Printed fabric (furnishing fabric) - Royal Burgundy pattern

The fabric is printed with a symmetrical patter in burgundy red on a pink ground. The whole length of the fabric is covered with thick stems enriched with coiling, twined leaves. Large pomegranates, enclosed by pears and crowned by flowers, alternated with two smaller ones that are surrounded by leaves and flowers. The fabric was modelled on velvet brocades made in Florence around 1480, which can be found in various textile collections, such as the one in the Budapest Museum of Applied Arts (Inv.No. 7631) and in the Berlin Kunstgewerbemuseum (see Falke 1913 No. 522.). The pattern was registered on November 9th (see Wardle, T.: Patternbook. No.78 - Manchester, Whitworth Art Gallery. Inv.No. 14007). According to data of the other Wardle pattern book, which is now in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the colouring of the pattern exhibited at the 1888 Arts &Crafts exhibition in Melbourne was identical with the piece described above (see Wardle, T.: Pattern- book. No. 14 - London, Victoria and Albert Museum, Inv.No. T.9-1978). The companion piece can now be found in the collection of the Whit- worth Art Gallery in Manchester.