Handwoven in coloured silk, the pattern is in light blue, yellow and mauve on a dark green background. The pattern on this silk is 'Flower Garden'. On 4 March 1879 William Morris described it in a letter to a friend. He wrote, 'I am...in a whirlwind of dyeing and weaving, and...rather excited by a new piece...which looks beautiful, like a flower garden'. Morris claims to have chosen the colours to 'suggest the beauties of inlaid metal'. They were almost certainly influenced by a display of items from Damascus he had studied in a dealer's shop in London in 1878. This silk cost 19/6d (97.5p) in 1919 when the V&A acquired this sample.