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9th May 2024

This is Golden Wheat (1959), the first design by Althea McNish (1924-1920) for Hull Traders. Printed on heavy cotton satin in four colourways, it was so popular that it stayed in production until the 1970s. It was inspired by a visit in 1957 to see her RCA tutor, Edward Bawden, in Great Bardfield. In the fields nearby, she encountered a wheat field for the first time, which for her recalled sugar cane plantations in Trinidad. The "dazzling contrasting colours...movement and expressive lines" of her work have been celebrated in recent exhibitions at the  William Morris Gallery and The Whitworth

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