Skip to content

WELCOME TO OUR STORE

SUPPORT OUR WORK

  • HOME
  • MAGAZINE
    • CURRENT ISSUE
    • BACK ISSUES
    • FIND SELVEDGE
    • ORDER FAQS
    • CONTACT US
  • SUBSCRIBE
    • FOR YOURSELF
    • FOR SOMEONE ELSE
    • FOR AN INSTITUTION
    • FOR STUDENTS
    • SUBSCRIBER ACCESS
    • SUBSCRIBER FAQS
    • CONTACT US
  • SHOP
    • SELVEDGE GOODS
    • ARTISAN GOODS
    • MAGAZINES
    • WORKSHOPS
    • TALKS
    • MEET THE MAKER
    • BOOKS
    • ORDER FAQs
    • CONTACT US
  • LEARN
    • BOOK A WORKSHOP
    • BOOK A TALK
    • LISTEN TO A TALK
    • MEET THE MAKER
    • TRAVEL WITH US
    • EVENT FAQS
    • CONTACT US
  • ARTISANS
    • SHOP
      • ALL
      • CLOTHING
      • INTERIORS
      • ACCESSORIES
      • TOYS
    • EXPLORE
    • ACCESS TALKS
    • WATCH SLOW TV
    • LISTEN TO PLAYLIST
    • CONTACT US
  • COMMUNITY
    • READ OUR BLOG
    • JOIN OUR COMMUNITY
    • SLOW TV
    • LISTEN TO A PODCAST
    • VISIT A TEXTILE COLLECTION
    • SEE AN EXHIBITION
    • ENTER A PRIZE DRAW
    • MAKE A PROJECT
    • CONTACT US
  • COLLABORATE
    • ADVERTISE WITH US
    • WORK WITH US
    • WRITE FOR US
    • WRITE FOR THE BLOG
    • BECOME A STOCKIST
    • CONTACT US
    • SEE ARTISAN INFO
  • STORY
    • READ OUR STORY
    • GET TO KNOW US
    • READ ABOUT US
    • CONTACT US
Log in
  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • Instagram
  • YouTube
  • Vimeo
Selvedge Magazine
  • HOME
  • MAGAZINE
    • CURRENT ISSUE
    • BACK ISSUES
    • FIND SELVEDGE
    • ORDER FAQS
    • CONTACT US
  • SUBSCRIBE
    • FOR YOURSELF
    • FOR SOMEONE ELSE
    • FOR AN INSTITUTION
    • FOR STUDENTS
    • SUBSCRIBER ACCESS
    • SUBSCRIBER FAQS
    • CONTACT US
  • SHOP
    • SELVEDGE GOODS
    • ARTISAN GOODS
    • MAGAZINES
    • WORKSHOPS
    • TALKS
    • MEET THE MAKER
    • BOOKS
    • ORDER FAQs
    • CONTACT US
  • LEARN
    • BOOK A WORKSHOP
    • BOOK A TALK
    • LISTEN TO A TALK
    • MEET THE MAKER
    • TRAVEL WITH US
    • EVENT FAQS
    • CONTACT US
  • ARTISANS
    • SHOP
      • ALL
      • CLOTHING
      • INTERIORS
      • ACCESSORIES
      • TOYS
    • EXPLORE
    • ACCESS TALKS
    • WATCH SLOW TV
    • LISTEN TO PLAYLIST
    • CONTACT US
  • COMMUNITY
    • READ OUR BLOG
    • JOIN OUR COMMUNITY
    • SLOW TV
    • LISTEN TO A PODCAST
    • VISIT A TEXTILE COLLECTION
    • SEE AN EXHIBITION
    • ENTER A PRIZE DRAW
    • MAKE A PROJECT
    • CONTACT US
  • COLLABORATE
    • ADVERTISE WITH US
    • WORK WITH US
    • WRITE FOR US
    • WRITE FOR THE BLOG
    • BECOME A STOCKIST
    • CONTACT US
    • SEE ARTISAN INFO
  • STORY
    • READ OUR STORY
    • GET TO KNOW US
    • READ ABOUT US
    • CONTACT US
Log in Cart

Item added to your cart

Access Denied
IMPORTANT! If you’re a store owner, please make sure you have Customer accounts enabled in your Store Admin, as you have customer based locks set up with EasyLockdown app. Enable Customer Accounts
TAPESTRY TALES: TOLKIEN AT AUBUSSON

TAPESTRY TALES: TOLKIEN AT AUBUSSON

May 21, 2022
Share
Image: Bilbo comes to the Huts of the Raft-Elves, detail, 2018, © Cité Internationale de la Tapisserie.

“He was always doodling,” Baillie Tolkien said of her father-in-law, J. R. R, creator of the fantasy novels The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. “… He did the crossword puzzles in The Times and made very beautiful doodles on the newspapers…For him it was very natural to draw…”

I’d just cut the last of the warp threads of a long tapestry attached to a horizontal loom in the weaving atelier of La Cité Internationale de la Tapisserie, Aubusson, in 2018.

Image: Bilbo comes to the Huts of the Raft-Elves, detail, 2018, © Cité Internationale de la Tapisserie.

The tapestry is an interpretation of one of J.R.R. Tolkien’s illustrations to The Hobbit (1937) “Bilbo comes to the Huts of the Raft-Elves” (chapter nine). It shows a landscape of sinuous trees with clouds of foliage shading a lemony sky and roots snaking down to the banks of the Forest River. Bobbing through its serpentine currents are six barrels floating towards the eastern edge of Mirkwood. These barrels contain the dwarves escaping the ElvenKing, while Bilbo is balancing on a barrel in the foreground, although in the novel he’s invisible as he wears the ring.

“It’s a marriage between French handicraft and the work of my very English father-in-law,” Baillie enthused. She is the wife of Christopher Tolkien, the author’s third son who used to manage the Tolkien estate and who died in 2020.

“Tolkien didn’t travel very much,” Baillie explained. “His landscapes were of places around the world, probably from photographs, but really it was all from his imagination.”

Image: On display: Bilbo comes to the Huts of the Raft-Elves, 2018, © Cité Internationale de la Tapisserie

Tolkien’s limpid fantastical world of magic and danger has been perfectly translated into pure flat colours keyed up from the diminutive book illustration. The Tolkien series of 13 tapestries based on the author’s drawings for The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion and The Father Christmas Letters was prompted by the curator’s desire to create modern wall hangings based on a celebrated literary work, as was the custom back in the 16th and 17th centuries. Twelve tapestries are more or less complete and six are currently on display at the Cité de la Tapisserie, where the town’s tapestry tradition is eloquently explored.
Back to blog

Leave a comment

Please note, comments need to be approved before they are published.

Invalid password
Enter

Quick links

  • SEARCH
  • ABOUT US
  • T&Cs
  • FAQs

Subscribe to our newsletter by entering your email address below. "I just wanted to say how much I admire your informative and inspirational newsletters - I always look forward to them!" Tricia, San Rafael, USA

  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • Instagram
  • YouTube
  • Vimeo
Payment methods
  • American Express
  • Diners Club
  • Discover
  • Maestro
  • Mastercard
  • Visa
© 2023, Selvedge Magazine Powered by Shopify
  • Choosing a selection results in a full page refresh.