princess (kings and queens), c. 1933

Nicholson began to make hand-printed textiles for his own use. Later he welcomed their saleability, as it helped relieve his poor finances. In the 1930s he created several different designs, sometimes in collaboration with his wife Barbara Hepworth. The prints were made using blocks of linoleum. They often incorporated one reversed impression as a ‘signature’, as well as a vertical or horizontal red line appearing at intervals across the pattern.

In the late 1940s Nicholson gave many of the blocks to his sister Nancy, who used them to print editions which she sold, alongside her own textiles, at Poulk Press, in London. In 1937 Nicholson also produced six woven and printed designs for his friend Alastair Morton, of the Edinburgh Weavers, which were marketed as part of the Constructivist range.