Textile Design with Zig-Zagging Vertical Strips of Small Stylized Roses and Pairs of Small Stylized Flowers

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 particular textile design is made up of alternating vertical strips of alternating small stylized yellow roses with green stems and pairs of stylized flowers with green petals and red stems over a dark reddish-brown background. The flowers are organized so that they give the impression of zig-zagging vertical strips over the plain background. The use of flowers other than the roses traditionally used in "chintz" textile designs, like thoe ones in this design, was particularly important in the production of American textiles during the 1930s and 1940s.