This textiles collection is a source of inspiration - Decorative arts museum.
The Decorative Arts Museum is complementary to the Textile Museum as it displays ancient textiles as a decoration of an eighteenth century private residence.
The textile museum in Lyon benefited from the fifteenth century fairs and developed thanks to king François I who, giving letters patent, dated September 2d 1536, to Etienne Turquet and Barthelemy Nartis, two Piedmontese weavers, allowed them, with privileges, to settle in Lyons to weave silk fabrics brocaded with gold and silver threads so as to oppose imports of Italian and Spanish silks. Up to the beginning of the seventeenth century, weavers at Lyon, had mainly produced plain fabrics. The project of development of the decorative arts museum decided by Henry IV who asked Olivier de Serre to begin sericulture (silk worm rearing) in the South and South-East parts of the country and the technical improvement brought to the drawloom by Dangon, around 1605, made possible the production of large figured textiles mainly used for upholstery. In the reign of Louis XIV, Lyon silks acquired such a reputation that, from 1666, the "Garde-Meuble" placed orders for sumptuous textiles which were to decorate royal residences, mainly the palace of Versailles. We know of their existence only through archive documents since none has survived to this day. In the seventeenth century, the whole industry, known in Lyon under the name of 'la Grande Fabrique", benefited from the ordinances by Colbert who organised production and set standards of quality fitting Royal orders. In the eighteenth century, between 1750 and 1760, Bouchon, Falcon and Vaucanson automatized Dangon's loom were quickly improving the quality of weaving and contributing, in spite of economic ups and downs, to establish unparallel reputation, helped by brilliant draughtsmen like Jean Revel or Philippe de Lasalle. Silk production reached such a high level of excellence that foreign courts, mainly Russian with Catherine II and Spanish with Charles IV placed orders to decorate their palaces. The revolution brought great difficulties to the textile weaving. The number of looms decreased from 14000 to 3500. But, the textile activities were revived during the "Consulat" and the Empire" period. Napoleon I had realised it was urgent to help the silk "Fabrique" and created the "condition des soies" in 18O5 and in 1806 placed important commissions to decorate his Imperial residences and to provide his wife with sumptuous dresses. In 1810, two millions were exceptionally spent, just to help the "Fabrique" which was in economic difficulties at that time. Thanks to the Lyon museum, silk weaving in Lyon reached its previous peak of excellence. The nineteenth century was an age during which silk industry remained at a high point in spite of acute social crisis (revolt of the Canuts, 1831 and 1834). This prosperity was favoured by the adoption of the Jacquard mechanism, worked out by François Marie Jacquard, early nineteenth century, enabling looms to be operated by only one weaver instead of two. Besides, at the end of the second Empire and in the reigns of the Bourbon Lyon manufacturers found an opportunity to diversify their production, supplying ecclesiastical ornaments to churches and their clergy who had been completely ruined by the revolution. This activity remained prosperous till the second world war. About 1850, silk worm diseases (pebrine, muscardine, flachery, gattine) broke up at Carpentras and St. Bauzille -de- Putois, destroying silk worms and quickly extending to all regions of sericiculture before spreading to European countries. The opening of the Suez canal and of the frontiers of Japan, (the Meiji dynasty having decided to have commercial links with the West) favoured importations of Asian silks to Lyon. During the second Empire period, the weaving industry prospered. Charles Frederic Worth, an English high fashion designer brought new openings to the silk industry. Those were years of extravagance and madness with high fashion houses like Coudurier, Fructus and Descher, Bianchini Férier, Ducharne, associated with well-known painters like Sonia Delaunay, Raoul Dufy, Paul Iribe or Michel Dubost who contributed to their fame. The 1930 economic crisis, soon followed by the second world war, unsettled this exceptional activity. Nowadays, with raw silk coming mainly from Brazil and China, Lyon weaving industry still supply the ready to wear market and the high fashion designers' demands with Bianchini Férier or Bucol Houses. Hermès sells about one million of its famous scarves a year and the patrimonial manufactures of Tassinari and Chatel as well as Prelle, produce silk figured textiles used to decorate luxurious residences, maintaining tradition and exceptional savoir-faire. Since 1950, Lyon has acquired the quasi monopoly of a new industry based on the important market of artificial and new fibers weaving which supplies new products, new textiles and new techniques. Textile history : Les folles années de la Soie. Lyon : Sézanne, 1975 Le décor textile de la Salle du Trône des Tuileries 1818-1848 Lyon : Lescuyer, 1987 Soieries de Lyon. Commandes royales au XVIIIè siècle (1730-1800) Lyon : Musée des Tissus, 1988 Soieries de Lyon. Commandes impériales Collections du Mobilier National. (décembre 1982-févier 1983) Lyon : Sézanne, 1982 Les foulards de Maeght. Impression de Lyon Paris : Arte imp., 1984 De Dugourc à Pernon : Nouvelles acquisitions graphiques pour les musées. Chassieu : Delta, 1990 Lyon en 1889 : les soyeux à l'Exposition Universelle de Paris Chassieu : Delta, 1990 Les ornements liturgiques au XIXè siècle Lyon : François Canard SARL, 1996. La soierie lyonnaise du XVIIIe au XXe siècle dans les collections du musée des Tissus de Lyon : Editions lyonnaises d'Art et d'Histoire, 1999. 2e édition Ceintures polonaises. Quand la Pologne s'habillait à Lyon. Lyon : Musée des Tissus, 2001.East and West are the two poles of the Museum
collections.
Coptic tapestries, Sassanid Persian textiles, Byzantine iconography and Muslim fabrics,
Asia Minor carpets reflect the very essence of the history of Oriental civilisations.
Sicily and the Italian Republics played a major role in the origin of silk weaving
in Europe, soon followed by the quick development of the French silk production.
Lyon production is given pride of place with ornamentists such as Pillement,
Philippe de Lasalle or Dugourc.
In the nineteenth century, important Imperial and Royal commissions helped revive
silk industry in Lyon. The high level of craftsmanship goes on well into the
nineteenth century with the collaboration of talented
designers such as Raoul Dufy and Sonia Delaunay.
Visit the decorative arts museum in Lyon, in France to learn the textile history and discover byzantine iconography and art iconography, ancien textile, coptic pictures and old tapestries.
The Textile Museum in Lyon, french museum about textile history and textile industry :
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