Birthday Floral William Morris style CC1282 Invitation Postcard

Birthday party invitation for friends of William Morris and the Arts and Crafts movement. The pattern, however, is not of British origin, but found in Owen Jones's famous pattern book Examples of Chinese Ornament. Owen Jones tells about this pattern that the form of the leaves are typically Chinese, while the flowing stem and treatment of the flowers are after Persian and Indian manner. It was originally painted on a china bottle. William Morris himself recognises especially the Persian influence on his work. In 1882 he wrote (freely quoted): To us the the pattern design of Persia has become a holy land, for there in process of time our art was perfected.