look at it, it’s definitely winter and there are no more vacation days to look forward to until spring.

It seems like the only alternative is to head as far south as you possibly can, or maybe brighten up your rooms with tapestries. Or maybe both!!??

Since painting the walls is not an alternative during the winter months (after all -who wants to inhale paint fumes for weeks on end) you can brighten up any room with large tapestries.

Tapestries were originally used like wall-murals. They occupied an entire wall, floor to ceiling, corner to corner. Furniture was placed in front of the tapestry wall hanging so the inhabitants could enjoy spring, a landscape scene or an interesting story in their living room – year round.

Today, we have many wall hanging tapestries to choose from. From hand woven tapestries (the way they were originally woven 400 years ago), through to jacquard tapestries from Europe woven on 18^th century reproduction looms, to machine woven digital reproductions made in the USA.

Today, you can pick the right tapestries according to your needs and your pocket book. The most important thing to consider when purchasing a wall tapestry is picking the right size for your wall. Too small, – and it looks like a postage stamp on the wall. However, you can never go too big – since tapestries need to be thought of as murals rather than paintings.

Pick your subject matter, make sure the colors in the tapestry wall hanging pick up some of the main colors in your room, and then get the right size.

Hanging is simple – and made easier by the people from Heirloom European Tapestries, who press your tapestry, roll it around core, and of course provide free hardware for you to instantly hang.  And voila! You have a new environment that puts a smile on your face every time you  come home.

Heirloom European Tapestries presents Stone Ledge with Vase hand woven tapestry

Well, here we are again, a New Year that starts with New Year’s resolutions! I am starting a diet program, exercise more, clean out my closets, landscape the backyard, redecorate and so on and so forth! Past experience has taught us that somehow all the resolutions seem to fade into yesterday and by April we are wondering what happened. What was it that I promised myself? We may have lost a pound or two, feel a bit better for walking to work or the grocery store, but the walls in our home are still looking pretty bare, still begging for tapestries.

Being all too human, we know that acting on a resolution sooner than later often brings some results or at least a movement in the right direction. We may not be able to take on a full scale re-decoration of our living room (maybe too big an undertaking right now), but we sure can fill some of the gaping white wall spaces with tapestries.

Starting with the main room, perhaps your living room (after all you spend a lot of your time there) addressing the large space over your sofa or on the opposite wall with a large tapestry -will not only give some ambience to the room, but will cheer up the environment all year round – a lovely contrast to the long gloomy wintery days outside. Whether you live on the east coast, central US or the west coast, winter is winter – snow, slush, rain, fog, storms etc.

A hand woven tapestry woven in wool will bring warmth into a room. Wall hanging tapestries will create a cozy feeling while giving the most ordinary spaces a feeling of beauty and grandeur. Love Yosemite? Or maybe would love to visit? Bring a full scale Yosemite Dream wall tapestry into your home! Or how about a tapestry wall hanging with a fresh bouquet of flowers from an Italian Tuscany stone wall – flowers you don’t have to replace every week – captured in Stone Ledge with Vase.

Whatever your dream, whatever ambience you want to create in your space can be had very quickly with a stunning wall tapestries from Heirloom European Tapestries. A New Year’s resolution worth fulfilling!

The Heralds tapestry from Heirloom European Tapestries

It’s blowing snow outside! A winter storm is developing and it looks like a winter wonderland. Gazing out your living room window, you are grateful to be sipping on your second cup of coffee. Thinking of maybe starting a log fire, you move to the sofa and settle in with magazine in hand, cat curled up beside you. Nothing to do, nowhere to go! It’s a little breather from the constant movement of things to do and places to go.

The wall tapestry hanging behind you above the sofa adds warmth to the room. You open your magazine to check out the latest decorating ideas. The page opens to a gorgeous interior of a home resplendent with holiday décor and tapestries. The room is dominated by a large tapestry with a babbling brook and pathway inviting you to enter the forest. Other smaller tapestries adorn other walls in the same room. The owners have decorated the hand woven tapestries with little lights, cedar bows and mistletoe. They have brought summer indoors for the winter, and made the tapestries look festive. WOW!

