La Manufacture Royale des Gobelins (The Gobelins Royal Manufactory) represents some of the highest quality French carpet weaving and tapestry, producing fine contemporary pieces and restoring antiques. Started by the Gobelin family in the 15thC, they soon fell under royal patronage; the French ministry of culture now runs the company, which encompasses the Beauvais, Aubusson and Savonnerie manufactories.
Gobelins tapestries always tell epic narratives in vivid pictorial scenes of stories or sagas inspired by history and by mythology. The manufacture is limited to the very highest level of commission. The Gobelins factory has an open and forward looking approach to design, and houses a museum, a research centre, dying and repair workshops and a drawing school.
Braquenié, part of the Pierre Frey group holds an extensive archive of Gobelins designs, collected since 1824, many of which are reproduced or customised to commission.