Fireplace

Details

Date: c. 1884
Dimensions: 73.7 x 52
Object Type: furniture
Material: mahogany and satinwood
Catalogue number: G39
Designer: Mackmurdo | Arthur Heygate | 1851 | 1942
Retailer: Century Guild

The working drawing for the inlay design of tulip flowers is also in the Gallery’s collection (catalogue no. A194 a-c), bequeathed by A H Mackmurdo. The same floral motif also appears on a Century Guild box, now in the Colchester & Essex Museum and was previously attributed to Selwyn Image. However, there is little stylistic similarity between this and other designs by Image for embroidery, stained glass and textual decoration in ‘The Hobby Horse’ the Century Guild’s magazine. It is more probable that the floral motif design is by Mackmurdo himself, or his associate Herbert Horne, who designed decoration on other items of Century Guild furniture; see G14 and for other Guild commissions, such as the ceiling inset with painted panels designed by Horne, formerly at Pownall Hall, Cheshire. The motif of flower sprays is in fact stylistically quite close to some designed by Horne as decorative tail-pieces on pages in ‘The Hobby Horse.’

Details

Date: c. 1890s
Dimensions: 73 x 240 x 121
Object Type: furniture
Catalogue number: G37
Designer: Jack, George Washington Henry (1855 - 1931)
Manufacturer: Morris & Co.
Credit notes: WMG purchase, 1967

A similar table appears in the Morris & Co. catalogue, ‘Specimens of Furniture and Interior Decoration’ (c. 1911) p.23 where it is listed as ‘No 557 Handsome carved and inlaid dinner table designed by Mr George Jack.’ The table was available in either mahogany or Italian walnut at a cost of £45 (or £30 without inlay decoration). The inlay panels on the legs in the example shown in the catalogue are small decorative ovals instead of the roses and thistles in this table. The edge of the top is decorated with inlaid chevron banding, supported on four pairs of legs, the upper part of the legs turned in a twisting flute, the lower part tapering to a simple foot, with a centre section inlaid with roses and thistles. The two inner pairs of legs are joined by stretchers running front to back, with a central stretcher running the length of the table with A-shaped stretchers to outer pairs of legs at either end.

The table was also made in a smaller, square version, one example of which was originally made for Melsetter House, the Orkney home of the Middlemore family, designed by Philip Webb with Morris furnishings, and is now in a private collection, London.

Details

Date: c.1882
Dimensions: 96.5 x 48.3 x 49.5
Object Type: furniture
Material: mahogany, leather and brass
Catalogue number: G36a
Designer: Mackmurdo | Arthur Heygate | 1851 | 1942
Retailer: Century Guild
Manufacturer: Collinson and Lock
Credit notes: WMG purchase, 1966

The sinuous fretwork in the back of this chair caused a sensation when it was exhibited in 1885. It is now seen as an early precursor of Art Nouveau. Only five of these chairs are known to exist; two in the collection of the William Morris Gallery, one in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, one in the Virginia Museum of Fine Art, Richmond, and the fifth copy is shared between the Huntingdon Library / Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Details

Date: c. 1860s
Dimensions: 86.4 x 49 x 41.3
Object Type: furniture
Material: turned, ebonised wood with rush seat
Catalogue number: G27b
Manufacturer: Morris & Co.
Retailer: Morris & Co.
Credit notes: WMG purchase, 1957

The William Morris Gallery holds a variety of chairs and settles from the Morris & Co. Sussex range. This example with plain, not turned rails is considered to be one of the earliest. The chair, one of a pair with G27a, was owned by Ford Madox Brown, one of the original founders of Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co. The pair of chairs were purchased from the sale of his effects by his friend and executor, R. S. Garnett. Garnett’s daughter, Mrs R. Nickalls, later inherited the chairs and sold them to the William Morris Gallery in 1957.

Details

Date: c. 1886-87
Dimensions: 152.4 x 190.5 x 66
Object Type: furniture
Catalogue number: G26.1
Retailer: Morris & Co.
Designer: Mackmurdo | Arthur Heygate | 1851 | 1942
Maker: Wilkinson & Sons (Manufacturers and Agents for Furniture and Stuffs)
Credit notes: Presented by Miss Martha Lugg Wooldridge, 1955

The settle was once part of the furnishings of 31, Upper Bedford Place, London, home of the Revd. Stewart Headlam (1847-1924), Christian Socialist and anti-prudery campaigner, whose rooms were extensively decorated in 1886-87 by A. H. Mackmurdo and Selwyn Image. It was exhibited at Messrs. Wilkinsons’ showroom in Bond Street in 1888 along with other pieces of Century Guild furniture and illustrated in ‘The Building News’ (March 30, 1888). It was purchased from Morris & Co. c. 1893 by the donor for her house, Wavertree which she shared with Headlam and which she furnished with Morris & Co. The original curtaining was replaced by the present Morris & Co. ‘Borage’ chintzes during the 1900s.

