Artichoke tile

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: 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. 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. 1870
Dimensions: 15.2 x 15.2
Object Type: ceramic
Material: earthenware tiles painted in enamels
Technique: hand-painted
Catalogue number: C193
Designer: Morris, William (1834 - 1896)
Credit notes: WMG purchase, 1982

Details

Date: 1882-88
Dimensions: 20.3 x 20.3
Object Type: ceramic
Material: hand-painted overglaze earthenware
Technique: hand-painted
Catalogue number: C12
Designer: De Morgan, William (1839 - 1917)
Manufacturer: De Morgan, Merton Abbey, Surrey, England
Credit notes: Mackmurdo bequest, 1942

This tile of a stylised sunflower by William De Morgan was known as ‘BBB’, after the Norwich firm of Barnard, Bishop and Barnard who made cast-iron fireplaces and supplied tiles for use in conjunction with them.

These tiles with a two-tile repeating pattern, known as B.B.B., named after Barnard, Bishop & Barnard, the firm that awarded the De Morgan factory its first major tile contract. During the factory’s 35 years of continuous production, thousands of tiles in this pattern were sold. Although many color variations exist, they typically fall within the standard Persian-inspired palette favored by De Morgan.

Details

Date: c. 1888-98
Dimensions: 15.2 x 15.2
Object Type: ceramic
Material: earthenware
Catalogue number: C66
Designer: De Morgan, William (1839 - 1917)
Manufacturer: De Morgan, Sands End Pottery, Fulham, London, England
Credit notes: Presented by Lady Pooley, 1953

This tile by William de Morgan is painted in yellow, blues and greens with a net pattern including carnation type flowers and leaves. The reverse of the tile is impressed with a Tudor rose and “Wm. De Morgan & Co. Sands End Pottery Fulham”. The tile was designed to form a larger tile panel, a five tile version of which is in the De Morgan Foundation collection (C_WDM_0223).

Details

Date: c.1862
Dimensions: 12.8 x 12.8
Object Type: ceramic
Material: tin-glazed earthenware
Technique: hand-painted
Catalogue number: C178a
Designer: Morris, William (1834 - 1896)
Retailer: 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 smaller and decorated using the more durable ‘in-glaze’ technique, as opposed to the hand painted ‘on-glaze’ technique of this earlier tile.

Details

Date: c.1862
Dimensions: 12.7 x 12.7
Object Type: ceramic
Material: earthenware
Catalogue number: C175a
Designer: Burne-Jones | Edward Coley | Sir | 1833 | 1898
Artist: Orrinsmith (née Faulkner), Lucy (1839 - 1910)
Credit notes: WMG purchase, 1970

This tile, designed by Edward Burne-Jones and painted by Lucy Faulkner, shows Alceste, a character found in Chaucer’s ‘Legend of Goode Wimmen’. Tiles were a popular and financially important aspect of Morris and Co.’s early output and were often influenced by medieval and Renaissance sources. Despite Morris’s belief that works of art should, as far as possible, be designed and executed by a single craftsperson, the tiles created by Morris & Co. were part of a more complex chain of production: blank tiles were purchased from the Netherlands and were then painted by members of Morris’s workshop (including regularly by sisters Lucy and Kate Faulkner) to designs by Morris, Burne-Jones and others.

This depiction of Alceste is one of a series of designs based on ‘Legend of Goode Wimmen’ and is typical of Burne-Jones’s use of combining ceramic tiles in the creation of pictorial decoration.

Details

Date: 1862
Dimensions: 15.2 x 15.2
Object Type: ceramic
Material: earthenware tiles painted in enamels
Technique: hand-painted
Catalogue number: C83a
Designer: Burne-Jones | Edward Coley | Sir | 1833 | 1898
Illustrator: Orrinsmith (née Faulkner), Lucy (1839 - 1910)
Retailer: Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co.
Credit notes: Presented by Mrs L Hitch, 1954

Edward Burne-Jones designed the Sleeping Beauty tile series in 1863-4 for Myles Birket Foster’s house The Hill at Witley. The decoration of the house was one of Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co.’s first commissions. This pair (see C83a) of rejected, misfired tiles were perhaps intended for the overmantle at The Hill, however they remained in the personal collection of Lucy Orrinsmith who decorated them. A finished complete panel of ‘Sleeping Beauty’ is in the V&A (CIRC.520-1953), it is similar to another panel of ‘Beauty and the Beast’ in the William Morris Gallery’s collection (C75), also from The Hill.

