The
Lily & Vine design, with its simple but effective border of curling
acanthus leaves, was shown at an exhibition of the Arts & Crafts Society
in 1896, the first year of
Voysey's collaboration with Alexander Morton,
founder of Donegal Carpets. The arrangement of stylized flowers and
plant forms in the carpet's field shows Voysey's skill at creating an
overall flat pattern that still has rhythm and movement. Voysey himself
owned a carpet in the Lily & Vine design, placed in the dining room of
his home, The Orchard, in 1899.
