This embroidered and block-printed silk robe is among the small group of daring textiles designed c.1912-14 by Percy Wyndham Lewis.
Mallams’ specialist Philip Smith describes it as “a museum piece” and he expects it to bring over £2500 at the December 7-8 auction.
The full-length gown, consigned from the north of England, combines bold colours with bands of stylised foxes, swans, fish and kneeling figures.
It is possible this robe was among the influential textiles produced by the Bloomsbury Group’s Omega Workshops.
However, a similar robe and a printed panel of this Vorticist design (part of the Paul Reeve textile collection sold by Lyon & Turnbull) have been attributed to the Rebel Art Centre – the short-lived workshop set up in 1914 after Lewis and several Omega artists had quarrelled with the Bloomsbury set.
