The grand tradition of French royal furniture received its impetus from the establishment of the Manufacture royale des Gobelins under the organisation of the arts in the service of Louis XIV of France that was controlled and directed by his minister of finance, Colbert. Favoured craftsmen would be eligible for premises in the galleries of the Palais du Louvre, a practice that had been initiated on a small scale under Henri IV.
At the Gobelins, much more than tapestry was made for the furnishing of the royal palaces and the occasional ambassadorial gift: the celebrated silver furnishings for the Galerie des Glaces at Versailles was produced by silversmiths working to designs by Charles Le Brun at the Gobelins.