William Morris designed ‘African Marigold’ in 1876, the design was registered 7th October 1876 but probably not produced until a few years later. The pattern features small marigolds, with larger stylised lilies and curling ribbons of willow and acanthus leaves. The original design is in the gallery’s collection (see BlA464) as well as 23 original printing blocks. Morris worked with the master-dyer Thomas Wardle in Leek, Staffordshire when first manufacturing this design on silk in 1880-81. However, a letter from Morris to Wardle on 8 February 1881 shows that Morris was not pleased with the Wardle’s attempts:
‘I am sorry to say that the last goods African marigold and red marigold sent are worse instead of better: they are infact unsaleable; I should consider myself disgraced by offering them for sale: I laboured hard on making good designs for these and on getting the colour good; they are now so printed & coloured that they are no better than caricatures of my careful work.’
Although Wardle and Morris’s relationship started out well, by the early 1880s Morris’s exacting standards took on a strain on the working relationship. Later in 1881, Morris took over the dying and block-printing process of his fabrics at his own factory, Merton Abbey.
This example was acquired by the Gallery from Morris & Co. in 1940 when the business closed.
