Furnishing fabric 'Marigold' of printed silk, designed by William Morris, made by Thomas Wardle for Morris & Co., Leek, 1875 Furnishing fabric of block-printed silk. With a repeating floral motif of marigolds in dull yellow on natural silk twill. Morris refers to an earlier display of silk examples when writing to Wardle on 23 November 1875. 'You are quite welcome to send the prints to the India House ... As to our using them the only drawback seems to be that they are made awkward widths for our present blocks ... By the way I think the Carnation would look well on the Tussore'. Wardle was particuarly interested in silk. He spent a number of years experimenting with sericulture and perfecting the dyeing and printing of tussah, the ground for this example. He was a founder member and President of the influential Silk Association and published books and articles on the subject.