Fifties Patterns

The Victoria & Albert Museum has been releasing a series of themed Pattern Books based on their collection of more than three million samples of wallpapers and fabrics. The little inexpensive volume I was amusing myself with today (indoors, avoiding yet another rain storm) is The Fifties, available either by itself or as part of a boxed set that also contains volumes on William Morris, Digital Pioneers, and Indian Florals. Each includes a CD of high-resolution scans. Below are a few of my absolute 50s favorites, though it was excruciating to narrow down the choices.

Palladio Wallpapers
Bistro
UK
wallpaper sample
1955

Gigi Tessari/Manifattura

Spago

Furnishing fabric, printed cotton
Italy
1957

Marian Mahler/David Whitehead
Curtain fabric, screen-printed cotton
UK
1950

Jacqueline Groag/Liberty & Co.
Books
Furnishing fabric, screen-printed linen
UK
1954

Sylvia Chalmers/Elizabeth Eaton
Feathered Friends
Furnishing fabric, screen-printed cotton
UK
1953

Robert Nicholson/Palladio Wallpapers
Columns
Wallpaper sample
UK
1955

Robert Nicholson/Palladio Wallpapers
Collonade
Wallpaper sample
UK
1955

Cuno Fischer/Frittlingen, Alber & Co
Blues
Furnishing fabric, printed cotton
Germany
1955

Tom Mellors/David Whitehead
Flowerpots
Furnishing fabric, roller-printed spun rayon
UK
1954

Joan Miro/FullerFabrics
People & Birds
Furnishing fabric, screen-printed cotton
USA
1956

John Drummond/Anne Loosely
Piscatore
Furnishing fabric, screen-printed cotton satin
UK
1953

Terrence Conran/David Whitehead
Furnishing fabric, screen-printed cotton
UK
1950

Edward Hughes/Palladio Wallpapers
Basuto
Wallpaper sample
UK
1955

Roger Nicholson/David Whitehead
Furnishing fabric
UK
1951

Lucienne Day/Heal's
Small Hours
Furnishing fabric, screen-printed linen
UK
1953