Design for 'Persian' brocatelle

This design for a brocatelle — a complex woven fabric in which a raised pattern shows through a ribbed surface — was created by John Henry Dearle, who became Art Director of Morris & Co. upon Morris’s death in 1896. Dearle joined the Firm in 1878 as a teenager and worked alongside Morris, eventually creating distinctive patterns in his own right. Many of Dearle’s patterns take inspiration from Persia (historically the common name for Iran) and this design shows the influence of Persian woven silks of the kind that he would have studied in the South Kensington Museum.

The brocatelle was originally designed for Stanmore Hall, a country house in Middlesex which was extended with interiors by Morris in the 1880s.