Detail from Morris & Co decorative furniture.

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Step into the Morris & Co Oxford Street shop

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Step into the Morris & Co Oxford Street shop where you will be transported to 1877 as a customer ready to browse the selection of gorgeous handmade furniture, fabrics, tiles and decorative ceramics.

Morris & Co had a profound influence on the decoration of houses and churches in the early 20th century. Although most influential in the 1880s and 1890s, Morris & Co operated until its closure in 1940. The firm’s designs are still sold today.

Decorative music cabinet
Music cabinet, 1870's

Gallery highlights

'Battye' embroidered wall hanging, c.1900
'Battye' embroidered wall hanging, c.1900
Music Cabinet, 1870s
Music Cabinet, 1870s
Stella Vespertina, c.1881
Stella Vespertina, c.1881
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'Battye' embroidered wall hanging, c.1900

The design for this embroidery was commissioned from Morris & Co. by Mrs Frances Battye. It was designed by May Morris and worked by Battye herself. Frances Battye (neé Bibby) was the daughter of James Jenkinson Bibby, a successful entrepreneur and founder of the Bibby Shipping Line. Frances married a barrister named Richard Battye in 1866, who died in 1873. The Battye family coat of arms was incorporated into this embroidery. Frances Battye was a skilled embroiderer and completed this large hanging with the help of her two daughters, Audrey and Norah. She also completed two other hangings around 1898, now in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. This embroidery features woodland birds and animals as well as various family mottos including ‘ye earlie birde getteth ye wurm’.

Music Cabinet, 1870s

This cabinet was designed by Philip Webb and decorated with classical scenes by William de Morgan for Morris & Co. It was originally one of a pair, the other with panels showing St George & the Dragon also by William De Morgan. Both cabinets were made for Isabel Olga Lucas, née D'avigdor (1843-1926) widow of the artist Horatio Joseph Lucas. The painted panels on the cabinet’s doors have been open to interpretation. The scene on the left may depict Hera, Muse Erato, Maia with a Young Hermes or perhaps Mercury holding the first lyre. The scene on the right shows two male figures who could be Pan or Silenus instructing Dionysus or Bacchus to play the pipes. The cabinet was later sold back to Morris & Co. by Mrs Lucas's daughter Ruth Lousada. Old photographs from when it belonged to Ruth Lousada, show the back of the cabinet was originally covered with a stamped, embossed leather paper. This feature seems to have been removed by a subsequent owner who instead replaced the paper with 12 ruby lustre animal tiles by William De Morgan. These tiles were still in situ when the cabinet was acquired by the William Morris Gallery in 1955. They were then removed in 1957 and catalogued separately when the back was filled with new waxed oak panels to match the rest of the piece.

Stella Vespertina, c.1881

This painting is based on a stained glass panel designed by Edward Burne-Jones in 1878, from one of a set of nine representing the planets. The painting originally featured a full-length nude seated on a rock but in 1958 it was cut down to its present size. The discarded canvas was not kept nor was a photographic record taken of the painting in its original state. The stained glass that inspired the painting was made by Morris & Co. for the music room at 'Woodlands', the home of Sir Angus Holden situated on the outskirts of Bradford, West Yorkshire. While the set of stained glass no longer survives, the cartoons of its design including 'The Evening Star' are now at Torre Abbey, Torquay, Devon.

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