Snakeshead

Details

Date: designed 1876, manufactured post 1917
Dimensions: 64.7 x 96.5
Object Type: textile
Material: printed cotton
Technique: block-printed
Catalogue number: F366
Designer: Morris, William (1834 - 1896)
Manufacturer: Morris & Co.
Credit notes: WMG purchase, 1994

This printed fabric shows how Morris learnt from contemporary cottons imported from India, particularly in the strongly contrasting reds and blues, and the way the three-dimensional forms of flowers and leaves could be transformed into flat patterns.

Morris admired the fact that Indian cottons were hand-printed with natural, rather than chemical, dyes. In Britain knowledge of how to produce dyes from plants and vegetables was fast disappearing; most textile manufacturers found chemical dyes cheaper and easier to use. But Morris felt natural colours had a richness lacking in chemical dyes, and spent ten years working with a Staffordshire silk dyer named Thomas Wardle to revive their use.

Seven printing blocks (the pattern required four blocks) used to print this fabric are in the Gallery’s collection.

Details

Date: 1879
Dimensions: 18.2 x 46.5
Object Type: design
Catalogue number: BLA451
Designer: Morris, William (1834 - 1896)

This design shows one half of the pattern for Dove and Rose, intended for a woven double cloth. The design is formed of leaves, stems, rose sprays, acorns and doves in green and red.

At Merton Abbey, Morris & Co.’s textile workshop, Morris had installed hand-operated jacquard looms, which partly automated the weaving process. Large orders were sub-contracted to companies that used steam-powered looms. Morris welcomed technological progress that genuinely saved repetitive labour without compromising the quality of the final product. He believed that “it is the allowing of machines to be our masters and not our servants that so injures the beauty of life nowadays”.

To weave the ‘Dove and Rose’ textile, Morris’s original design was painted on point-paper. This was used to make a series of punch cards, which were fed into the loom and controlled the production of the pattern. Morris felt uneasy about subjecting his employees to the “deafening clatter” of the weaving shed, but accepted it as a necessary evil to produce fine fabrics in silk and wool.

Details

Date: 1864
Dimensions: 74.9 x 55.9
Object Type: design
Material: sepia wash and pencil on paper
Catalogue number: A8
Artist: Morris, William (1834 - 1896)

This design is for part of a large stained glass window in the church of All Saints, Middleton Cheney, Northamptonshire. It shows Eve (the figure on the left) walking behind the Virgin Mary in a reference to the Christian doctrine that celebrates Mary as the redeemer of Eve’s sin in the Garden of Eden. The figures are set against rich foliage—typical of Morris’s talent for creating flat, decorative pattern, and small flowers are visible at their feet, perhaps inspired by Morris’s knowledge of millefleur motifs found in medieval tapestry. This design is a working drawing and is annotated with instructions, such as ‘R’ indicating the use of red glass for the inner layer of the Virgin’s robe.

Stained glass was one of William Morris’s first artistic pursuits and an important product in the early days of Morris, Marshall, Faulkner and Co., the interior decoration firm that Morris established in 1861. Morris leased premises at 8 Red Lion Square, London, and installed a kiln for firing glass and tiles in the basement. While Morris did not make the glass himself, preferring instead to order glass from more established companies such as James Powell & Sons, he breathed new life into the revival of historic stained glass techniques that was gathering pace in the nineteenth century. Key characteristics of Morris’s stained glass are an interest in simple forms reminiscent of medieval examples, the use of earthy, jewel-like colours, and the placement of pieces of coloured, ‘pot glass’ within a lead framework, creating patterns and images through a mosaic technique, as well as painting directly on to plain glass.

The cartoon was first designed by Morris for the chancel East window church of All Saints, Middleton Cheney, Northamptonshire, erected in 1865. The cartoon of Eve and the Virgin was used only once again, at Greenock, Renfrewshire, Scotland, in the North Church (Old West Kirk) in 1865 for the window in the west gable. The window has 4 lights and tracery, with 3 tiers of subjects, Eve and the Virgin being used for a panel in the bottom tier at left. The window also used the cartoons of the Angel with cymbals and Angel with lunette dulcimer designed by Burne-Jones and originally used at Lyndhurst in Hampshire. The church was demolished in 1926 to make room for shipyard extensions, the glass being re-fitted in the new church in Campbell Street.

Details

Date: 1861
Dimensions: 51 x 41
Object Type: drawing
Material: pencil and ink on paper
Catalogue number: D223
Artist: Morris, William (1834 - 1896)
Sitter: Morris (née Burden) | Jane | 1839 | 1914
Credit notes: WMG purchase, 1955

Originally thought to depict Iseult boarding a ship from the classic chivalric romance ‘Tristan and Iseult’, this portrait of Jane Morris in medieval costume is instead most likely to be a depiction of her as Helen of Troy. Morris chose the subject of ‘Tristan and Iseult’ for the mural he painted in the Oxford Union library building from 1857-1859, he created various sketches for the scene over the summer of 1857 and began work on his only easel painting on a similar theme, ‘La Belle Iseult’, now in the Tate collection.

However, this drawing’s paper is watermarked with the date of 1861 which places it after the Oxford Union murals were completed. Instead it is more likely to be a study for a mural planned for the staircase at Red House depicting the Trojan War. In the drawing Jane is climbing a small ladder to enter a ship, a likely reference to Helen of Troy whose great beauty, according to legend, triggered the Trojan War.

Morris’s interest in pattern design is already evident in the elaborate sleeve lining shown in this piece. Jane was a talented needlewoman and may well have made this costume herself.

Details

Date: c.1876
Object Type: photograph
Catalogue number: PP1/Z521
Sitter: Morris, William (1834 - 1896)

Photograph of William Morris wearing an artist smock and soft felt hat, c.1876. Morris had an unconventional dress sense. At university he went through a phase of only wearing purple trousers. In later years his shirts and jackets were made exclusively from indigo blue cloth. His willingness to wear a working smock in this portrait reveals a great deal about his attitude to manual labour. Unlike many reformers, Morris was a hands-on craftsman. Practical workwear such as this was as much a profession of his affinity with working people as it was a practical choice, protecting his normal clothes from the dye vats and printing ink in his factory at Merton Abbey.

