Designed by William Morris for Morris & Company in 1878-80. This design was originally worked by May but I do not know who worked this example. This design was produced for cushions and firescreens sold through the 1880s and 90s. Either bought completed or as a kit, to be worked at home. It is one of Morris's last designs for embroidery and is based on two Italian seventeenth-century lacis-work panels acquired by the South Kensington Museums (V & A) in 1875.
The central bulbous Italianate vase embroidered in thick silks in two shades of blue with rich cream speckled infills, holding stems of flowers worked in rust and with speckling in apricot, with leaves otlined in two shades of green and yellow, worked in outline chain stitches, stem and with speckling on a white felted ground.
28 x 27 x in; 73 x 69 cm
Very very good. The very edge, where the piece was turned under over probably cardboard, is grubby. Once framed this would not show.
* William Morris edited by Linda Parry. p 246
May Morris. Arts and Crafts Designer p 79/80. Two similar at the William Morris Gallery. p 70 and 71 which show two examples of this design worked by May Morris, in on a similar felted wool ground with outlining in chain stitch.
William Morris Textiles. Linda Parry. p 35 no 19. The original design drawn by Morris can be found at Kelmscott House with the William Morris Society.
There is a similar embroidery on a white wool ground in the William Morris Museum, Walthamstow.
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