Osborne & Little | Berber

Berber is a paisley drawn at a generous scale and painted informally in watercolours, so the motifs keep the softness of the brush rather than the precision of a block. The name refers to the peoples of North Africa who inhabit the plains and the Atlas Mountains, and the pattern has some of that looseness about it, reading as a wash of ornament rather than a formal repeat.

The cloth is woven from linen with a measure of nylon, 84 per cent to 16, in a light drapery weight on a 140cm width. A rub test of 21,000 puts it in domestic upholstery territory, suited to occasional chairs and lighter seating, and it makes handsome curtains and loose covers where the scale of the design can open out.