The composition is similar to a later watercolour by Burne-Jones- the first painting of the very first series of the ‘Legend of the Briar Rose’ (another title for ‘Sleeping Beauty’) that he executed between 1871-73 (now in the Museo de Arte, Ponce, Puerto Rico).

Details

Date: 1862
Dimensions: 15.2 x 15.2
Object Type: ceramic
Material: earthenware tiles painted in enamels
Technique: hand-painted
Catalogue number: C83
Designer: Burne-Jones | Edward Coley | Sir | 1833 | 1898
Illustrator: Orrinsmith (née Faulkner), Lucy (1839 - 1910)
Retailer: Morris & Co.
Credit notes: Presented by Mrs L Hitch, 1954

Details

Dimensions: 15.2 x 15.2
Object Type: ceramic
Material: earthenware tiles painted in enamels
Catalogue number: C82f
Designer: Burne-Jones | Edward Coley | Sir | 1833 | 1898
Painter: Orrinsmith (née Faulkner), Lucy (1839 - 1910)
Credit notes: Presented by Mrs L. Hitch, 1954

This series of 7 tiles depicts the story of Cinderella. It was designed by Edward Burne-Jones and painted by Lucy Faulkner. Burne-Jones account book for September 30, 1862 refers to : “10 designs for tiles, Cinderella paid £7.10s” which may well be the set made for Myles Birket Foster’s house, The Hill at Witley Surrey. The tiles were intended for an overmantel panel and four two tile figures, the original designs are in the V&A and Fitzwilliam. This set shows the colours having run during the firing, suggesting they were either trial samplers or rejects and kept by Lucy Faulkner. Other sets exist in the Gallery’s collection (WMG202), the Walker Art Gallery and the Sanford and Helen Berger Collection, The Huntington Library in California.

Details

Dimensions: 15.2 x 15.2
Object Type: ceramic
Material: earthenware tiles painted in enamels
Catalogue number: C82e
Designer: Burne-Jones | Edward Coley | Sir | 1833 | 1898
Painter: Orrinsmith (née Faulkner), Lucy (1839 - 1910)
Credit notes: Presented by Mrs L. Hitch, 1954

Details

Dimensions: 15.2 x 15.2
Object Type: ceramic
Material: earthenware tiles painted in enamels
Catalogue number: C82d
Designer: Burne-Jones | Edward Coley | Sir | 1833 | 1898
Painter: Orrinsmith (née Faulkner), Lucy (1839 - 1910)
Credit notes: Presented by Mrs L. Hitch, 1954

Details

Dimensions: 15.2. x 15.2
Object Type: ceramic
Material: earthenware tiles painted in enamels
Catalogue number: C82b
Designer: Burne-Jones | Edward Coley | Sir | 1833 | 1898
Painter: Orrinsmith (née Faulkner), Lucy (1839 - 1910)
Credit notes: Presented by Mrs L Hitch, 1954

Details

Dimensions: 15.2 x 15.2
Object Type: ceramic
Material: earthenware tiles painted in enamels
Catalogue number: C82a
Designer: Burne-Jones | Edward Coley | Sir | 1833 | 1898
Painter: Orrinsmith (née Faulkner), Lucy (1839 - 1910)
Credit notes: Presented by Mrs L. Hitch, 1954

Details

Dimensions: 15.2 x 15.2
Object Type: ceramic
Material: earthenware tiles painted in enamels
Catalogue number: C82
Designer: Burne-Jones | Edward Coley | Sir | 1833 | 1898
Painter: Orrinsmith (née Faulkner), Lucy (1839 - 1910)
Credit notes: Presented by Mrs L. Hitch, 1954

