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This small piece of embroidery was probably part of a bed valance. Pholegandros is an island in the Cyclades group of Greek Islands. As an example of the work carried out by the women there, which included the dyeing of the silk threads as well as the embroidery, this is particularly skilled both in its design and workmanship.

These qualities presumably made it attractive to to the designer William Morris, who owned it in the 19th century and whose daughter May Morris bequeathed it to the Museum. It may have been acquired by Morris at the same time as two pieces of Cretan embroidery 'brought back by the English consul' which Morris sent to Thomas Wardle in 1876 stating 'Mrs Wardle will find some stitches in them worth looking at'. Wardle, was one of the leading British textile manufacturers of the later 19th century, and his wife a noted embroiderer.