Austen Blue

Jane Austen was born in Hampshire in 1775 and spent much of her life in the historic and beautiful county. Austen mingled with local society and enjoyed dances and visits in great houses throughout Hampshire, which provided the inspiration for many of her novels. The last eight years of Austen's life were spent in a modest house in Chawton, where she wrote her major works: Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Emma, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion. In May 1817, Jane became ill and moved to Winchester to seek medical treatment but died there on 18th July. She is buried in Winchester Cathedral.

Signare’s Austen Blue pattern combines oak leaves and bloomed flowers with the blue background from a Pelisse Coat thought to have belonged to Jane Austen (a Pelisse coat was a garment worn over a dress or gown which was fashionable during Austen’s lifetime). The oak leaf motif used here was a popular national symbol in Britain at a time.