Arms of the Greder Family of Solothurn, Switzerland

This armorial tapestry celebrates the Greder family of Solothurn (Switzerland), many of whom served in the French army. It was probably commissioned by François Laurent Greder (1658-1716) between 1691, when he became a brigadier and 1694, when he was made a knight of the Order of Saint Louis. The dramatic use of the swans to flank the armorial is an allusion to the swan feet that form part of the Greder arms. The tapestry does not bear the marks of the major French Royal Gobelins or Beauvais manufactories; it is not as technically proficient as the works woven in those workshops. For example, it was woven in two pieces that were subsequently sewn together (the seam is visible along the center vertical). Instead, it was probably woven either in the Lorraine region of France or in one of the smaller, less-organized commercial weaving workshops in Paris, such as that of Louis and Jean Baptiste Hinard, or of Gilles Bacor.