Donegal Carpet, 'Fintona', circa 1900

Charles Francis Annesley Voysey (1857-1941) is among the most influential designers of the Arts and Crafts movement. Trained as an architect, Voysey later became a leading designer of wallpaper, textiles and carpets. This carpet example with cream field, an enlarged trellis of hemlocks and large leaves in russet within a cream leafy hemlock border is archetypical for Voysey. Known for a simplicity and balance of his designs, his carpet patterns have a rhythmic quality and highlight natural forms, especially plants and birds, such as the hemlock plant featured in this carpet.
Often his carpet designs would be for special commissions but he also sold many carpet designs to Morton and Co. and other retailers, for wider use. Like many of his carpet designs, The Fintona is named after a town in Northern Ireland, Fintona in County Tyrone.
Liberty & Co. held an "Irish Carpet Exhibition" in the Grafton Galleries, London, in March 1903. A carpet of this design was exhibited alongside fourteen others, all showcasing excellence in Irish craftsmanship.