Design for 'Tulip' printed cotton

William Morris created his ‘Tulip’ design as part of a flurry of pattern-making in the mid-1870s. This series of designs including ‘Honeysuckle’, ‘Marigold’, ‘Iris’ and ‘Carnation’ evoke a sense of the English countryside in spring and summer. Two events occurred in the 1870s that informed the creation of these pastoral designs: the first was Morris’s discovery of Kelmscott Manor which would become his country home from 1871; the second was Morris’s success at fabric dyeing after experimenting with the industrialist Thomas Wardle at his silk works in Leek, Staffordshire.