Founded in 1664 by Jean-Baptiste Colbert (1619-1683), the Minister of Finances to Louis XIV, the Royal Manufactory of Tapestries at Beauvais primarily produced tapestries for wall hangings and upholstery. By order of the French government De Menou (first name and life dates unknown) was appointed director in 1780 and because of weakened demand for tapestries, requested permission “to produce pile floor carpets like those of the Levant up to half the price of the Savonnerie.” In addition to employing Pierre-Barthélemy Langlois from the Gobelins factory to encourage the production of tapestry woven carpets, De Menou around 1785 also hired a weaver, Jacques Dufresne, from the Savonnerie factory to aide with the new production of pile carpets. As a result of Dufresne’s influence, Beauvais carpets share the same structure as those woven at the Savonnerie with fully depressed warps and dizaine counting warps (see Sherrill, Sarah, Carpets and Rugs of Europe and America, New York, 1996, p. 93).
The period of pile weaving at Beauvais was short lived and with the upheaval of the Revolution and end to royal patronage, knotted-pile weaving ceased in 1792. Although, there were attempts to revive pile weaving at Beauvais in the early 19th century, it was not commercially successful. Known documented Beauvais carpets from the period of 1787-1791 all share delicate neo-classical motifs similar to those found in this example. The central fan rosette medallion on this carpet can also be found on a Louis XVI Beauvais carpet illustrated in Sherrill, ibid., p. 95, pl. 103. A signed pile-woven Beauvais carpet is in Empress Josephine’s tented bedroom at the Château de Malmaison and dates to either 1780 or 1786-92 (see Sherrill, ibid., p. 96, pl. 104).