Details

Date: 1880s
Dimensions: 64.5 x 47.5
Object Type: glass
Material: stained, painted, leaded glass
Catalogue number: C201
Artist: Morris, William (1834 - 1896)
Manufacturer: Morris & Co.
Credit notes: Acquired with the assistance of the MGC/V&A Purchase Grant Fund, The Art Fund, The Friends of the William Morris Gallery, Bancroft's and West Essex Decorative & Fine Art Societies, 1992

There are two versions of the minstrel design. The original cartoon for the minstrel figure was drawn by William Morris in 1868 for the East window of St.John’s church, Dalton, Yorkshire. This version, in which the minstrel has wings, was for a series of minstrel angels subsequently re-used in many Morris & Co. windows. [e.g. Jesus College Chapel, Cambridge (south transept south window tracery, 1873), Llandaff Cathedral (nave, south aisle, tracery, 1869), Hopton-on-Sea, Norfolk (east window 1882). The winged version of the design was numbered WM 40 in the Morris & Co. Catalogue of Designs. It was also used for the painted organ screen executed by Morris & Co. for Beddington Church, Surrey in 1869.

At some point this panel has been altered to fit a new window space, and in doing so, some areas of the border and background appear to have been re-shaped. The lower part of the figure, including the hem of the robe, the ankles and the feet, have been removed along with most of the green base representing grass. The stained glass was sold by the Estate of Mrs. Joan Sibley. Mrs Sibley had installed the panel along with another Morris & Co. panel (Mary Virgin by Burne-Jones, lot 101 in the same Christie’s sale) in her house at Whitehills, Banfshire when she moved there following the death of her husband. Previously, both panels had been in their home at Petworth, West Sussex. Prior to this, both panels were in a 1930s suburban house in Surbiton, which had been purchased by Mr and Mrs Sibley. The former owner of the Surbiton house had purchased the panels some time between c.1900 and c.1930.

Details

Date: 1890s
Dimensions: 60 x 60
Object Type: textile
Material: silks on fine gauze
Technique: hand-embroidered
Catalogue number: F368
Designer and maker: Morris | May | 1862 | 1938
Credit notes: Gift by Mrs Stephanie Godwin, 1995

This design was one of May Morris’s most successful embroidery designs. The original design is in the V&A E.956-1954. Examples also exist in the collections of Manchester School of Art, Crabtree Farm and Museum of South Australia. This example is particulaly fine and showcases May Morris’s technical skill, the overall design is worked in split, long, short and satin stich in silks on a gauze background. The outer border of the roundel is inscribed with the opening lines of Robert Herrick’s (1591-1674) poem ‘Welcome, maids of honour, you do bring in the Spring and wait upon her,’ worked in Gothic lettering. Four birds with outstretched wings are placed in the four corners.

Details

Date: 1893
Dimensions: 22 x 18.2 x 1.6
Object Type: book
Catalogue number: K2682
Author: Morris | May | 1862 | 1938
Publisher: Joseph Hughes & Co., London
Credit notes: Bequeathed by Joan Edwards, 2002

This book by May Morris provides an introductory guide to embroidery for beginners. The book contains sections on the history of the craft, stitches and techniques, design and colour. May took over the running of Morris & Co’s Embroidery Department in 1885, she also taught and lectured on the subject widely. The book demonstrates her devotion to and understanding of the art of embroidery. She also designed the cover of this book which is stamped with a floral repeat.

Details

Date: designed 1883
Dimensions: 56 x 54
Object Type: wallpaper
Technique: block-printed
Catalogue number: B52b
Designer: Morris | May | 1862 | 1938
Manufacturer: Jeffrey & Co.
Credit notes: WMG purchase, 1955

During her first three years working for Morris & Co, May Morris designed three wallpapers. ‘Honeysuckle’ was her most popular and enduring pattern and its light and uplifting design proved very successful for the firm. The design is based on a net structure of untamed woody stems, small curling leaves in two tones and honeysuckle flowers set against a plain background and was printed in four colourways. The repeat is 54cm.

Until recently questions surround who originally designed ‘Honeysuckle’, with some arguing that May’s father, William Morris was in fact the chief designer of the wallpaper. This is based on its earliest known attribution from 1890 by the writer of an article in The Woman’s World where it was credited to William Morris. However it was not unusual at this time for the designs of both May and Henry Dearle, Morris & Co.’s chief designer, to be credited to the firm’s more famous owner: the association tended to make the products more commercially viable. The first time the design is attributed to May appeared twenty years after The Womans World article in the Morris & Co. wallpaper catalogue from about 1909 and is confirmed in a letter by May.

Details

Date: designed 1883
Object Type: wallpaper
Technique: block-printed
Catalogue number: NN406
Designer: Morris | May | 1862 | 1938
Manufacturer: Jeffrey & Co.

Details

Date: designed 1883
Dimensions: 54 x 56
Object Type: wallpaper
Technique: block-printed
Catalogue number: B52a
Designer: Morris | May | 1862 | 1938
Manufacturer: Jeffrey & Co.
Credit notes: WMG purchase, 1955

Details

Date: designed 1883
Object Type: wallpaper
Technique: block-printed
Catalogue number: NN405
Designer: Morris | May | 1862 | 1938
Manufacturer: Jeffrey & Co.

Details

Date: designed 1883, printed before 1940
Dimensions: 916.9 x 55.9
Object Type: wallpaper
Technique: block-printed
Catalogue number: B52
Designer: Morris | May | 1862 | 1938
Manufacturer: Jeffrey & Co.
Credit notes: WMG purchase, 1955

Details

Date: 5.1877
Object Type: archival
Catalogue number: J143
Designer and maker: Morris, William, 1834, 1896
Credit notes: Presented by Mrs. J,W. Mackail, 1946

William Morris’s original hand written manuscript on the Eastern Question Association (May 1877). The finished tract read:

Friends and fellow-citizens:–
there is danger of war; bestir yourselves to face that danger. If you go to sleep, saying we do not understand it, and the danger is far away you may wake and find the evil fallen upon you, for even now it is at the door. Take heed in time and consider it well, for a hard matter it will be for most of us to bear war taxes, war prices, war losses of wealth and work, and friends and kindred; we shall pay heavily, and you, friends of the working classes, will pay the heaviest.

And what shall we buy at this heavy price? Will it be glory and wealth and peace for those that come after us?

Alas! no; for those are the gains of a just war; but, if we wage the unjust war that fools and cowards are bidding us wage to-day, our loss of work will buy us loss of hope, our loss of friends and kindred will buy us enemies from father to son.