Details

Date: 1862
Dimensions: 12.7 x 12.7 each tile
Object Type: ceramic
Material: hand-painted overglaze earthenware
Catalogue number: C216
Manufacturer: Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co.
Designer: Morris, William (1834 - 1896)
Designer: Burne-Jones | Edward Coley | Sir | 1833 | 1898
Designer: Rossetti | Dante Gabriel | 1828 | 1882
Designer: Brown, Ford Madox, 1821, 1893
Designer: Webb | Philip | 1831 | 1915
Painter: Orrinsmith (née Faulkner), Lucy (1839 - 1910)
Credit notes: Purchased with assistance from the V&A/MGC Purchase Grant Fund, National Heritage Memorial Fund, Friends of the William Morris Gallery and Walthamstow Historical Society, 1995

The figures in these tiles each symbolise a month of the year and depict a relevant seasonal activity or pastime. The ‘Labours of the months’ was an artistic theme that featured in medieval and early-Renaissance art. The rural activities were, as they are here, also sometimes paired with the signs of the zodiac.

This panel was created in the very early days of Morris’s company. A similar series was commissioned for the firm by G.F. Bodley in 1862 for the over mantel in the Dining Hall of Queens’ College, Cambridge. Although substantially the same, there are several differences: at Queens’ the figure symbolising June is a man with a scythe (by Morris or Madox Brown) rather than Madox Brown’s Sheep-Shearer; the Queens’ tiles lack the small inset pictures of zodiac symbols designed by Webb; and at Queens’ 6-inch rather than these 5-inch tiles are used.

These tiles were all painted by Lucy Orrinsmith nee Faulkner (the February tile is signed with her LJF monogram in the lower right yellow border) and designed by Morris and friends. Some of the artists are known, yet there is uncertainty as to the precise attribution of all the figure panels:

January- Possibly Morris/Burne-Jones or Webb
February- Burne-Jones
March- Madox Brown
April- Morris
May- Madox Brown
June- Madox Brown
July- possibly Morris
August- Rossetti
September- possibly Rossetti
October- Burne-Jones
November- Madox Brown
December- Rossetti

Like a number of other tiles from the 1860s, this series of The Labours of the Month seems to have been acquired for display in Morris & Co.’s shop in the early twentieth century, when the subjects April (Flower-bearer) and May (Falconry) were set in the incorrect sequence. Their earlier history is unknown.

Details

Dimensions: 15.2 x 15.2
Object Type: ceramic
Material: earthenware tiles painted in enamels
Catalogue number: C82c
Designer and maker: Burne-Jones | Edward Coley | Sir | 1833 | 1898
Painter: Orrinsmith (née Faulkner), Lucy (1839 - 1910)
Credit notes: Presented by Mrs L. Hitch, 1954

Details

Date: c.1863-64
Dimensions: 15.2 x 15.2
Object Type: ceramic
Material: earthenware tiles painted in enamels
Catalogue number: C202.4
Designer: Burne-Jones | Edward Coley | Sir | 1833 | 1898
Painter: Orrinsmith (née Faulkner), Lucy (1839 - 1910)
Credit notes: Purchased with the aid of the V&A Purchase Grant Fund and the Friends of the William Morris Gallery, 1992

This series of 10 tiles depicts the story of Cinderella. It was designed by Edward Burne-Jones and painted by Lucy Faulkner. Burne-Jones account book for September 30, 1862 refers to : “10 designs for tiles, Cinderella paid £7.10s” which may well be the set made for Myles Birket Foster’s house, The Hill at Witley Surrey. The tiles were intended for an overmantel panel and four two tile figures, the original designs are in the V&A and Fitzwilliam. This set is said to have been from a house adjacent to Bracken Dene, Low Fell, Gateshead (home of James Leathart, patron of the Pre-Raphaelites) Other sets exist in the Gallery’s collection (C82), the Walker Art Gallery and the Sanford and Helen Berger Collection, The Huntington Library in California.

