Bronze Age Gold from Wales

This design, 'Sutherland Rose', was created by Graham Sutherland in 1940. It was purchased by Helios Ltd of Bolton from an exhibition of designs by artists held at the Cotton Board's newly opened Colour Design and Style Centre in Manchester that same year. Helios produced the design as a furnishing fabric from 1946. The textile is a screen printed cotton viscose. The weave was designed by Marianne Straub, chief designer at Helios.

Cotton viscose fabric, woven with a small repeated diamond pattern, double hemmed at the top by machine in burgundy cotton thread, the bottom edge is the selvedge and the sides are cut and have frayed; the design is printed in red and black dye onto a cream ground, featuring two rose motifs with overlapping curved stems against a cross-hatched background of black, creating a shadow effect, repeated in a row across the width.