“An unjust war!” I say: for do not be deceived; if we go to war with Russia now, it will not be to punish her for evil deeds done, or to hinder her from evil deeds hereafter, but to put down just insurrection against the thieves and murderers of Turkey; to stir up a faint pleasure in the hearts of the no-nothing fools that cry out without meaning for a “spirited foreign policy,” to guard our well-beloved rule in India from the coward fear of an invasion that may happen a hundred years hence – or never; to exhibit our army and navy once more before the wondering Eyes of Europe; to give a little hope to our holders of Turkish bonds:– Working-men of England, which of these things do you think worth starving for, worth dying for? Do all of them rallied into one make that body of ENGLISH INTERESTS we have heard of lately?

And who are they who flaunt in our faces the banner inscribed on one side “ENGLISH INTERESTS,” and on the other “RUSSIAN MISDEEDS?” Who are they that are leading us into war? Let us look at these saviours of England’s honour, these champions of Poland, these scourgers of Russia’s iniquities! Do you know them? Greedy gamblers on the Stock Exchange, idle officers of the army and navy (poor fellows!), worn-out mockers of the clubs, desperate purveyors of exciting war news for the comfortable breakfast tables of those who have nothing to lose by war; and lastly, in the place of honour, the Tory Rump, that we fools, weary of peace, reason, and justice, chose at the last election to represent us; and above all their captain, the ancient place-hunter, who, having at last climbed into an earl’s chair, grins down thence into the anxious face of England, while his empty heart and shifty head is compassing the stroke that will bring on – our destruction perhaps, our confusion certainly. O shame and double shame if we march under such leadership as this in an UNJUST WAR against a people who are NOT our enemies, against Europe, against freedom, against nature, against the hope of the world.

Working men of England, one word of warning yet. I doubt if you know the bitterness of hatred against freedom and progress that lies at the hearts of a certain part of the richer classes in this country; their newspapers veil it in a kind of decent language, but if you were to hear them talking among themselves, as I have done, I know not whether scorn or anger would prevail in you at their folly and insolence. These men cannot speak of your order, of its aims, of its leaders, without a sneer or an insult. These men, if they had the power (may England perish rather!) would thwart your just aspirations, would silence you, would deliver you bound hand and foot for ever to irresponsible capital. And these men, I say it deliberately, are the heart and soul of the party that is driving us to an UNJUST WAR. They can harm us but little now; but if war comes, UNJUST WAR, with all its confusion and anger, who shall say what their power may be, what step backward we may make. Fellow-citizens, look to it, and if you have any wrongs to be redressed, if you long to lessen those inequalities whihc have been our stumbling block since the beginning of the world, then cast aside sloth, and cry out against an UNJUST WAR, and urge us of the Middle Classes to do no less, so that we may all protest solemnly and perseveringly against out being dragged (and who knows for why?) into an UNJUST WAR, in which, if we are victorious, we shall win shame, loss and rebuke, and if we are overpowered – what then?

Working-men of England, I do not believe that in the face of your strenuous opposition, the opposition of those men whom War most concerns, any English Government will be so mad as to wrap England and Europe in an UNJUST WAR.

“A LOVER OF JUSTICE.”

Details

Date: designed 1892, printed c.1950
Dimensions: 102 x 57.2
Object Type: wallpaper
Catalogue number: B2a
Designer: Morris, William, 1834, 1896
Manufacturer: Arthur Sanderson and Sons Ltd
Credit notes: Presented by Arthur Sanderson & Sons Ltd, 1950

This wallpaper was designed by William Morris in 1892. The title is named after the cornflowers which were known in folklore as Bachelor’s Button as they were worn by young men in love.

This version was printed using original Morris & Co. blocks by the firm Arthur Sanderson & Sons Ltd. in 1950, after they acquired the blocks from Morris & Co. when they closed in 1940. It is stamped down the right edge: ‘MORRIS & Co’ and has a label with the Sanderson colourway ‘Bachelor’s Button 300’.

Details

Dimensions: 29 x 45
Object Type: textile
Technique: hand-loom jacquard woven
Catalogue number: F408
Designer: Morris, William, 1834, 1896
Manufacturer: Morris & Co.
Credit notes: Purchased from Haslam & Whiteway, 1998

This is one of two trial samples of Dove and Rose in silk brocade, an almost identicle piece is in the Victoria and Albert Museum (T.26-1919). Dove and Rose was normally produced in silk and wool double cloth. The design is formed of leaves, stems, rose sprays, acorns and doves in green and red. According to Morris, writing in a letter to Rosalind Howard, the structure of double cloth made it suitable only for curtains and hangings rather than upholstery.

The cloth was first woven by outworkers at Alexander Morton & Co. Later, at Merton Abbey, Morris & Co.’s textile workshop, Morris installed hand-operated jacquard looms, which partly automated the weaving process. Large orders were sub-contracted to companies that used steam-powered looms. Morris welcomed technological progress that genuinely saved repetitive labour without compromising the quality of the final product. He believed that “it is the allowing of machines to be our masters and not our servants that so injures the beauty of life nowadays”.

To weave the ‘Dove and Rose’ textile, Morris’s original design was painted on point-paper (see original design in WMG: BLA451). This was used to make a series of punch cards, which were fed into the loom and controlled the production of the pattern. Morris felt uneasy about subjecting his employees to the “deafening clatter” of the weaving shed, but accepted it as a necessary evil to produce fine fabrics in silk and wool. According to Morris, writing in a letter to Rosalind Howard, the structure of this fabric made it suitable only for curtains and hangings rather than upholstery.

Details

Date: Designed 1879
Dimensions: 66 x 91.4
Object Type: textile
Material: wools and silks on silk
Catalogue number: F28
Designer: Morris, William, 1834, 1896
Credit notes: Mackmurdo bequest, 1942

Dove and Rose was produced in silk and wool double cloth. The design is formed of leaves, stems, rose sprays, acorns and doves in green and red. According to Morris, writing in a letter to Rosalind Howard, the structure of double cloth made it suitable only for curtains and hangings rather than upholstery.

The cloth was first woven by outworkers at Alexander Morton & Co., Darvel, Scotland. Later, at Merton Abbey, Morris & Co.’s textile workshop, Morris installed hand-operated jacquard looms, which partly automated the weaving process. Large orders were sub-contracted to companies that used steam-powered looms. Morris welcomed technological progress that genuinely saved repetitive labour without compromising the quality of the final product. He believed that “it is the allowing of machines to be our masters and not our servants that so injures the beauty of life nowadays”.

