Tulip and Net
1888–89 · Woven wool · Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum
📦 Free shipping on every order, arriving in 4–9 business days with production included. Express ($14.90) at checkout arrives in 4–6 business days.
About this work
- Artist
- William Morris (1834–1896)
- Year
- 1888–89
- Medium
- Woven wool
- Original size
- 219 × 92.5 cm
- Collection
- Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum
- Movement
- Arts and Crafts
Tall, symmetrical plants of pale blue tulips, apricot and yellow carnation-like flowers and slender leaves stand within an ogival net of stems on a dark indigo ground. Tulip and Net is a hand-loom Jacquard-woven wool furnishing fabric of 1888–89, made at Merton Abbey. It is usually credited to William Morris, though the V&A catalogues the design as by John Henry Dearle and/or Morris; Dearle was responsible for the firm's new woven textiles from 1888. The V&A notes that Dearle's woven patterns favour strong symmetrical forms drawn from historical fabrics of Persia, Turkey and Italy, and the mirrored plants and pointed net here follow that model. This length, over two metres long, is in the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum.
This exhibition-poster edition shows the whole sample beneath original typography set in-house. The design is in the public domain.
Where it works
Pale blue tulips and apricot flowers on deep indigo give a calm, symmetrical wall for a bedroom, study or hallway. Pair it with Bird, another indigo weave, at 16×24 in black.
Style, size & framing detail
- Style
- Exhibition poster of an Arts and Crafts pattern
- Era
- 19th century (1888–89)
- Orientation
- Portrait
- Palette
- cream & beige
- Mood
- decorative, classic
- Rooms
- bedroom, hallway or entryway, study or library, dorm room
Size. We'd hang this one at 16×24. Prints at 12×18, 16×24, 24×36 in — 12×18 for a shelf, desk or a gallery-wall grid; 16×24 above a desk, console or in a hallway; 24×36 as the statement piece above a sofa or bed.
Framing. Exhibition posters sit best in a slim black frame with no mat — the typeset margin is the mat.
Pairing. Hangs alone or as a matched pair; three or more prints are 10% off.
Details & materials
Shipping & returns
Is this the whole design, or a crop?
Is Tulip and Net in the public domain?
What is it printed on?
When was Tulip and Net designed?
What size should I choose?
About this design
The Madten promise
The full-bleed print
The pattern printed edge to edge, filling the whole sheet like a panel of the original wallpaper or fabric.





























