Strawberry Thief chintz

Details

Date: designed c. 1880
Dimensions: 33.6 x 71.7
Object Type: textile
Material: printed cotton
Technique: indigo discharge and block-printed
Catalogue number: F54b
Designer: Morris, William, 1834, 1896
Credit notes: Presented by Miss F.J. Lefroy, 1951

Part of a collection of sixteen fragments of various sizes, originally from an upholstered Morris & Co. armchair. As the production process used three separate printing dyes; indigo, red (alizarin) & yellow (weld), it took a number of days to produce ‘Strawberry Thief’ and was consequently one of the firms most expensive cottons. However, it remained to be one of Morris’ most popular designs.

A set of printing blocks for Strawberry Thief, cut by the Firm of Barretts of Bethnal Green Road, London, are now in the V&A Museum.

Details

Date: designed c. 1880
Dimensions: 78.1 x 9.5
Object Type: textile
Material: printed cotton
Technique: indigo discharge and block-printed
Catalogue number: F54a
Designer: Morris, William, 1834, 1896
Credit notes: Presented by Miss F.J Lefroy, 1951

Part of a collection of sixteen fragments of various sizes, originally from an upholstered Morris & Co. armchair.

As the production process used three separate printing dyes; indigo, red (alizarin) & yellow (weld), it took a number of days to produce ‘Strawberry Thief’ and was consequently one of the firms most expensive cottons. However, it remained to be one of Morris’ most popular designs. A set of printing blocks for Strawberry Thief, cut by the firm of Barretts of Bethnal Green Road, London, are now in the V&A Museum, London.

Details

Date: design registered 23 November 1883
Dimensions: 64.8 x 99.1
Object Type: textile
Material: printed cotton
Technique: indigo discharge and block-printed
Catalogue number: F20
Designer: Morris, William, 1834, 1896
Manufacturer: Morris & Co.
Credit notes: WMG purchase, 1940

‘Eyebright’ was designed by William Morris in 1883. The pattern was achieved using the indigo-discharge process, whereby the cotton was dyed in indigo blue and the pattern then extracted and over printed. The small ‘net’ repeat is formed of white eyebright flowers and buttercups. The pattern was also available in blue, white and yellow weld, a natural dye derived from a flower. The pattern was initially intended to be used as a lining for Morris & Co.’s heavy wool curtains (two widths matched the width of a curtains) but was used as a furnishing fabric in its own right. May Morris claimed that Eyebright, and another pattern Borage ‘were small patterns intended for dress’, revealing Morris’s intention to expand the business beyond interior fabrics. A dress of Eyebright made around 1900 is in the The Art Gallery of Australia’s collection (996A38). This example was purchased directly from Morris & Co. in 1940 after the company closed.

Technique: indigo discharge and block-printed

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