These curtains would have been hung on a wall or as a portière across the back of a door. The design shows a series of horizontal bands of patterns. These follow the division of walls used in fashionable British interiors during the third quarter of the 19th century. The design is attributed to Bruce J. Talbert (1838-1881) because of the competence of the general composition and on the evidence of one design in the V&A collections (museum no. 9077.5). It shows an almost identical pattern to the repeating magnolia flower heads seen in the lower filling.
This drawing is part of a group of Talbert drawings acquired by the Museum in 1883. One other design in the set is marked with the name of Cowlishaw Nicol & Co, a Manchester weaving company, suggesting that Talbert designed these patterns specifically for woven textile furnishings.
Although not marked, the structure of these curtains is identical to existing examples with the trademark of J and J.S. Templeton. This was a branch of James Templeton, established in Glasgow in 1839 for the manufacture of carpets. From the 1860s one section of the factory produced woven curtains until it was destroyed by fire in 1886.