You look around your room. Cozy! But that large wall across the room looks terribly bear and begging for another wall hanging. You look back at the magazine. The room is filled with tapestries. And you always thought that two or three tapestries in a room wasn’t permitted – (decoratively speaking that is)! Then you remember the stately historic home you visited last year on the east coast. They had wall to wall European tapestries, with furniture in front of them. Beautiful! Yes, that’s it, another wall tapestry to fill out that enormous wall space! You head to the computer in the other room. That log fire will have to wait. Got to check out Heirloom European Tapestries web site – the place you bought your last tapestry. See what’s new, and what will fit into that space. A wonderful project to fill out a stormy winter’s day – and to bring the summer indoors all year round with another wall hanging tapestry.

Heirloom European Tapestries presents 'Autumn Wine Harvest'

That time of year is upon us! Friends, family, and neighbors drop in for a little conversation, punch and egg nog. Fire crackles in the corner of our living room, and candle light bounces off the tapestries on the walls warming the glowing faces around us.

Decorating the home and our places of worship has been with us since medieval times. December has always been associated with a festive time of year- a time for celebrating, reflecting and preparing for the New Year just around the corner. In the middle Ages, hand woven tapestries were brought out of church storage and draped from the upper balconies and placed on banner stands for all to see and take inspiration from. Many of these tapestries told stories from the bible or were decorative in nature. In the homes of the wealthy wall hanging tapestries were hung on walls to warm the cold interiors and to brighten up the dark stone walls. Many months of winter still lay ahead, and December was a time for big celebration.

Today, we do not have to be wealthy to afford beautiful large tapestries in our home. Our living spaces are large compared to our medieval ancestors that often shared one room per family. Our large spaces beg for a wall tapestry. Tapestries create warmth in a room, bring the outdoors in all year round, solve acoustic problems by muting hard marble/wood echo sounds, and generally welcome us into a room to share with friends, family and neighbors. Large tapestries can fill a large wall space in minutes, creating both a grand visual effect as well being less costly than several paintings on that same space.

So fill that wall space with a piece of art that is ‘awe’ inspiring. Gather your friends around the fireplace and wall tapestries. Bring out the wine, egg nog and appetizers. Let this time of year be one of celebrating living and the end of another year. After all, our home is our castle!

Months of Lucas - November from Heirloom European Tapestries ON SALE NOW!

THAT SEASON is quickly descending on us! We are inundated with turkeys, cranberries, ham, sweets, pumpkin pies, tasty treats and gallons of wine and fruit punches. Different from any other time of year, Thanksgiving focuses on family, friends and sharing.

Throughout the centuries regardless whether you lived in Europe or were a pilgrim just landed in America, November signaled the end of harvest and a time to enjoy the fruits of our labor.

Tapestries have, throughout the past, captured the festivities, the food, the celebration of a plentiful harvest, or even a lean year. It was a time to celebrate life and living. Tapestries are a time capsule, giving us a view of how our ancestors celebrated November.

Today, we spend a good deal of time decorating and sprucing up our homes – all in preparation for the arrival of family and friends. Rooms and furniture are cleaned, and we make decisions about the empty wall spaces where we will be gathered to celebrate living. Wall tapestries are often the natural choice to fill up large walls, or even smaller spaces. Tapestries warm the room, like an inviting log fire. They help deaden sharp sounds and create an exceptional visual experience – a place to gather and share stories, food and friendship.

Choosing the right hand woven tapestry or wall hanging is a very simple process, provided you talk to people that can help guide you in your buying decision. Color, subject and appropriateness of the right wall tapestry for the room are all considerations. It’s easy to choose and simple to install a wall hanging tapestry once you have spoken to the experts at Heirloom European Tapestries. Brighten up your home for the holidays, and enjoy your tapestry wall hanging throughout the New Year that follows.

Hand Woven tapestry 'Autumn Wine Harvest' from Heirloom European Tapestries

The taste of autumn is in the air. Squirrels are busy gathering their nuts, blue jays appear from nowhere and the fragrance of wafting smoke from fireplaces fills the air. Its autumn, and harvest time! The body knows the cycle of seasons is changing and our shopping cart starts to look like a harvest festival filled with pumpkins, apples, squash, sweet potatoes, root vegetables and all manner of warming comfort foods.

