The loom is a high-warp tapestry loom, the frame in oak with metalwork fitments, threaded with a cotton warp and partially completed tapestry based on a Morris-inspired border pattern. The loom is probably identical with the loom referred to in the 1939 Kelmscott Manor sale catalogue as ‘oak weaving loom with unfinished tapestry of ‘The River Thames’ worked by Miss Morris and a box of various wools etc’. The bobbins threaded with coloured wools, samples of various coloured wools wound round old envelopes addressed to May Morris, and two warp combs were also purchased with the loom and are in the Gallery’s collection.
The unfinished tapestry referred to in the Kelmscott Manor sale catalogue was apparently cut off the loom by the vendor’s mother, who used the loom for her own tapestry showing an abstract pattern. It is now threaded with a warp and a partially completed tapestry based on the Morris-inspired border design on the cover of one of the Morris & Co catalogues c.1911, worked by the Handweavers Studio, 29 Haroldstone Road, Walthamstow, 1993.
