The weaving industry in Lyons 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 Lyons, had mainly produced plain fabrics.
The project of development 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, Lyons 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 Lyons under the name of ‘la Grande Fabrique”, benefited from the ordinances by Colbert who organised production and set standards of quality fitting Royal orders.
The Textile Museum in Lyon, french museum about textile history and textile industry :
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