During World War II Claude and Edith lived in London working from their studio off Baker Street. Later fleeing from the Blitz, they moved to a cottage in Donhead St Andrew, Wiltshire. Flight suffered from a stroke in 1947 and had to stop working, Edith nursed him until his death in 1955. She spent much of her later life at Worth Matravers, the surrounding area becoming a source of inspiration for her. In 1973, the year of her death, Edith held a solo exhibition at the University of Hull, which was later followed by a memorial exhibition in the same year at the Parkin Gallery dedicated to both Edith and Claude.

Following the years of austerity caused by World War II, the British textile industry was much in need of reinvigoration. The large-scale development of new housing created a demand from a cross-section of society for colourful, modern fabrics to personalise their contemporary homes and celebrate an end to the sombre war years.
Recruiting artists to create textile designs was an effective way to improve pattern design and raise the profile of the industry. Preceding decades had seen successful artist/textile collaborations: William Morris sought to bring together fine art and handicrafts in the latter half of the 19th century; the Omega Workshops were established in 1913 by members of the Bloomsbury Group; Lyon silk-weavers Bianchini Férier commissioned designs by Raoul Dufy; and Edinburgh Weavers worked with the likes of Barbara Hepworth and Paul Nash.
In a brighter Modern Britain that sought greater equality across the classes, artist-designed textiles made cutting-edge design accessible to all. Artists such as John Piper, Henry Moore and Edward Bawden sought to breakdown status distinctions between fine art and industrially produced objects, just as the Arts and Crafts Movement had done a century earlier.
In 1953 the Institute of Contemporary Arts launched the 'Painting into Textiles' exhibition in association with The Ambassador Magazine, a textile trade journal owned by Hans and Elsbeth Juda that promoted British export. The exhibition was instrumental in the development of artist-led textile design. Hans Juda sought to inspire textile manufacturers to forge working collaborations with artists; the manufacturers would translate a freely created work of art into a functioning repeat design. Twenty-five artists were commissioned by Juda to produce artworks for the exhibition, six of which were purchased by David Whitehead and Sons. These included paintings by Henry Moore, William Scott and Donald Hamilton Fraser.
Whitehead's most successful artist collaboration was the translation into textile designs of a group of works by John Piper, of which "Foliate Head" (see lot 74) is the most well-known. Piper would design for the company until it's closure in 1970. The working relationship between Piper and Head Designer George Butler is illustrated through several letters between the two, offered for sale with the present collection. Four original designs by Piper, including "Fawley" (see lot 76), "Venetian Palazzo" (see lot 78) and "Piazza" (see lot 77), in addition to a fabric section of his famous painting "Abstract 1955" (see lot 73) which was once owned by Hans and Elsbeth Juda, are also up for sale. These works demonstrate Piper's extraordinary versatility as an artist and his openness to working with skilled craftsmen, printers and workshops to realise his ideas in fabric.
The textiles printed by David Whitehead and Sons were known for their high quality, modern design and affordability. In 1951, David Whitehead's Contemporary Prints was launched, which were characterised by lively, small-scale designs printed on rayon. The Painting into Textiles scheme at David Whitehead and Sons was revived in the 1960's, in part due to the efforts of George Butler, during which time painterly effects characterised their output. Clearly an advocate of the scheme, Mr Butler stated that "Whiteheads maintain that paintings can readily be interpreted on fabric without necessarily being designed for fabrics".
We are grateful to Hugh Fowler-Wright for his assistance in cataloguing lots 72-80

Born in Huddersfield in 1939, David Blackburn showed an aptitude for art from a young age. To the surprise of his teachers he left Huddersfield Grammar School aged 16 to study at the local art school as a textile artist, before receiving a scholarship to the Royal College of Art in 1959. Here he discovered his vocation for painting and the preferred medium of pastel influenced by his friend Gerhard Frankl.
After graduation, he taught at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. He found the outback so antithetical to European landscape that it completely freed him from traditional concepts of the genre. Of it's influence he stated:
"I think it's Paradise. At first…it was difficult to come to terms with…I couldn't understand how one could draw where there was no apparent foreground, middle distance and background - only space."
The American landscape similarly had an effect on his work when, in 1981, he began a lectureship at Georgetown University.
A great supporter of David's works Sir Kenneth Clark wrote: "I don't know an artist to whom I can compare him. [Blackburn] is not a landscape painter, not an abstractionist in the ordinary sense… He is a painter of metamorphosis."