Cleveland Museum of Art

Peony

Kate Faulkner

Date

1920

Medium

plain weave cotton, printed

Culture

England, 20th century

Department

Textiles

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

Peony was probably designed for Morris & Co. by Kate Faulkner, the sister of William Morris’s early business partner Charles Faulkner. The small, almost square repeat of this pattern is more characteristic of Kate than of Morris, who favored larger patterns. She also designed embroidery, wallpaper, painted tiles and pottery, and plaster decoration for the firm. Morris had a progressive attitude toward women as co-laborers, and promoted the work of designers such as Kate, whose patterns challenged the monotony of much of the needlework and domestic crafts that then occupied middle-class women.

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