Swiss Town

Details

Dimensions: 11.1 x 13.4
Object Type: drawing
Material: pencil on paper
Catalogue number: D360
Artist: Whall, Christopher Whitworth (1849 - 1924)
Credit notes: Presented by C. J. Whall, 1973

Details

Date: 1874
Dimensions: 56.8 x 54.7
Object Type: design
Material: pencil on paper
Catalogue number: A1067
Designer and maker: Morris, William, 1834, 1896
Retailer: Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co.
Credit notes: Acquired by the William Morris Gallery with support from the Art Fund and additional support from the Resource/V&A Purchase Grant Fund and the Friends of the William Morris Gallery

Powdered was designed by William Morris in 1874. It takes it name from the relatively informal arrangement of meadow flower sprigs- unconnected by a linking devices- over the surface of the paper. Among the six flowers featured, rose, speedwell, pansy and cornflower have been identified.

From the late 1860s, Morris’s wallpapers became increasingly fashionable in Aesthetic and later, Arts & Crafts interior decoration. Morris responded to demand by continually adding to his forms range, so that his substantial output in the medium- some fifty patterns- reflects all phases of his designing career. Powdered is one of several mid-1870s designs featuring willow foliage, a favourite motif which Morris drew with endless inventiveness.

Details

Object Type: drawing
Material: pencil on paper
Catalogue number: D432
Artist: Cockerell, Olive (1869 - 1910)
Credit notes: Presented by Raymond Watkinson, 2002

Olive Cockerell was an artist and illustrator, primarily for fairy stories. She was the sister of the curator Sydney Cockerell and the naturalist Theodore Cockerell. She was also a friend of the Morris family and remained connected to them through her brother Sydney who was William Morris’s private secretary towards the end of his life.

Olive provided illustrations for stories by Anna Marie Diana Wilhelmina Pickering, sister of Evelyn Pickering de Morgan, including her popular Queen of the Goblins published in 1892. She also illustrated The Windfairies by Mary de Morgan, sister of William de Morgan, which was published in 1900. Mary de Morgan’s previous books of fairy stories had been illustrated by William de Morgan and Walter Crane.

Olive developed an interest in fairy stories from a young age. Her godmother, the social reformer Octavia Hill, send her a brooch in 1876 writing: ‘It is a funny little old-fashioned brooch, but I thought it was very pretty; and I liked it, because it looked as if it had a history. I thought you might like it for this reason too. But I am afraid it will not begin to speak to you, like those delightful things in Andersen’s stories.’

Details

Date: 1896
Dimensions: 47 x 67.3
Object Type: design
Material: pencil on paper
Catalogue number: A214
Designer: Dearle, John Henry (1859 - 1932)

‘Compton’ was previously thought to have been William Morris’s last repeating textile design, as recorded by May Morris in her ‘Collected Works of William Morris’. However, following Linda Parry’s research the design has been ascribed to John Henry Dearle. Morris and Co. re-designed the interior of Compton Hall, Wolverhampton, in 1895-6 for Laurence W. Hodson. Although Morris had a hand in some of the designs (this is confirmed in surviving letters), there is no evidence that he was sole designer for any of the new items designed specifically for the house. Rather he and Dearle worked together, sending designs back and forth. The evidence to suggest this is in fact Dearle’s design is further strengthened by its similarity to his other work, particularly ‘Leicester’ wallpaper. The design was registered as a wallpaper and printed cotton on 27 February 1896.

Material: pencil on paper

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