Tiles and table glass were a popular and financially important aspect of Morris and Co.’s early output. Despite Morris’s belief that works of art should, as far as possible, be designed and executed by a single craftsperson, ceramics was one of the few areas in which he did not have personal artisanal expertise. Instead, he purchased blank tiles from the Netherlands. According to Jennifer Hawkins Opie: “…white, undecorated tiles ordered from Dutch manufacturers arrived at the Morris works in London ready glazed and fired. These were then decorated by the painters of stained glass already employed by Morris. Of necessity, this was done in enamel colours and this ‘on-glaze’ decoration was fired (a second firing for the tin glaze), initially alongside the enamel-decorated stained glass in the firm’s own kilns in the basement of Red Lion Square.”
This ‘Bay and Willow’ pattern is typical of Morris’s interest in natural, botanical forms. In many cases, individual tiles could be combined to create larger pictorial and decorative schemes.
