This hand-woven and block-printed tusser silk was manufactured by Thomas Wardle and Co. in around 1875. It shows the influences of Persian and Turkish design, reflecting the manufacturer's interest in historical Eastern patterns, and the more general fashion for non-European patterns in the nineteenth century. The design was also block printed on cotton, and a version was shown at the 1888 Arts and Crafts Exhibition.

Thomas Wardle was a leading textile manufacturer and dyer working in Leek, Staffordshire. He took over his father's dyeworks in the early 1870s, and went on to become one of the leading British textile manufacturers of the late 19th century.

Wardle was recognised as an expert on the Indian silk industry. He first visited Bengal in 1885, and lectured widely on the importance of the tusser (wild) silk of India. The textured, brown fibres of tusser silk were notoriously resistant to dye, which Wardle successfully overcame in the early 1870s by first bleaching the silk.

Wardle was an early member of the Arts and Crafts Movement, and acquired patterns from leading designers such as Morris, Day, Crane, Voysey, and Butterfield. He produced fabrics for stores including Liberty & Co., Heal & Son and Debenham & Freebody, and between 1883 and 1888 he also traded through his own shop on New Bond Street.