'Strawberry Thief' printed cotton

In the 1870s William Morris had experimented in dyeing textiles with the industrialist Thomas Wardle at his silk works in Staffordshire. Here Morris had learned many techniques and colours but had not been able to perfect the indigo discharge process. After establishing his own textile dyeing works at Merton Abbey in 1881, Morris finally mastered this difficult technique. The indigo discharge process reversed conventional dying techniques and began by dying an entire sheet of cloth a uniform dark blue. The pattern was then formed by applying bleaching agents to the cloth which reduced or removed the deep indigo blue as required.

The design for ‘Strawberry Thief’ was inspired by Morris’s observations of thrushes creeping under the strawberry nets in the Garden at Kelmscott Manor. It includes subtle shades of red, blue, yellow, green, orange, pink and white which stretched the indigo discharge process to its limits. Morris endured sleepless nights at his lodgings at Merton Abbey whilst the pattern was first being printed; the use of three separate dyes meant it took several days to complete. The complexity of the design and extraordinary use of colour meant that ‘Strawberry Thief’ was one Morris & Co.’s most expensive printed cottons. This piece is part of a collection of sixteen fragments of various sizes in the William Morris Gallery collection that were originally from an upholstered Morris & Co. armchair.

Strawberry Thief is one of a series of patterns produced in the 1880s for indigo printing and inspired by scenes from the English countryside. Other patterns from this period including ‘Brother Rabbit’, ‘Bird and Anemone’ and ‘Rose and Thistle’, each depicting life in the English woodlands and hedgerows.