Details

Date: c.1870-80
Dimensions: 241.3 x 115 x 49.5
Object Type: furniture
Material: oak with gilt and oil paint
Catalogue number: G25
Designer: Webb | Philip | 1831 | 1915
Artist: De Morgan, William (1839 - 1917)
Retailer: Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co.
Credit notes: WMG purchase, 1955

This cabinet was designed by Philip Webb and decorated by William de Morgan for Morris, Marshall, Faulkner and Co. It was originally one of a pair (the other with panels showing St George & the Dragon also by William De Morgan) made for Isabel Olga Lucas, née D’avigdor (1843-1926) widow of the artist Horatio Joseph Lucas. The painted panel on the left has a scene of two figures variously described as (female on the left) Hera/Juno or Muse Erato or Maia with (male boy on right) the young Hermes/Mercury with the first lyre; the painted panel on the right with a scene of two male figures variously described as (on right ) Pan or Silenus instructing Dionysus/Bacchus (on left) to play pipes.
The cabinet was sold back to Morris & Co by Mrs Lucas’s daughter Ruth Lousada who then sold it to Mrs Lucius Gubbins. Old photographs when in the possession of Ruth Lousada, show the cabinet originally had the back covered with a stamped, embossed leather paper, however this seems to have been removed by a subsequent owner who replaced it with 12 ruby lustre animal tiles by William De Morgan; these were still in situ when the cabinet was acquired by the William Morris Gallery in 1955. The tiles were removed in 1957 (now catalogued as C85-96) when the back was filled with new waxed oak panels to match the rest of the piece.

Details

Date: c. 1870
Dimensions: 81.3 x 43.2 x 38.1
Object Type: furniture
Material: wood, rushed seat, Utrecht velvet
Catalogue number: G24a
Designer: Burges, William (1827 - 1881)
Credit notes: Presented by Mrs L. Hitch, 1954

This chair (one of a pair) appear in the volume of photographs “The House of William Burges ARA “(1885) compiled by Burges’ brother-in-law, R.P. Pullan, now in the Victoria & Albert Museum, London (V. & A. 51 E 54) plate 19 and a sketch for merman and mermaid chair backs on sheets, 27 and 30 in the V&A Burges’ ‘Furniture Album’ (93. E8) originally with rush seating. The chairs were used at Tower House, the home Burges designed for himself in Melbury Road, Kensington, London. Similar chairs are recorded as being based on bedside chairs in Burges’ rooms at 15 Buckingham Street, Strand, London. Such painted furniture by Burges is considered to have influenced some of the Morris firm’s early work.

Details

Date: c. 1870
Dimensions: 81.3 x 43.2 x 38.1
Object Type: furniture
Material: wood, rushed seat, Utrecht velvet
Catalogue number: G24
Designer: Burges, William (1827 - 1881)
Credit notes: Presented by Mrs L. Hitch, 1954

The chairs appear in the volume of photographs “The House of William Burges ARA “(1885) compiled by Burges’ brother-in-law, R.P. Pullan, now in the Victoria & Albert Museum, London (V. & A. 51 E 54) plate 19 and a sketch for merman and mermaid chair backs on sheets, 27 and 30 in the V&A Burges’ ‘Furniture Album’ (93. E8) originally with rush seating. The chairs were used at Tower House, the home Burges designed for himself in Melbury Road, Kensington, London. Similar chairs are recorded as being based on bedside chairs in Burges’ rooms at 15 Buckingham Street, Strand, London. Such painted furniture by Burges is considered to have influenced some of the Morris firm’s early work.

Details

Date: c. 1886
Dimensions: 201 x 259 x 86.4
Object Type: furniture
Material: satinwood, mahogany, brass and oil
Technique: repousse
Catalogue number: G14.1
Designer: Mackmurdo | Arthur Heygate | 1851 | 1942
Artist: Horne, Herbert Percy, 1864, 1916
Retailer: Century Guild
Manufacturer: Goodall & Co, King Street, Manchester
Credit notes: Mackmurdo bequest, 1942

This large satinwood and carved mahogony cabinet features painted design and lettering by Herbert Horne. The cabinet is one of the Century Guild’s most ambitious pieces of furniture and was part of its display at the Manchester Royal Jubilee Exhibition in 1887. It was reviewed in ‘The Journal of Decorative Art (November, 1887) where ‘the simplicity and largeness of design’ was praised.
The cabinet is similar in style to a large satinwood settle with drapery hangings and upholstered seat cushion in ‘The Angel with the Trumpet’ cretonne, formerly at Pownall Hall, near Wilmslow, Cheshire, home of Henry Boddington who commissioned furniture etc. for the house from The Century Guild in the 1880s; this settle is now in the V&A Museum. It is possible that this cabinet was intended for Pownall Hall, but for for some reason not used there and remained in Mackmurdo’s possession.

