This Jacquard woven silk and cotton mix fabric was manufactured by W. & C. Morley of Cheapside, London in about 1860. The fabric was designed to be made into dresses or waistcoats. The pattern is of leaf shapes and decorative meanders in blue and two shades of red. A bright palette was a dominant feature of mid-Victorian textile design. In 1856 the first truly chemical dye, Perkins' mauve, appeared, followed by aniline red two years later and then a rainbow of bright, garish colours. Few of the shades had been seen before and they had a strong novelty value. With this type of colour so inexpensive to produce, many people could afford fabrics dyed in, until then, unusal hues.