A heavy, often hand-woven, ribbed fabric, featuring an elaborate design depicting a historical or current pictorial display. The weft-faced fabric design is made by using colored filling yarns, only in areas where needed, that are worked back and forth over spun warp yarns, which are visible on the back. End-uses include wall hangings and upholstery.
Design by weaving the fabric itself rather than by stitching designs onto an openweave canvas. The origins go back well over a thousand years, coming to Europe via the Middle East. The great age of tapestry was in the 1600s and 1700s, especially in France. Hand looms gave way to power looms in the nineteenth century. Many of the designs from that period have retained their popularity for needlepoint kits. The term Tapestry is now often used to refer to Needlepoint.
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