Gobelin family

French dyers and cloth makers.

In the late 15th century, the brothers Jean (d. 1476) and Philibert Gobelin discovered a scarlet dye and opened a dyeing factory near Paris, which flourished until the late 16th century. In 1601 Henry IV brought in Flemish weavers and they began to produce tapestries. In 1662 Louis XIV reorganized the factory and appointed Charles Le Brun director; it produced tapestry and upholstery furnishings for the royal palaces until 1694. By the 18th century only tapestries were manufactured, under the inspection of Jean-Baptiste Oudry and François Boucher. The factory was closed during the French Revolution but was reopened by Napoleon. Since 1826 it has manufactured carpets and tapestries.

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▪ French dyers and clothmakers

French family of dyers and clothmakers whose factory became world-famous for its tapestries. Jehan Gobelin

died 1476

      who ran a factory in the Faubourg Saint-Marcel just southeast of Paris, discovered a scarlet dyestuff and spared no expense to exploit his creation. His descendants seem to have given up dyeing by the end of the 16th century; some of them bought titles of nobility and offices in the financial administration or in royal councils, as did Balthasar Gobelin (d. 1617), seigneur de Brie-Comte-Robert from 1601. The factory, lent to King Henry IV in 1601 and only then devoted to making tapestries, was purchased for King Louis XIV in 1662 and devoted to general upholstery until its closing in 1694. Reopened for tapestry in 1697, it was temporarily closed during the Revolutionary period but was reopened again by Napoleon. Carpets as well as tapestry have been produced since 1826.

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