Originally this Persian influenced design was printed by Boeringer for Alexander Morton & Co in 1907. Modified in 1928 by Morton Sundour Ltd it was displayed in the V & A's The Mortons exhibition in 1973. I think our piece is from 1920s but it could be earlier.
Sidney G Mawson (1876-1941) was a very successful designer by changing his style to suit fashion and the individual tastes of manufacturers. He designed for weaver A H Lee, and for printers Thomas Wardle, Foxton's, Turnbull and Stockdale, G P & J Baker, Warner & Sons, Alexander Morton and Morton Sundour, who sold through Liberty's. Pleasaunce was Morton Sundour's most popular design in 1907. Previously he had taught textile design at the Slade School of Art and was a landscape painter. He also designed wallpapers for Jeffrey & Sons.
The Pleasaunce design with strutting peacocks beside fountains in gardens with large clumps of a variety of flowers including iris, peonies, roses and ranuculous, with two different pergolas with climbing flowers, in bright clear shades of mid blue and green, rich pink and yellow, on a natural cotton ground,
17 in; 43 cm drop
35 1/2 in; 90 cm wide (selvedge to selvedge)
Excellent. Clearly left over from curtain making which has been stored since the 1920s.
Three Generations in a Family Textile Firm by Jocelyn Morton p 170
Textiles of the Arts & Crafts Movement by Linda Parry p 135
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