Details

Date: c. 1886
Dimensions: 62 x 157.5
Object Type: furniture
Material: wood and glass
Catalogue number: G12
Designer: Mackmurdo | Arthur Heygate | 1851 | 1942
Credit notes: Mackmurdo bequest, 1942

This ornate mirror comprises of five reflective glass panes, each flanked by two narrow angled panes. It is made from gilded wood and features a projecting cornice decorated with gilt balls. It may be the mirror seen by Harry Sirr, Mackmurdo’s architectural assistant from 1892 to 1897, at ‘Whiteladies’, a building that became a cultural hub for the Century Guild. When recalling a visit, he described ‘a long low mantel mirror with reflecting facets in richly gilded framework.’

Details

Date: c. 1884
Dimensions: 165.1 x 55.8 x 35.5
Object Type: furniture
Material: satinwood and brass
Catalogue number: G11b
Designer: Mackmurdo | Arthur Heygate | 1851 | 1942
Artist: Image, Selwyn, 1849, 1930
Retailer: Century Guild
Credit notes: Mackmurdo bequest, 1942

This cabinet (one of a pair) was designed by AH Mackmurdo for the Century Guild, with painted decoration by Selwyn Image. The cabinets were formally joined by a central structure, now missing. They were probably exhibited in the Century Guilds Music Room at exhibitions in London (1884), Liverpool (1886) and Manchester (1887). The inscriptions are from a poem by Richard Lovelace “To a Lady that desired me I would beare my part with her in Song”. The inscription on this cabinet is “My minde can in faire order chime whilst my true heart still beats the time” and preceeds G11a.

Details

Date: c. 1884
Dimensions: 165.1 x 55.8 x 35.5
Object Type: furniture
Material: satinwood and brass
Catalogue number: G11a
Designer: Mackmurdo | Arthur Heygate | 1851 | 1942
Artist: Image, Selwyn, 1849, 1930
Retailer: Century Guild
Credit notes: Mackmurdo bequest, 1942

This cabinet (one of a pair) was designed by AH Mackmurdo for the Century Guild, with painted decoration by Selwyn Image. The cabinets were formally joined by a central structure, now missing. They were probably exhibited in the Century Guilds Music Room at exhibitions in London (1884), Liverpool (1886) and Manchester (1887). The inscriptions are from a poem by Richard Lovelace “To a Lady that desired me I would beare my part with her in Song”. The inscription on this cabinet is “My soul so full of harmonie that it with all parts can agree and preceeds” and follows G11a.

Details

Date: c.1866
Dimensions: 96.5 x 73.7 x 83.8
Object Type: furniture
Material: mahogany and Utrecht velvet
Catalogue number: G2.1 to 4
Designer: Webb | Philip | 1831 | 1915
Manufacturer: Morris & Co.
Credit notes: Presented by Miss F.J. Lefroy, 1951

The design of the chair was developed by Philip Webb, c.1866, although Warrington Taylor, the Firm’s business manager from 1865, seems to have been responsible for spotting the original prototype which formed the basis of Webb’s design. A note from Warrington Taylor to Webb contains a sketch of a smilar chair, annotated “back and seat made with bars across to put cushions on, moving on a hinge, a chair model of which I saw with an old carpenter at Herstmonceaux, Sussex, by name Ephraim Colman, your truly W. T.” It has always been supposed that the chair referred to above was an original piece of rural Sussex furniture; however a chair of a very similar design is illustrated in an early 19th century catalogue. Whatever the origins, the chair as designed by Webb for Morris went into production in the mid-1860s and became one of the Firm’s most popular items, still appearing in Morris & Co. catalogues as late as the first decade of this century. The chair is made of ebonized wood and upholstred in yellow Utrecht velvet, though less costly printed cotton covers were later available as an alternative.

Details

Date: c.1890
Dimensions: 91.4 x 66.0 x 60.9
Object Type: furniture
Material: mahogany and calico
Catalogue number: G1
Designer: Jack, George Washington Henry (1855 - 1931)
Manufacturer: Morris & Co.
Credit notes: Presented by Miss F.J. Lefroy, 1951

George Jack probably designed this armchair for Morris & Co. around 1890. The wavy vertical rails under the arms are similar to a sideboard shown by Morris & Co. at the Manchester Jubilee Exhibition in 1887. The chair was originally covered in velvet, then re-upholstered in ‘Strawberry Thief’ chintz in 1951/3, it is now covered in plain calico after damage in 1995. Associated with G3 (Buttons) and G4 (Braid and Cord). The armchair was originally purchased by owned by the parents of Francis Jane Lefroy whose house was furnished mainly by Morris & Co. in the 1890s.

Details

Date: c.1882
Dimensions: 96.5 x 48.3 x 49.5
Object Type: furniture
Material: mahogany, leather and brass
Catalogue number: G36b
Designer: Mackmurdo | Arthur Heygate | 1851 | 1942
Retailer: Century Guild
Manufacturer: Collinson and Lock
Credit notes: WMG purchase, 1966

Object Type: furniture

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