This woven wool was designed by John Henry Dearle for Morris & Co. around 1898. The repeating pattern is formed of orange coloured squirrels amongst a grape vine heavy with fruit. Originally entitled Fox and Grape after the Aesop fable, it was later changed to Squirrel, presumably because the animals more closely resembled the form of a red squirrel. Although many of Morris & Co’s patterns feature birds, beside the rabbits in the popular ‘Brother Rabbit’ pattern and these squirrels, there are no other examples of animals in the Firm’s repeating textile patterns. This example was once one of a pair of curtains and features two widths of decorative fringing at the bottom. The wool was produced on a jaquard hand-loom at Morris & Co’s factory Merton Abbey and came in three colourways. Dearle’s original design drawing is in the Huntington Art Collection, USA.