Details

Date: 1896
Dimensions: 24.4 x 15.5
Object Type: photograph
Catalogue number: P897
Photographer: Walker | Emery | 1851 | 1933
Credit notes: Gift of Dorothy Walker

This photograph depicts the the Morris’s dining room at Kelmscott House in 1896, photographed by Morris’s friend and neighbour Emery Walker. A large seventeenth-century Iranian ‘vase’ carpet from Kerman hangs from the wall, now in the V&A. In front is an Italian cypress chest (now in the Fitzwilliam) laid out with various decorative items, including two nineteenth century Iranian brass incense burners in the shape of peacocks (now at Kelmscott Manor), two brass plates leaning against the wall, two Hispano-moresque plates lying flat, two brass candlesticks and a large Iranian lidded metal bowl in between.

The photograph was given to the Gallery by Dorothy Walker, Emery Walker’s daughter.

Details

Date: designed c.1867-7, manufactured c.1904
Dimensions: 182.9 x 259.1
Object Type: textile
Material: wool on cotton warp
Technique: machine-woven
Catalogue number: N3
Designer: Morris, William, 1834, 1896
Manufacturer: Heckmondwike Manufacturing Co. Yorkshire
Retailer: Morris & Co.
Credit notes: Gift of Dr & Mrs Charles Newman, 1954

Tulip and Lily was designed by William Morris around 1867-7. He registered the design a year or so later on 27th December 1878, after a number of firms started copying the design. The flat woven flooring is 3-ply wool and was woven in Yorkshire for Morris & Co. by Heckmondwike Manufacturing Co. The carpet as available in various colourways, predominantly green. The carpet was 36 inches wide (91.5cm) and also available for stair caperpets, this version has a border and was acquired from Morris & Co. in 1904.

Details

Date: c. 1879
Dimensions: 28 x 69
Object Type: textile
Technique: hand-loom jacquard woven
Catalogue number: F409
Designer: Morris, William, 1834, 1896
Manufacturer: Morris & Co.
Credit notes: Purchased from Haslam & Whiteway, 1998

William Morris designed Flower Garden in 1879. He described it in a letter to a Georgiana Burne-Jones on 4 March 1879: ‘I am…in a whirlwind of dyeing and weaving, and…rather excited by a new piece…which looks beautiful, like a flower garden’. Morris claims to have chosen the colours to ‘suggest the beauties of inlaid metal’. They were almost certainly influenced by a display of items from Damascus he had studied in a dealer’s shop in London in 1878.

Details

Date: Designed 1879
Dimensions: 51.4 x 68.9
Object Type: textile
Technique: hand-loom jacquard woven
Catalogue number: F199
Designer: Morris, William, 1834, 1896
Credit notes: Presented by Miss E Pugh, 1961

William Morris designed Flower Garden in 1879. He described it in a letter to Georgiana Burne-Jone on 4 March 1879: ‘I am…in a whirlwind of dyeing and weaving, and…rather excited by a new piece…which looks beautiful, like a flower garden’. Morris claims to have chosen the colours to ‘suggest the beauties of inlaid metal’. They were almost certainly influenced by a display of items from Damascus he had studied in Vincent J. Robinson’s shop in London in 1878.

Details

Date: 1870-1911
Dimensions: 26 x 9.5 x 6
Object Type: textile
Technique: embroidery
Catalogue number: H56a&b
Owner: Morris, May
Credit notes: Transfer from Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter, 2011

These slippers were possibly acquired by May or Jane Morris during their trip to Egypt in 1896-97, but more likely by May during a solo trip to Morocco in 1911. May departed England in October 1911 for a three week trip on the H.M.P.S Agadir to Madeira and the coast of Morrocco. The slippers were donated to the Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter in 1939 after May’s death by Mary Lobb, May Morris’s companion, and were part of a larger collection of mainly Icelandic material. The collection was transferred to the William Morris Gallery in 2012.

Details

Date: c.1880s
Dimensions: 66 x 69.2
Object Type: design
Material: sepia wash and pencil on paper
Catalogue number: A43
Artist: Morris & Co.
Designer: Morris, William, 1834, 1896
Credit notes: WMG purchase, 1940

This pencil design is for a carpet (see William Morris Gallery N17), possibly the first to be made at William Morris’s textile factory at Merton Abbey. The partial sketch demonstrates how Morris would build patterns by repeating sections, carefully illustrating only what was necessary to construct the full image. In the final piece, the central pattern is mirrored to create a symmetrical effect, whilst the surrounding borders feature curling plant stems and acanthus leaves.

In the late 1870s, Morris wrote to a friend, “I am studying birds now to see if I can’t get some of them into my next design”. A number of designs incorporating birds followed, including this energetic pair of squawking peacocks.

Details

Date: c. 1890
Dimensions: 101.6 x 228.6
Object Type: textile
Material: wool on cotton
Technique: hand-knotted
Catalogue number: N7
Designer: Morris, William, 1834, 1896
Manufacturer: Morris & Co.
Credit notes: Presented by Miss M. L. Wooldridge, 1955

Hand-knotted Hammersmith rug with stylised floral border enclosing a central panel of scrolling flowers and leaves. A version was exhibited at the 1899 Arts & Crafts exhibition and another commissioned from Morris’s friend by A.A. Ionedes, for his house at 1 Holland Park, London. Another example is in the Museum of Applied Arts, Budapest. The border design of ‘Little Tree’ also features on a number of other carpet designs made by Morris & Co.

This rug was given to the Gallery by Martha Wooldridge, (1863-1958) a classical dancer who purchased it around 1898 for her home, the Arts & Crafts House called ‘Wavertree’ in St Margarets, Twickenham, which she shared with the radical preacher Stewart Headlam.

Details

Date: c. 1890
Dimensions: 203.2 x 111.8
Object Type: textile
Material: wool on cotton
Technique: hand-knotted
Catalogue number: N6
Designer: Morris, William, 1834, 1896
Manufacturer: Morris & Co.
Credit notes: Presented by Miss M. L. Wooldridge, 1955

Hand-knotted Hammersmith rug with stylised floral border enclosing a central panel of scrolling flowers and leaves. Most Hammersmith rugs were made of wool but this example is made of mohair, providing a lustrous effect. It was given to the Gallery by Martha Wooldridge, (1863-1958) a classical dancer who had been left it by the radical preacher Stewart Headlam, whom she lived with in an Arts & Crafts House called ‘Wavertree’ in St Margarets, Twickenham (Headlam is perhaps most famous for putting up half of Oscar Wilde’s bail when he was tried for ‘gross indecency’ in 1885).

