Textile Design with Lozenges Made Up of Roses and Rosettes

Vertical panel with a textile design that is part of a group of 266 textile designs by the American artist Robert Bryer, possibly made for United Designing Co., since most of the designs carry a stamp of the "United Designing Co. / WOrth 4 - 8975". Some of them also contain a stamp in the verso of the "Original Designing Company, Inc."

The collection contains a great variety of designs, from the more traditional floral and stripe patterns, to thematic designs based on various travel destinations, with palm trees and other holiday attributes. Especially interesting among these are patterns inspired by textiles and paintings of Native American tribes, including the Inca, Navajo, Aztec and Maya. The patterns are composed of semi-abstract figures distributed across the design in a regular or, in some cases, a more casual fashion. The spontaneity of designs and the use of floral and animal motifs suggest they were created for printed textiles in the forties.

This textile design is made up of a seamless patterns of lozenges consisting of alternating vertical rows with white (unrendered) lozenges decorated with four red roses with dark blue stems and leaves and vertical rows with dark blue lozenges framed by eight rosettes with blue petals and red pistils and with one rosette with white (unrendered) petals and blue pistils in the center. This design presents a playful re-creation of "chintz" motifs that took place in the production of American textiles during the 1930s and 1940s, by including the traditionally used roses in an alternative way, in this case forming lozenges in the pattern.