Thomas Wardle The Lioness
Design late 19th c/printed c 1907

This Renaissance design is taken from an early 16th century Sicilian silk which Thomas Wardle saw in the Royal Weaving School collection at Krefeld north-west Dusseldorf.  Wardle was a friend of the Museum Director, Herr Schultz, who was attached to the School and invited him to talk at the Royal Society in London on historic textile designs. Thomas Wardle designed this fabric which was printed after his death.

The hand block printed design was sold at Liberty's. Although the Arts and Crafts period is associated with English and French medieval textiles, they also used Italian designs.

Thomas Wardle was a leading textile manufacturer and dyer working in Leek, Staffordshire. He took over his father's dyeworks in the early 1870s, and went on to become one of the leading British textile manufacturers of the late 19th century. Wardle was an early member of the Arts and Crafts Movement, and acquired patterns from leading designers such as Morris, Day, Crane, Voysey, and Butterfield. He produced fabrics, including this one, for Liberty & Co.. He also supplied Heal & Sons and Debenham & Freebody, and between 1883 and 1888 he also traded through his own shop on New Bond Street, London*

This piece was in an exhibition at Macclesfield Museum in 2009. Leek being close to Macclesfield.
 

Description

A hand block printed cream cotton length Lioness designed by Thomas Wardle, with a Rennaisance strapwork design of large vases, their bowls segmented in different patterns holding stylised carnations and tulips, flanked by paired mythical winged creatures alighting on the the leaves, in pale blue and cream, the lower left hand selvedge with Liberty, 208 Regent Street, London, W.  Reg TERFD?

Lined with natural coloured cotton and with velcro to use as a wall hanging.

11ft 3 in x 39 in; 3.05 x 98 cm selvedge to selvedge.

Design repeat 14 in; 35 cm.

Condition

You should be able to see from the photos that there are two slight vertical fading markings, from when the length was a curtain, the light hitting the folds. On the very left hand edge and then another line 27 cm in from left hand selvedge. There were two spits 2 1/2 in; 6.5 cm and 4 in; 10 cm wide to the left hand side three quarters of the way down.

Comments

Ornamente der Gewebe Friedrich Fishbach, 1874 - a book of historic textiles. No 83 for same design.

Dye, Print, Stitch. Textiles by Thomas and Elizabeth Wardle. Brenda King, p 47.

*Original fabric in brown and cream colourway is in the V & A.T.602-1999.

A similar piece in different colourway was in the Fortuny exhibition at the Whitworth Museum, Manchester in April 1998.

Studio Yearbook 1907.