This red and gold striped fringe was designed and made to trim upholstered furniture. The fringe is made from silk and Japanese gold thread (gold paper wound around a silk core). Gold thread of this type became very popular from the 1870s and was chiefly used in textiles in the Anglo- Japanese style, thus giving rise to its name.

This type of fringe has remained popular over a long period of time. The one exhibited here was given by F.C. Harper along with with other small samples he had amassed from a large collection of furniture trimming dating from the 17th century to the 19th. Harper had collected examples from items of furniture, often from artistically significant furniture and important large houses. When selling the collection he offered the Museum small pieces cut from a selection of these.

France led the field in the manufacture of fringes, tassels and braids, collectively known as passementerie. British 19th-century manufacture emulated the highly decorative style of French production.