Liberty May Anniversary Cushion, Anthology

A velvet cushion created and named to mark the 140th birthday celebrations at Liberty in 2015. 140 designs were selected from the archive, spanning every decade since Liberty opened its doors in 1875 and used as inspiration to create an anthology of Liberty prints. The design was hand drawn, in pencil, from original documents before being hand painted in gouache into a full width repeat. The dense tapestry of furnishing archive prints were woven together to create a floral peacock garden with swimming swans and gliding birds. Soon after opening on London's Regent Street in 1875, trading exotic goods and textiles from the Far East, Arthur Liberty began working with local artisans and manufacturers to produce Liberty's own textiles and objets d'art. By the 1890s Liberty Art Fabrics were a byword for the very best of Avant Garde textile design.