This printed cotton fabric has a naturalistic design of roses and lilacs in bright colours and was made in about 1850. It was exhibited in 1852 in an exhibition called 'False Principles in Design' at the Museum of Ornamental Art in Marlborough House, curated by Henry Cole. Cole had been a member of the 1851 Exhibition committee which aimed to promote excellence in industrial design. This chintz, which retains traces of its original label (No.11), was condemned for 'Direct Imitation of Nature' involving 'branches of lilac and rose trees made to bend to the forms of sofa cushions and chair arms'. Further complaints read, 'the ground, which should be light in chintzes, [is] entirely obscured by the pattern. General want of repose'.

Another of the exhibition organisers, Richard Redgrave, declared that 'the decoration of chintzes in particular seems at present to be of the most extravagant kind. Overlooking the fact that the lightness and thinness of the material will not carry a heavy treatment, and that...the use of imitative floral ornament is particularly unsuitable on account of the folds, the taste is to cover the surface almost entirely with large and coarse flowers...which are magnified by the designer much beyond the scale of nature'.

Despite the attempts of Cole and his successors to improve public taste, consumers continued to favour floral chintzes, which remain popular for draperies and upholstery to this day.