Tapestries have depicted harvests since early medieval times and on down through the centuries. The favorite hand woven tapestries were always the wine harvest or wine festivals. Grapes ripe with sweet nectar were ready to be made into intoxicating elixirs that would be paired with the bountiful crops and animals (ready for slaughter) –a good excuse to have a bacchanalian festival. Wall hanging tapestries also depicted harvesting of crops (as in the Months of Lucas – November – on Sale at Heirloom European Tapestries). Lords and ladies as well as the peasant population would all participate in this preparedness for the long winter months ahead.

Tapestries speak to us from the centuries past, right through to present day. Our lives haven’t really changed that much from our forefathers! Today we have the benefit of visiting our local farmers markets to get the pick of the crop or our local grocery store. But large tapestries through the ages all spoke of this pivotal change of seasons. Cornucopia of harvest vegetables and fruit often adorned ornate borders in tapestries.

Autumn is a time to reflect, a time to get our winter woolens out of storage, and to change our eating habits from salads to potatoes, pumpkins and lamb. Regardless what we do, how we take on this time of year, a wall hanging tapestry will warm your home, your heart and give your eyes a feast they can enjoy all year round.

Heirloom European Tapestries- hand woven tapestry

Do you have empty wall problems? It doesn’t really matter if you have large wall spaces to fill or just an empty wall over your sofa, choosing the right size tapestries for your room and wall space is an important issue to consider when shopping for your wall tapestry.

Not really understanding the purpose of tapestries, many people think that if you pick something slightly larger than a painting then you will be making a safe decorating decision. Unfortunately, that is not the case. Tapestries should be thought of as wall murals. The bigger the better! You can never go wrong with an oversize wall hanging tapestry, regardless of room size.

For example, if you have a small room, and choose the right scene in a wall tapestry – it can actually open up the room, making it look larger (not unlike the effects of a large mirror). For example, a panoramic scene, a forest glade with a path taking you into its interior, an Italian tapestry with a distant view through an archway, a country scene, or a traditional French tapestry with a distant chateau will make a room feel roomier.

In a large space with large walls, an undersized tapestry wall hanging will tend to look like a ‘postage stamp’, dwarfed by the largeness of the room and walls. You should attempt to fill at least 85% + of the wall space, unless you are dealing with a clear story situation or a very long hallway that goes on forever, or very high ceilings. In these cases you should choose tapestries as large as possible. Bring the hanging tapestry as close to the furniture as possible, and try dropping the wall tapestry slightly behind the furniture – that way the eye takes in all information in the room together, as an integrated whole.

Regardless of what design you choose, keep the tapestries large – they have been designed that way for a purpose – they were not meant to replace paintings. Tapestries are an ‘art’ form, different, and not meant to compete or replace paintings.

Heirloom European Tapestries presents 'Birds of Paradise' tapestry

So…. You are considering redecorating your room with a wall tapestry! You have a contemporary look and aren’t really sure what would look right. Many of the tapestries you see on line are digital reproductions of paintings – digitally reproduced on high speed looms. Basically these tapestries are woven paintings, in a slightly larger size than your average picture. Most often they are called wall art or wall hangings as they are not really your traditional wall tapestry.

Traditional tapestries, that is, ones that are reproductions of antique tapestries are usually either jacquard woven in Europe on reconstructions of 18^th century wood oak looms or are hand woven tapestries in 100% wool produced by artisans sitting at a loom, and weaving the wall hanging one thread at a time, as they have been done for over 900 years. These tapestries come in different designs, shapes and subject matter.

A contemporary setting or even a modern setting can easily handle just about any traditional tapestry design such as a landscape tapestry, floral/decorative tapestries and also Italian tapestries or French tapestries. All you need to do is consider the primary and secondary colors in your room. Picking a design is really a matter of taste, and the impression you want to create. Do you want the hanging wall tapestry to be the main focal point, or do you want it to blend more with the colors or décor of the room? Next consider the size of the wall. If you choose a tapestry that has an overpowering amount of wall space around it- then you are picking a woven painting. Since light hits a painting differently than a woven wall hanging tapestry, an undersized wall tapestry on a large wall will tend to make it look even smaller, and will create a ‘postage stamp’ look.

As long as you pick out a design that contains some of the primary and secondary colors in your room, picked the right size for your wall space, and decided on the theme for your room, then you have made the right choice. Sit back and enjoy!