In October 1945 Zika Ascher wrote to Moore suggesting that he make some designs for children’s textiles, requesting ‘anything that would be familiar to children, or anything, though not familiar, that would appeal, such as the monkey and the elephant and the jollier types of birds like the penguin.’ Although we do not know of Moore’s response, it could explain the appearance in this design of the brightly coloured tigers. But Moore and Ascher had more than children in mind; the pattern was produced in both rayon and silk for dress fabrics and also as a trial for linoleum floor tiles.