A single scrap of plain-weave cotton from India, about the size of an index card, held just enough geometry to work out an entire room-scale lattice. Accession 6.177 at The Textile Museum in Washington, D.C., carries no recorded date and no maker's name—only eight inches by four of surviving cloth: a doubled-rope lattice, a four-petal flower at every intersection, and a diagonal vine of leaves and small buds threading the cells.
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George Hewitt Myers acquired the fragment in 1951. He had founded The Textile Museum in 1925, in his own home on S Street in Washington, with 275 rugs and 60 related textiles he had been gathering since 1896. By the time 6.177 entered the collection, Myers had spent more than five decades gathering pieces across the globe—from Anatolian village rugs and Egyptian Mamluk carpets to archaeological textiles from Peru. Today, the museum he started holds more than 21,000 textiles spanning five thousand years.
At eight inches by four, the original fragment is densely packed. Almost none of its tight detail would read at an architectural scale. The translation opened the drawing—giving slightly larger flowers and more breathing room around the medallions while keeping the underlying ogee geometry exact, allowing painterly nuances the tiny original couldn't carry across a room.
The original piece survives in cream, indigo, madder red, and a brown-tan in the leaves. These renderings extend that historical palette across [COLOURWAY COUNT] colorways without breaking the structural logic of the design. The lattice runs unbroken again, at full scale, for the first time in a very long while.
The Cloth
Decor Chenille
A short, dense pile with a velvet-like surface on a firm woven ground. Fine striations catch the light as it moves across the room, deepening the colour. Substantial weight keeps a clean line on upholstery and gives tailored drapery a decisive fall.
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Composition: 100% polyester
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Width: 56 in printable (57 in full)
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Weight: 400 gsm
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For: Upholstery, cushions, headboards, heavy drapery
Cotton Linen
A fine, even linen-cotton weave. Colour prints cleanly while the woven surface remains visible, keeping solid grounds from going flat without softening fine linework. Light in the hand, it falls in narrow, supple folds and filters light rather than blocking it.
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Composition: 55% linen, 45% cotton
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Width: 54 in printable
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Weight: 250 gsm
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For: Upholstery, curtains, table linens, pillows