Details

Date: 1913
Dimensions: 113 x 76
Object Type: design
Material: pencil, ink and watercolour on paper
Catalogue number: A1396
Designer: Jack, George Washington Henry (1855 - 1931)
Credit notes: Gift of John Brandon Jones, 1997

The architect Halsey Ricardo (1854-1928) built 8 Addison Road, Kensington for Sir Ernest Debenham, the department store owner and his family. The house was elaborately decorated and includes work by Ernest Gimson, William Aumonier and E.S. Prior as well as extensive series of tiled fireplaces and surfaces by William De Morgan (with whom Ricardo had been in partnership). In March 1912, Ricardo asked George Jack to design and prepare cartoons for part of the mosaic decoration of the main hall of the house, and also to design the carved marble balustrade around the first floor gallery space. The following month Jack travelled to Italy with his friend Thomas Hamilton Crawford to make a study of Byzantine mosaics in preparation for the work. Jack’s final designs incorporates floral patterns of both Persian, Ottoman and Byzantine influence.

Details

Date: 1913
Dimensions: 720 x 620 mm (framed)
Object Type: design
Material: pencil on paper
Catalogue number: A1401
Designer: Jack, George Washington Henry (1855 - 1931)
Credit notes: Gift of John Brandon Jones, 1997

Details

Date: c.1888-1898
Dimensions: 81.3 x 61
Object Type: ceramic
Material: earthenware
Catalogue number: C7b
Artist: De Morgan, William (1839 - 1917)
Manufacturer: De Morgan, Sands End Pottery, Fulham, London, England
Credit notes: Mackmurdo bequest, 1942

This panel is one of three in the Gallery’s collection, and part of a more extensive series designed by William De Morgan for the P&O cruise liner SS Arabia. The stylised fruit trees are contained in a niche shape, reminiscent of Iranian and Iznik tiles that De Morgan studied and admired. The tiles are marked on the reverse with the firm’s logo, a Tudor rose with ‘Wm. De Morgan & Co. Sands End Pottery Fulham’. De Morgan was commissioned by the ship’s architect Thomas Calcutt, and the panels formed a decorative frieze around a public area, or companionway, of the liner. By the 1880’s, steamships had become a popular and luxurious way to travel, and P&O employed specialist architects and designers to create sumptuous interiors for their more prestigious ships. De Morgan designed for twelve P&O cruise ships between 1882-90.

Details

Date: c.1888-1898
Dimensions: 81.3 x 61
Object Type: ceramic
Material: hand-painted overglaze earthenware
Catalogue number: C7a
Artist: De Morgan, William (1839 - 1917)
Manufacturer: De Morgan, Sands End Pottery, Fulham, London, England
Credit notes: Mackmurdo bequest, 1942

Details

Date: c.1888-1898
Dimensions: 106.7 x 81.2
Object Type: ceramic
Material: earthenware
Technique: hand-painted
Catalogue number: C6
Artist: De Morgan, William (1839 - 1917)
Manufacturer: De Morgan, Sands End Pottery, Fulham, London, England
Credit notes: Presented by H. C. Mossop, 1941

This tile panel was designed by William De Morgan, the leading ceramicist of the Arts and Crafts movement. The panel is made up of 42 tiles and depicts a rearing lion painted in bold enamel colours. The lion is highly stylised with a large clawed paws and a sun-ray mane. The design demonstrates De Morgan’s admiration for Iranian and Ottoman Iznik tiles. The panel (and another see C6a) was donated by H.C.Mossop, who’s sister Nellie Mossop painted tiles and other ceramics for De Morgan in the early years, when he was working at Orange House in Cheyne Walk. This tile panel was made after that period, at Sands End, Fulham, when De Morgan was in partnership with the architect Halsey Ricardo. An identical panel, with the design reversed and in different colours is also in the Gallery’s collection (see C6a).

Details

Date: 1881
Dimensions: 97.5 x 57
Object Type: design
Material: ink and watercolour
Catalogue number: A240
Illustrator: Morris, William, 1834, 1896

This large illustration is one of 17 (See A234-A242) used by William Morris to illustrate his lecture ‘Some Hints on Pattern Designing’ given at the Working Men’s College, London on 10 December 1881. The patterns derive mainly from plates illustrating similar motifs in the Egyption section of Owen Jones ‘Grammer of Ornament’. This particulalar illustration is a close copy of a similar motif in Jones’ ‘Grammer of Ornament’ from the Assyrian and Persian Art Section, pl.XII no 14.

Details

Date: 1881
Dimensions: 67 x 77.7
Object Type: design
Material: ink and watercolour
Catalogue number: A237
Illustrator: Morris, William, 1834, 1896

This large illustration is one of 17 (See A234-A242) used by William Morris to illustrate his lecture ‘Some Hints on Pattern Designing’ given at the Working Men’s College, London on 10 December 1881. The patterns derive mainly from plates illustrating similar motifs in the Egyption section of Owen Jones ‘Grammer of Ornament’. In fact this particulalr illustration is a close copy of a similar motif in Jones’ ‘Grammer of Ornament’ from the Egyptian Section, pl.IV no 16.

Details

Date: c. 1860-80s
Dimensions: 16.5 x 13.5
Object Type: textile
Material: silk
Catalogue number: F341

This type of purse, also known as ‘Aleppo purses’ were woven in workshops in Zouk Mikael in Mount Lebanon, a town north of Beirut. It was probably made around 1860-1880, during which time Mount Lebanon was under Ottoman rule. The bag is woven in coloured silks in tapestry, the front and back feature a tulip and leaf motif with other small flower heads, they would have been woven one above the other on the same warp threads on a horizontal loom called a nawl. The bag would have been sent to Aleppo or Istanbul for finishing, in this case with silk plaited handles and three silk tassels, pale sky-blue silk lining with flap at top closed by silk covered button. The bag was acquired by the Gallery at Auction, along with other bags once belonging to May Morris.

Details

Date: c.1897
Dimensions: 130 x 147
Object Type: textile
Technique: hand-embroidered
Catalogue number: F204
Designer and maker: Morris | May | 1862 | 1938
Credit notes: Miss M A Sloane bequest, 1962

May Morris visited Egypt in the winter of 1896-97. This cloak was made on her return and demonstrates her close study of North African motifs which she combined with more characteristic scrolling leaves. The shape is an approximation of ‘Arabic’ dress. In the late nineteenth century ‘burnouses’ and North African-style cloaks were fashionable accessories for followers of the Aesthetic style, widely available from shops such as Liberty. A photograph of May wearing a similar cloak in 1897 is also in the Gallery’s collection (P645).

