The Woodpecker Tapestry by William Morris - 1885

This Woodpecker tapestry depicts a bird and a woodpecker sitting in a tree garlanded with flowers and swirling leaves. The subject is taken from the Latin poet Ovid's Metamorphoses: a sorceress turns King Picus into a woodpecker when he refuses to become her lover. The texts (from Morris’s poetry) lament that ‘I once a king and chief now am the tree bark’s thief’ ‘ever twixt trunk and leaf chasing the prey’.

It was woven at Merton Abbey under Morris' supervision. It was originally hung in the billiard room of 24 Bedford Square, Bloomsbury and is now on display at the William Morris Gallery, Walthamstow.