BY BRAQUENIÉ FRÈRES, AUBUSSON, CIRCA 1860

The carpet dealer, Demy-Doineau, established in Paris at 8, rue de Buci, and then later at 16, rue Vivienne, took Alexandre (d.1879), the elder of the two Braquenié Frères, as a partner circa 1850. In 1852 the firm became known as Braquenié & Cie., and then on May 8, 1857, Braquenié Frères, when Alexandre was joined in partnership by his younger brother, Henri-Charles (d.1897). The firm received an award for their work shown at the Crystal Palace Exhibition in 1851, and a gold medal at the 1855 Paris Exposition Universelle. Following an agreement with the comte Descantons de Montblanc, baron of Ingelmunster (Belgium), the Braqueniés established a workshop there from 1855 to 1869. In 1862 they received a medal for their decoration of the Commission Impériale at the London International Exhibition, and further medals in Aubusson and Ingelmunster in 1867. The firm's production was partly inspired by the past (Henri-Charles was a collector of antique tapestries), but designs were also provided by such artists as Pierre-Victor Galland (d.1892) and Alexis-Joseph Mazerolle (d.1889), collaborators at Gobelins. The Braqueniés received commissions from the Garde Meuble and supplied a large French and foreign clientele, executing carpets for the dining-room of the Dolma-Bahçe palace in Constantinople (circa 1856), for Prince Soltykoff, Princess Bacciochi and the Ministère d'Etat. Among their tapestries were Mazerolle's Sleeping Beauty (1862) and Industry (1867), Galland's War and Peace (1867)

The following two tapestries may have originally formed part of the larger suite entitled Perrault's Tales, executed in 1866 after paintings by Gustave-Adolphe Jundt (d.1884).