Lot 117
PHYLLIS BARRON (1890-1964) AND DOROTHY LARCHER (1884-1952)
'VERNEDE' PATTERN BLOCK-PRINTED COTTON DRESS, CIRCA 1930
Auction: 23 February 2017 at 10:00 GMT
Description
the fabric depicting an abstract design, the buttoned cotton dress with lace trim, block printed using red alizarin dye
Footnote
Literature: Carruthers, Annette and Greensted, Mary 'Simplicity or Splendour', Cheltenham 1999, p.124
Note: Phyllis Barron and Dorothy Larcher produced their own hand-blocked textiles in London and, from 1930 in Painswick, Gloucestershire. Barron, who had trained at the Slade, first became interested in printing fabrics on discovery of some printing blocks whilst on holiday in France. She researched dying at the British Museum and the V&A libraries. As a member of the London Group from 1916 until 1921 she would have been in contact with the leading artists of the day, and very quickly she came to the attention of Roger Fry who asked her to exhibit at the Omega Workshop. Dorothy Larcher meanwhile had been working in India and on her return met Barron through the embroideress Eve Simmonds. She joined Barron in 1923 and together they moved to a workshop in Hampstead. Through Detmar Blow they secured a commission to furnish the coming-out dance of the Duke of Westminster, and another commission through the Duke led to a commission for cushions for Coco Chanel's garden in Paris. They moved to the Cotswolds in 1930 where the local water was particularly suitable for madder dying and from where they secured commissions from Girton College, Cambridge, the furniture maker Eric Sharpe amongst many others. The impossibility of obtaining good quality fabrics during the Second World War forced them to give up their business.