Cherwell, a Morris & Co. printed velveteen furnishing fabric. The pattern was designed by John Henry Dearle in 1887. Dearle (1859-1932) was a British textile and stained glass designer who started working for William Morris in his teens and rose to become Morris & Co.’s chief designer by 1890. He was appointed art director of the firm upon Morris’s death in 1896, and became the principal stained glass designer upon the death of Edward Burne-Jones two years later.
The fabric remnant from which the puzzle image is taken is part of a collection of Morris & Co. textiles that belonged to the Glessner family, now in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago. The size and shape of the remnant indicates its use as a chair seat, likely from a chair Frances Glessner gifted to her sister, Helen Macbeth. A photograph of Macbeth shows the same fabric on a wing chair in her Prairie Avenue apartment.
Cherwell is unusual in that it was one of the only textile designs adapted for wallpaper. In 1891, it was reworked as Double Bough with some small modifications including a stippled background. In 1892, the Glessners selected Double Bough wallpaper for the redecoration of the corner guest room. A reproduction of the wallpaper, printed using the original hand carved wood blocks, has been installed in that room.