May Morris embroidery about 1890

This unfinished embroidery was bought as a kit from Morris & Co in the late nineteenth century. The firm sold embroideries in various levels of completion, as finished work, as kits complete with marked ground and silk and, more popularly, in this form with a small corner of the ground completed so that the recommended technique could be seen and followed at home. The stitches used include long and short, stem, outline and satin stitches.

This example was designed by William Morris's daughter May Morris, who managed the embroidery section of Morris & Co from 1885 until about 1896.

Cotton ground, with ink tracing, partially worked with silks