London, 1944

Printed rayon twill headscarf designed by the Polish-born artist Feliks Topolski and printed by the textile firm Ascher. Comprising a peach ground fabric overprinted with a wide red-purple border, leaving a roughly square centre ground overprinted with the figurative picture in black and with crossed flags in the centre of each side. The scarf was printed before making up and has rolled and hand stitched edges. The central picture reproduces a line drawing by the artist depicting a wartime London street scene with loosely drawn figures in uniforms, a double decker bus advertising 'Ascher', a building labelled 'Defence' and two barrage balloons in the sky. The figures representing London's transient and diverse war time population are labelled underneath in handwriting in order from left to right: 'Polish Soldier; British Airman & WREN Officer; WAAF; A.T.S Police; French Sailor; Norwegian Australian Czech & Dutch American New Zealander Sailor; Indian American Soldier & Land Army Girl' . Initialled 'F.T.' lower right corner. A drawn oval plaque at centre of lower edge of picture reads 'London, 1944'.

Topolski was an official war artist when he designed the headscarf in 1944. It was commissioned by the textile firm Ascher, as one in a series of commisions for artists squares from leading artists including Henry Moore and Henri Matisse. Zika and Lida Ascher, the husband and wife team who founded the firm, came from Prague to London in 1939. Ascher produced luxury fabrics for the fashion industry for several decades.