Crewelwork hangings were a very popular form of English domestic furnishing in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. The designs were influenced by contemporary Indian embroidered, printed and painted textiles imported into Europe by the East India Company.
English crewelwork experienced a revival as fashionable furnishings in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when sets (many of which had survived) were bought for use on antique four-poster beds and were also split up and used as curtains on windows. At the time the work was described erroneously as 'Jacobean' work, but later acquired the nickname 'Jacobethan'. Original crewelwork hangings were used in fashionable homes and in those of collectors, but the style also spread to new furnishings, with contemporary designers and manufacturers producing printed linens with similar trailing tree and leaf designs.