The missions of the Cité internationale de la tapisserie is to preserve, enrich and highlight this great craftsmanship. With a new cultural and scientific project, the Cité builds a reference collection to trace five centuries and a half of weavings in Aubusson.

A young, developing collection

The Departmental Museum of tapestry in Aubusson was created in 1981. Its collection is still young, like the museum's history. With its label « Musée de France », it belongs to the Departmental Council of Creuse. 

The progressive development of a reference collection

The Cité de la tapisserie reasserts the original intention of building a reference collection offering a complete view of the production of tapestries in Aubusson from the XVth century to nowadays.

A few figures

440 tapestries and carpets, including 330 wall tapestries.

16,000 Graphic artworks from the collections of the museum and the National School of Decorative Art, and among them about 4,500 models and drawings

50 pieces of woven furniture

20 tools and weaving equipment

5,000 woven pieces, deposits of the National School of Decorative Art. Mainly samples, a few tapestries of medium size, made by trainees. These pieces draw the history of the institution since it was created in 1884, and show the evolution in weaving training.

600 pieces of Saracen embroidery, made by the students of the School for girls in the National School of Decorative Art between 1880 and 1918

“The history of wool is closely intertwined with tapestry history. Its multiple qualities, the matte finish and the depth of its color tones, its elasticity during the weaving process and the warmth of its aspect make it the ultimate noblest fiber” Louis-Marie Julien, cartoon painter (1904 – 1982)

Tapestry weaving is a matter of fibers, and first and foremost the wool, lagging, flexible, resistant and most of all particularly adapted to dyeing.

Wool comes from the sheep fleece. A large amount of races exists, each giving various qualities to the wool, in terms of length, resistance and fiber delicacy. The legal appellation for “wool” covers fibers coming from other animals as well, such as alpacas, llamas, camels, Angora rabbits, Kashmir and Angora goats (mohair wool). However, these specialized wools are produced in extremely limited quantities and are mostly used in addition to sheep wool.

To harvest the wool, the fleeces have to be shorn; in the past, using a pair of scissors called “forces” and nowadays, much quicker with an electric clipper. A fleece weights in average from 2 to 5 kg (from 4, 5 to 11 pounds approximately). A large amount of grease and impurities leaves the fleece in one piece. Before cleaning the wool, the fleece must be separated according to the different quality areas, more or less fine depending on their Location on the animal: This is known as the sorting step.

The wool quality is evaluated following five criteria: traction resistance, fibers delicacy, fibers length, “crimp” and color. This sorting produces different batches which are to be sent to the washing, which will process the wool destined, among other things, to be spun.

In Limousin, ovine breeding is a tradition, especially in the Millevaches regional natural Park. The Aubusson-Felletin textile environment and the breeding tradition lead many actors (elected representatives, associations, producers, etc.)  to try and reposition the locally produced wool within Creuse's arts and textile industry. Even if the wool is still mainly imported from Australia and the Creusois ovine sector is mainly centered on meat production, more and more breeders are becoming aware of the wool potential of their exploitation.