Strawberry thief

The song thrushes that grace William Morris’s Strawberry Thief design have been stealing hearts as well as berries since 1883. One of the most iconic Morris & Co. patterns of all time, our interpretation is completely recoloured in a spectrum of sherbet pinks and garden greens. Printed in England on 100% cotton satin, cheeky birds perch on bowing branches, pecking at invitingly plump strawberries.

Strawberry Thief was first registered as a design in May 1883. A printed cotton textile, its rich indigo background was the result of William Morris’s scholarly research and experiments in the alchemical-art of vegetable dyeing at his Queen’s Square workshops.

Reputedly, William Morris’s gardener cursed the thrushes at Kelmscott Manor for their rascally invasion of the family’s fruit patch, yet, the wild appeal of these little birds at their breakfast led Morris to sanction their visits and to capture their mischief in a design whose appeal has evolved through colourful reinvention over time.