The Victorians kept peacocks for the same reason they kept ferns and aquaria: the bird is an ornament that happens to be alive. Byron puts one into a damask, which is a more interesting decision than it sounds, since the ogee structure of a damask needs a motif that can be mirrored, and a peacock with its tail spread mirrors beautifully.
The birds are worked in metallic, and the tail feathers are where the design earns its keep. Each eye is drawn individually and picked out in a different weight of metal, so a wall of them shifts constantly as light moves across it. The rest of the pattern, the scrollwork holding the birds in place, is printed more quietly, which lets the metallics do the work without the whole surface becoming reflective.
It is a straight match at a 76 cm repeat on a 0.52 m roll, and the birds therefore align in ranks across the wall, which suits the formality of the design. Use it in a room lit by lamps rather than by daylight: a dining room, a small drawing room, a dressing room. Dark paintwork below a dado and plain velvet upholstery are the natural companions.
