The Home Beautiful: A William Morris Wall Hanging, 1877

Wall hanging
William Morris, 1877
The Victoria & Albert Museum

Here, we see one panel from a set of embroideries designed to hang around the walls of the drawing room at Smeaton Manor, Northallerton, in North Yorkshire. William Morris was commissioned to produce the design which was embroidered by the owner of the Manor.

Other examples of this same design are in the collections of the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, and the William Morris Gallery, Walthamstow, London. The design is comprised of repeating artichokes in blue, peach, lime, brown, hessian, cream and pink, and demonstrated Morris's preoccupation with Middle Eastern and early Italian silks and velvets.