Fashionable men and women displayed their taste in the fine fabrics they chose for their clothes. Until the later 17th century most silks were imported. But a silk-weaving industry developed in England, centred around Spitalfields in London, which grew increasingly successful between 1700 and 1760. Huguenot refugee families, contributing technical and business skills, played an integral part in its development.

Mid 18th century patterned silks woven in Spitalfields were dominated by designs with white or light-coloured grounds, at which the industry was said to excel. Examples with stronger coloured grounds like this are much rarer. It can be closely compared with a small sample in one of the V&A's pattern books from the firm of Batchelor, Ham and Perigal, T.375-1972, p.271, which helps to place it as the likely product of these leading London weavers.

The fabric is a brocaded silk satin. The technique of brocading allowed different colours to be introduced into the pattern of a fabric in specific, sometimes very small areas. It was a more laborious process for the weaver than using patterning wefts running from selvedge to selvedge, but the resulting effect could be much more varied and lively.