Cole & Son | Couture Carousel Cushion Blush

This cushion takes the Couture Carousel design in the Blush palette. The wallpaper it comes from carries sixteen figures, each drawn by hand at Cole & Son's Chelsea showroom and each representing a decade of couture; on a cushion you see only a fragment of that cast, which suits the drawing well, since fashion illustration was always meant to be looked at close to, on the page.

It is backed and piped in Colour Box Velvet, the house's own plain cloth, which gives the edge a properly defined seam and the reverse enough weight to hold the shape. Inside is a feather and down inner, the filling that lets a cushion take an impression and keep it, and that gives an arrangement of cushions the slightly dishevelled look a room in use should have.

The size is 50 cm square, grand in the trade's terms and the one worth having, since anything smaller vanishes at the back of a deep sofa. It is made in Great Britain. It works best as the single decorated element in a plain scheme, on a linen sofa or a plainly dressed bed, rather than among other patterned cushions. One good cushion is worth several ordinary ones, and this is a good one.