Details

Date: c.1863-64
Dimensions: 15.2 x 15.2
Object Type: ceramic
Material: earthenware tiles painted in enamels
Catalogue number: C202.10
Designer: Burne-Jones | Edward Coley | Sir | 1833 | 1898
Painter: Orrinsmith (née Faulkner), Lucy (1839 - 1910)
Credit notes: Purchased with the aid of the V&A Purchase Grant Fund and the Friends of the William Morris Gallery, 1992

Details

Date: c.1863-64
Dimensions: 15.2 x 15.2
Object Type: ceramic
Material: earthenware tiles painted in enamels
Catalogue number: C202.9
Designer: Burne-Jones | Edward Coley | Sir | 1833 | 1898
Painter: Orrinsmith (née Faulkner), Lucy (1839 - 1910)
Credit notes: Purchased with the aid of the V&A Purchase Grant Fund and the Friends of the William Morris Gallery, 1992

Details

Date: c.1863-64
Dimensions: 15.2 x 15.2
Object Type: ceramic
Material: earthenware tiles painted in enamels
Catalogue number: C202.6
Designer: Burne-Jones | Edward Coley | Sir | 1833 | 1898
Painter: Orrinsmith (née Faulkner), Lucy (1839 - 1910)
Credit notes: Purchased with the aid of the V&A Purchase Grant Fund and the Friends of the William Morris Gallery, 1992

Details

Date: c.1863-64
Dimensions: 15.2 x 15.2
Object Type: ceramic
Material: earthenware tiles painted in enamels
Catalogue number: C202.7
Designer: Burne-Jones | Edward Coley | Sir | 1833 | 1898
Painter: Orrinsmith (née Faulkner), Lucy (1839 - 1910)
Credit notes: Purchased with the aid of the V&A Purchase Grant Fund and the Friends of the William Morris Gallery, 1992

Details

Date: c.1863-64
Dimensions: 15.2 x 15.2
Object Type: ceramic
Material: earthenware tiles painted in enamels
Catalogue number: C202.5
Designer: Burne-Jones | Edward Coley | Sir | 1833 | 1898
Painter: Orrinsmith (née Faulkner), Lucy (1839 - 1910)
Credit notes: Purchased with the aid of the V&A Purchase Grant Fund and the Friends of the William Morris Gallery, 1992

Details

Date: c.1863-64
Dimensions: 15.2 x 15.2
Object Type: ceramic
Material: earthenware tiles painted in enamels
Catalogue number: C202.1
Designer: Burne-Jones | Edward Coley | Sir | 1833 | 1898
Painter: Orrinsmith (née Faulkner), Lucy (1839 - 1910)
Credit notes: Purchased with the aid of the V&A Purchase Grant Fund and the Friends of the William Morris Gallery

Details

Date: c.1863-64
Dimensions: 15.2 x 15.2
Object Type: ceramic
Material: earthenware tiles painted in enamels
Catalogue number: C202.3
Designer: Burne-Jones | Edward Coley | Sir | 1833 | 1898
Painter: Orrinsmith (née Faulkner), Lucy (1839 - 1910)
Credit notes: Purchased with the aid of the V&A Purchase Grant Fund and the Friends of the William Morris Gallery, 1992

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

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. 1870
Dimensions: 12.7 x 12.7
Object Type: ceramic
Material: earthenware
Technique: hand-written
Catalogue number: C235
Designer: William Morris Gallery
Maker: Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co.
Credit notes: Presented by Haslam & Whiteway Ltd, 2000

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. In this tile the original blue colour is preserved in the lower half where the tile was covered by the fire grate, where exposed to the heat of the fire the blue has faded to green.

Details

Date: c.1870s
Dimensions: 15.2 x 15.2
Object Type: ceramic
Material: hand-painted overglaze earthenware
Catalogue number: C268
Designer: Morris, William (1834 - 1896)
Manufacturer: Morris & Co.
Credit notes: Purchased with assistance from the Friends of the William Morris Gallery, 2010

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.’ The ‘Tulip and Trellis’ design was, in fact, produced concurrently by both Morris’s firm and De Morgan. The Morris & Co. version was, however, painted solely in blue.

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

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

Dimensions: Diameter 7.3 x base diameter 3.5
Object Type: ceramic
Material: porcelain
Catalogue number: C280

Small tea bowl in white porcelain, segmented sides and shaped rim, interior decorated in blue underglaze with central motif of landscape with water and three floral sprays; an outline in blue around the rim. Makers mark on underside. Presumably Chinese, date unknown.

Object Type: ceramic

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