This is one of a number of textile designs copied onto tracing paper by Sandys in the Birmingham collection (see also 1927P386, 1927P387, 1927P388 and 1927P391). In the 1850s he used medieval textile designs in his paintings. These designs are most likely to have been copied from printed illustrations in nineteenth-century historical sourcebooks. Sandys often reworked the designs on the canvas using his copies as inspiration (Betty Elzea, 'Frederick Sandys 1829-1904: A Catalogue Raisonné,' p. 139)