The cloak is constructed from two loom widths of dark blue wool. Bands of silk embroidery (satin stitch, single chain stitch and long and short stitch) extend along the shoulder seams and cuffs, with a central motif on the back. May’s designs for the cloak are in the Ashmolean’s collection and show how May changed her mind when stitching the motifs and her white guidelines are also visible in some places where she decided not to stitch. The finished cloak was exhibited at Willow Brook Company, New York in 1910 and the Arts & Crafts exhibition in 1916 (no. 459). It was purchased by May’s friend Mary Sloane from the Kelmscott Manor sale after her death in 1939, Lot 139, for £2.

Details

Date: c.1888-1898
Dimensions: 81.3 x 61
Object Type: ceramic
Material: earthenware
Technique: hand-painted
Catalogue number: C7
Artist: De Morgan, William (1839 - 1917)
Manufacturer: De Morgan, Sands End Pottery, Fulham, London, England
Credit notes: Mackmurdo bequest, 1942

Details

Date: 1900
Dimensions: 6.5 diameter
Object Type: sculpture
Material: bronze
Catalogue number: S57
Artist: Chaplain, J. C. (1839 - 1909)
Credit notes: WMG purchase , 2000

The Chadwicks had a long association with Morris & Co, several generations of the family having worked for the firm. Frank Chadwick started his career with Morris & Co. c.1921 as a dyer, later becoming one of the Firm’s weavers. The present medallion was sold together with other items, which included: a letter of recommendation for Frank Chadwick from Morris & Co. (dated 19 September 1940) following the closure and voluntary liquidation of the firm, a newspaper cutting (publication unknown) on the Chadwicks’ links with Morris & Co. and a booklet on Indigo: Its Application in Dyeing and Printing by Dr M Liebert of Meister Lucius & Bruning Ltd. (Pubd. Furstenhagen & Brown, Bradford, n.d.)

Details

Date: c.1870
Dimensions: 15.2 x 15.2
Object Type: ceramic
Material: earthenware tiles painted in enamels
Catalogue number: C192
Designer: Morris, William, 1834, 1896
Credit notes: WMG purchase, 1982

This tile featuring clumps of daisies was produced by Morris, Marshall, Faulkener & Co. in the 1870s. Morris bought in already glazed and fired tile blanks from The Netherlands, and the design was painted in enamels by the Firm in London. The tiles were fired in a stained glass kiln, which produced variable results. Later Morris outsourced the painting to the Netherlands too, which produced a more consistent product.

The original design for this is in Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery (1990P5).

Details

Date: first issued 1868-70, printed 1968
Dimensions: 119.7 x 55.9
Object Type: wallpaper
Catalogue number: B102
Attributed designer: Gilbert Scott, George, Sir (1811 - 1878)
Manufacturer: Arthur Sanderson and Sons Ltd
Credit notes: Presented by Arthur Sanderson & Sons Ltd, 1968

This design was originally thought to have been based on Indian designs for painted/embroidered furnishings, or adapted from an earlier 18th century wallpaper by William Morris. However it is now attributed to George Gilbert Scott Jnr because of a reference in a letter (Victoria and Albert Museum, London: National Art Library) from the Firm’s business manager Warrington Taylor to Philip Webb in 1869, making reference to ‘Scott’s “Indian”‘. In 1874 Scott was one of the founders of Watts & Co who issued wallpapers in a similar style. The pattern repeat is 63.5 x 50.8 cm.

This version was printed in 1968, using original Morris & Co. blocks by the firm Arthur Sanderson & Sons Ltd., who acquired the blocks from Morris & Co. when they closed in 1940. The Sanderson colourway number ‘138770 Indian’ is on the reverse with the price of 38 shillings.

Details

Date: 09.06.1857
Dimensions: 24.8 x 17.5
Object Type: oil
Material: oil on wood
Catalogue number: O96
Artist: Solomon, Simeon, 1840, 1905
Credit notes: WMG purchase, 1960

This small picture was painted by Solomon when he was only sixteen years old, and thus is his earliest known oil painting. The subject relates to the parable of the prodigal son from the Gospel of Luke. A young man recognizes his errant ways and returns with humility to seek repentance from his father, who welcomes and forgives him. Considering the preponderance of Old Testament subjects in Solomon’s early oeuvre, The Return of the Prodigal Son suggests the young artist’s familiarity with New Testament subjects. Further, one might also conclude that, even as an adolescent, Solomon was aware that he might have to incorporate New Testament subjects into his repertoire to appeal to mainstream Victorian audiences. The recurring motif of the father-son relationship connects this painting to Solomon’s contemporaneous interest in the figures of Abraham and Isaac from Genesis.

The apinting is initialed and dated lower right corner.

Details

Date: c.1870
Dimensions: 12.8 x 12.8
Object Type: ceramic
Catalogue number: C178
Artist: Morris, William, 1834, 1896
Manufacturer: Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co.
Credit notes: Presented by Alan Green, 1976

This design of alternating swans and leaf scroll motif is attributed to William Morris c.1862. The tiles were decorated in Morris & Co.’s workshops on an imported Dutch tin-glaze tile. Morris later transferred production to the Netherlands, those tiles are slightly larger and decorated using the more durable ‘in-glaze’ technique (see C191), as opposed to the hand painted ‘on-glaze’ technique of this earlier smaller tile.

Details

Dimensions: 12.7 x 12.7
Object Type: ceramic
Material: earthenware tiles painted in enamels
Technique: low relief
Catalogue number: C214i
Manufacturer: Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co.
Designer: Morris, William, 1834, 1896
Credit notes: Purchased with assistance from the MGC/V&A Purchase Grant Fund, 1995

Details

Date: 1872-1881
Dimensions: 15.2 x 15.2
Object Type: ceramic
Technique: slip-covered and hand-painted
Catalogue number: C15
Maker: De Morgan, William (1839 - 1917)
Credit notes: Presented by Miss P. Garrett Fawcett, 1938

Tile is painted in ruby lustre on white slip with four-square design of alternating pattern of a rose head and a leaf scroll, the former against a ruby ground, the latter against a white ground. De Morgan produced this tile during his Chelsea period (1871-1881), when he worked from his home in Cheyne Walk. The tile is painted on a blank, possibly from Poole Pottery- another tile with this design is in The De Morgan Foundation and stamped with Poole Pottery’s mark.

