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{{for| the novel | The Strawberry Thief}}
[[File:Strawberrythief.jpg|thumb|Strawberry Thief, 1883, William Morris (1834-1896) [[V&A Museum]] no. T.586-1919]]
'''Strawberry Thief''' is one of [[William Morris]]'s most popular repeating designs for [[textile]]s.<ref>{{Citation | author1=Hill, Michele | title=William Morris strawberry thief | publication-date=2010 | publisher=Country Bumpkin Publications | isbn=978-0-9805753-1-6 }}</ref> It takes as its subject the [[thrush (bird)|thrush]]es that Morris found stealing fruit in his kitchen garden of his countryside home, [[Kelmscott Manor]], in [[Oxfordshire]]. To print the pattern Morris used the painstaking [[indigo dye]] [[textile printing]] method he admired above all forms of printing. He first attempted to print by this method in 1875 but it was not until 1881, when he moved into his factory at Merton Abbey, near [[Wimbledon, London|Wimbledon]], that he succeeded. In May 1883 Morris wrote to his daughter, "I was a great deal at Merton last week ... anxiously superintending the first printing of the Strawberry thief, which I think we shall manage this time." Pleased with this success, he registered the design with the Patents Office. This pattern was the first design using the technique in which red (in this case [[alizarin]] dye) and yellow ([[Reseda luteola | weld]] ) were added to the basic blue and white ground. [[Discharge printing]] was used.<ref>{{Cite web |title=William Morris textiles · V&A |url=https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/willam-morris-textiles |access-date=2023-08-12 |website=Victoria and Albert Museum |language=en}}</ref>
The entire process would have taken days to complete and consequently, this was one of [[Morris & Co.]]'s most expensive cottons. Customers were not put off by the high price, however, and Strawberry Thief proved to be one of Morris' most commercially successful patterns. This printed cotton furnishing textile was intended to be used for curtains or draped around walls (a form of interior decoration advocated by William Morris), or for loose covers on [[furniture]].
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