Details

Date: c.1870-1879
Dimensions: 12.7 x 12.7
Object Type: ceramic
Technique: hand-painted
Catalogue number: C220i
Designer: Morris, William, 1834, 1896
Maker: Morris & Co.
Credit notes: WMG purchase, 1997

‘Poppy’ was designed by William Morris, this version was painted on a Dutch blank, probably at Morris & Co’s workshop. The design was later produced for the firm by William De Morgan, who produced the design in more vibrant colour combinations. William De Morgan’s sister-in-law Mrs A.M.W. Stirling, recalled that he had said, ‘Morris never made but three designs for my execution, the Tulip and Trellis, the Poppy and another – I forget the name. I never could work except by myself and in my own manner.’ This example, in softer colours was possibly painted by Kate Faulkner, and is similar to her ‘Peony’ tile she designed and painted for the Firm.

Details

Date: c. 1870
Dimensions: 15.2 x 15.2
Object Type: ceramic
Catalogue number: C267
Designer: De Morgan, William (1839 - 1917)
Maker: De Morgan, William (1839 - 1917)
Credit notes: Purchased with assistance from Friends of the William Morris Gallery, 2009

This design is credited to William Morris, but the tile was made for both Morris & Co. and William De Morgan’s firm. Morris and De Morgan met in 1863 and there was a large degree of overlap in their design, production and sale processes. The Firm sold products of its own design and also those by De Morgan; by the 1880s De Morgan was the main supplier to the Morris shop. Both De Morgan and Dutch manufacturers also made tiles after designs by Morris. The ‘Artichoke’ design was a popular choice and the pale blue colourway (e.g. C266) was still made well into the 20th century. Morris had this design installed in the fireplace at Kelmscott Manor.

Details

Date: 1882-1888
Dimensions: 15.2 x 15.2
Object Type: ceramic
Material: earthenware
Technique: hand-painted
Catalogue number: C165
Designer and maker: De Morgan, William (1839 - 1917)
Manufacturer: De Morgan, Merton Abbey, Surrey, England
Credit notes: Presented by The Courtauld Institute of Art, 1966

Earthenware tile featuring three stylised sunflowers. Each flower is characterised by its yellow petals with dark brown edges and a textured, dotted brown center. The flowers are connected by flowing green foliage and stems that dominate the composition, creating a sense of movement and balance.

The background is a light cream color with a characteristic crackled glaze, typical of De Morgan’s ceramics, adding depth and an aged aesthetic. The vibrant green and yellow tones contrast with the darker accents, emphasising the floral motifs.

Back: It has a rectangular mark containing ‘WDeMerton Abbey’.

Details

Date: 1888-98
Dimensions: 15.2 x 15.2
Object Type: ceramic
Material: earthenware
Catalogue number: C48
Manufacturer: De Morgan, Sands End Pottery, Fulham, London, England
Designer: De Morgan, William (1839 - 1917)
Owner: Marillier | H. C.
Credit notes: Presented by Lady Pooley, 1953

Tile painted in underglaze pale green and turquoise swirling leaves on an blue ground. Designed as part of a repeating pattern. Marked with “1888 – 98” and a circle containing the words “Wm De Morgan & Co. Sands end Pty Fulm” around a Tudor rose. The tiles (a set of three) were formerly in the collection of H.C. Marillier, managing director of Morris and Co. from 1905-1940.

Designed as part of a repeating pattern, complete panels of which can be seen on the fireplace in the Richmond Fellowship 8 Addison Road, Kensington, London, originally built for Sir Ernest Debenham by Halsey Ricardo.

Details

Date: c.1880
Object Type: glass
Material: stained, painted, leaded glass
Catalogue number: C228
Designer: Whall, Christopher Whitworth (1849 - 1924)
Manufacturer: W.G. Saunders & Company
Merchant

Part of a series of three stained glass windows made for St.Ethelreda’s Church, an important medieval building which was built as the London chapel of the Bishops of Ely. Whall was attached, as a layman, to the Rosminian religious community at St. Ethelreda’s and was asked to design the glazing of the nave windows of the church, his first commission in stained glass. Disagreements between Whall and Saunders resulted in Whall losing the commission. At some point between the early 1880s and 1900, the panel was removed from the church and was later found in storage at the Rosminian Convent in Loughborough. The panel was conserved in 1999 with a grant from the Glazier’s Trust.

Details

Date: c.1930s
Dimensions: 286 x 76
Object Type: design
Material: charcoal and grey wash on paper
Catalogue number: A835
Artist: Whall, Veronica (1887 - 1967)
Credit notes: Gift of C.J. Whall, 1973

This design depicts Sir Galahad, one of the main protagonists in the Legend of King Arthur stories. Veronica Whall designed 72 windows depicting the tales of King Arthur for King Arthur’s Hall, Tintagel, Cornwall. The building was designed in the 1930s by Frederick Thomas Glasscock as a meeting place for Arthurian devotees to exchange interpretations of medieval literature. This design depicts Sir Galahad, one of the main protagonists in the Legend of King Arthur stories.

Veronica Whall was the daughter of Christopher Whall, she began assisting her father in her early teens. In the 1900’s she attended classes, including Edward Johnston’s in lettering and calligraphy, at the Central School of Arts & Crafts. With her brother, Hew Bernard Whall, she set up ‘The Stonebridge Press’ and illustrated a number of its hand printed publications. By the time of the First World War, Whall was one of her father’s principal assistants, becoming a partner in the firm Whall & Whall Ltd in 1922. After her father’s death in 1924, she carried on the work of the Whall studio, helped by her brother until her retirement in 1953. Among her most important commissions were windows for Carlisle and Leicester Cathedrals and the complete glazing scheme for King Arthur’s Hall.

Details

Date: 1864
Object Type: glass
Material: stained, painted, leaded glass
Catalogue number: C198
Designer: Burne-Jones | Edward Coley | Sir | 1833 | 1898
Designer: Webb | Philip | 1831 | 1915
Manufacturer: Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co.

This stained glass panel is from a series illustrating Chaucer’s ‘Legend of Goode Wimmen’. Amor (left) in white robe with painted yellow flowers, with red wings, holding a sheaf of arrows and clasping the hand of Alcestis (right), in a green robe, with long golden hair and a pearl ornamented crown. Te two figures stand in an enclosed garden against a background of a city, the walls of which bear the inscriptions ‘Imago Amoris’ (left) and’ Imago Martyris’ (right) in Gothic lettering, within a running border of Tudor roses and stems.

It is possible that the Amor & Alcestis panel might be part of the original series made for Myles Birket Foster, which is known to have been dispersed at some time between the wars. It is certainly a very early version of the design, other examples of which are at the V&A, at Peterhouse in Cambridge, and in private collections.

Details

Date: 1863
Object Type: glass
Material: stained, painted, leaded glass
Catalogue number: C232
Designer: Webb | Philip | 1831 | 1915
Designer: Brown, Ford Madox, 1821, 1893
Manufacturer: Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co.
Credit notes: Presented by Neil Phillips, John Hardman Studios, 2000

This stained glass panel depicts a man cutting wood in the branches of a tree. An owl can be seen looking up at him from the bottom right and the top right of the image features a ram, possibly a reference to the zodiac symbol Aries. The window was designed by Ford Madox Brown and Philip Webb for Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co., the precursor to Morris & Co.

The window may have been part of a glazing scheme for Silsden House, Keighley, Yorkshire from 1863 to 1864. Brown’s account book in 1864 includes an entry about a design for ‘cutting trees down’. The original design for the window is at Cecil Higgins Art Gallery, Bedford.

Details

Date: 1584
Dimensions: 32 x 23 x 11
Object Type: book
Material: paper
Catalogue number: H34
Owner: Morris, William, 1834, 1896
Owner: Morris, Jenny (1861 - 1935)
Credit notes: Transfer from Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter, 2011

This is a rare first edition copy of the first Icelandic bible, it is printed in three parts with separate title pages for the Old Testament, Prophets and the New Testament. It is known as Gudbrand’s Biblia, after its translator and editor Guðbrandur Þorláksson (or Gudbrandur Thorlaksson) (1541 – July 20, 1627). William Morris acquired it during his travels in Iceland in 1871. His Icelandic Diaries record how he saw in the house of one Dr Skaptason at Hnausar (in Húnavatnssýsla) ‘a fine copy of the Gudbrand Bible in its original binding brass-bound and very good’.

An inscription written by Morris in Icelandic on the first page reads: ‘This book I give to my daughter Jóhönnu on the day of her birth 17 Jan: 1891’, revealing that he gave the bible to his elder daughter Jenny on the occassion of her 30th birthday. Morris owned another edition of this bible, which remained in his possesion until his death. It is now in Princeton University Library.

Details

Date: 1870-1880
Dimensions: 28 x 22
Object Type: sculpture
Catalogue number: H53
Owner: Morris, William, 1834, 1896
Credit notes: Transfer from Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter, 2011

This drinking horn was acquired by William Morris in Iceland, possibly a gift from a friend.

The horn was donated to the Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter in 1939 by Mary Lobb, May Morris’s companion and later transferred to the William Morris Gallery.

Details

Date: 1890
Dimensions: 66 x 55.9
Object Type: drawing
Material: pastel on paper
Catalogue number: D74
Sitter: Fawcett, Philippa Garrett (4 April 1868 - 10 June 1948)
Artist: Rathbone, Harold Steward (1858 - 1929)
Credit notes: Gift of Philippa Garrett Fawcett, 1938

The subject of this portrait, Phillippa Garrett Fawcett (1868-1948) was the daughter of the pioneer suffragist Millicent Fawcett, she won early fame by achieving high marks in the Mathematics Tripos at Cambridge University- at the time women were not admitted to the University’s degrees. It is said that Fawcett inspired William Morris to use her name for one of the characters in his novel ‘News From Nowhere’. ‘Mistress Philippa’ is the skilled stone-carver whom William Guest meets during his journey up the Thames to Kelmcott.

The portrait is by Harold Steward Rathbone, after studying at the Slade School and in Paris, Rathbone worked as a pupil of Ford Madox Brown, assisting him with the murals at Manchester Town Hall. He played an active role in the Arts and Crafts Movement and in 1893 set up the Della Robbia Art Pottery in Birkenhead.

Details

Date: c.1870-1879
Dimensions: 12.7 x 12.7
Object Type: ceramic
Technique: hand-painted
Catalogue number: C220ii
Maker: Morris & Co.
Designer: Morris, William, 1834, 1896
Credit notes: WMG purchase, 1997

Details

Date: c. 1882-88
Dimensions: 15.2 x 15.2
Object Type: ceramic
Material: earthenware tiles painted in enamels
Technique: hand-painted
Catalogue number: C8a
Artist: De Morgan, William (1839 - 1917)
Manufacturer: De Morgan, Merton Abbey, Surrey, England
Credit notes: Mackmurdo bequest, 1942

Single tile, part of a repeating tile panel showing the head of a flower hanging from a grey stem, the outer petals turquoise and blue with the many-seeded centre in manganese purple, green leaves and the stem of another flower, on a white ground.
This repeating design is a variation of De Morgan’s most popular and enduring pattern “BBB”. Stamped verso with rectangular mark: W. DE Merton Abbey

Details

Date: c.1888-1897
Dimensions: 10.2 x 15.2
Object Type: ceramic
Material: earthenware tiles painted in enamels
Catalogue number: C10
Artist: De Morgan, William (1839 - 1917)
Manufacturer: De Morgan, Sands End Pottery, Fulham, London, England
Commissioner: Leighton House, London
Credit notes: Mackmurdo bequest, 1942

William Morris met William De Morgan in 1863, and their friendship and professional association would last until Morris’s death. There was a large degree of overlap in their design, production and sale processes. The Firm sold ceramic products of its own design and also those by De Morgan; by the 1880s De Morgan was the main supplier to the Morris shop. De Morgan also made tiles after designs by Morris. From the 1870s Morris & Co. relied on De Morgan to supply high quality coloured enamels, as commercial products contained high levels of borax which compromised the colouration and durability of the tiles. From 1882 – 1888, William De Morgan moved his premises to Merton Abbey, to be closer to Morris, who already had works there, on the banks of the River Wandle. In 1888 he moved to Sands End in Fulham, where this tile was produced.

Details

Date: c.1872-1881
Dimensions: 15.2 x 15.2
Object Type: ceramic
Material: earthenware
Catalogue number: C9
Artist: De Morgan, William (1839 - 1917)
Designer: William Morris Gallery
Credit notes: Presented by Miss Phillippa Garrett Fawcett, 1938

This earthenware tile features a design of two roses positioned in the upper left and lower right corners, painted in blue with deep blue centers. The roses are connected by a diagonal stem of green leaves, set against a background of a green squared trellis. The reverse side is impressed with a square mark enclosing the text W. DE. MORGAN in a circular arrangement, with a central circle of impressed dots.

Related works: The Rose Trellis design shares affinities with one of William Morris’s earliest wallpapers, Trellis, designed around 1862 and printed in 1864. This wallpaper was reportedly inspired by the rose trellises in the garden of Morris’s home, the Red House in Bexleyheath, Kent.

Archives: Objects

Pages

Archives

Categories