Lodden curtains

Details

Dimensions: 44.5 x 95.5
Object Type: textile
Material: cotton
Technique: block-printed
Catalogue number: F410
Designer: Morris, William, 1834, 1896
Manufacturer: Morris & Co.
Credit notes: Purchased from Haslam & Whiteway, 1998

‘Eyebright’ was designed by William Morris in 1883. The pattern was achieved using the indigo-discharge process, whereby the cotton was dyed in indigo blue and the pattern then extracted and over printed. The small ‘net’ repeat is formed of white eyebright flowers and yellow buttercups dyed with weld, a natural dye derived from a flower. The pattern was also available in just blue and white. The pattern was initailly intended to be used as a lining for Morris & Co.’s heavy wool curtains (two widths matched the width of a curtains) but was used as a furnishing fabric in its own right. May Morris claimed that Eyebright, and another pattern Borage ‘were small patterns intended for dress’, revealing Morris’s intention to expand the business beyond interior fabrics. A dress of Eyebright made around 1900 is in the The Art Gallery of Australia’s collection (996A38).

Details

Date: 1888
Dimensions: 140 x 94
Object Type: textile
Material: linen
Technique: block-printed
Catalogue number: F403
Designer: Dearle, John Henry (1859 - 1932)
Manufacturer: Morris & Co.
Credit notes: Purchased from Michael Whiteway, 1998

Trent is one of series of textile designs produced by Morris & Co in the late 1880s named after rivers. John Henry Deale designed ‘Trent’ in 1888, the pattern features tulips, sunflowers and roses on an indigo background. This example is the end of a bolt of fabric and so is possible to see how the pattern was handprinted with woodblocks to form the pattern repeat. The edge and selvedges are printed with Morris & Co’s stamp.

Details

Date: c.1868
Dimensions: 85.1 x 233.7
Object Type: textile
Material: woven wool
Technique: block-printed
Catalogue number: F399
Retailer: Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co.
Manufacturer: Thomas Clarkson of Bannister Hall
Credit notes: Transfer from Victoria and Albert Museum, 1980

This was the first textile design to be sold by Morris’s firm, Morris, Marshall, Faulkner and Co., around 1868. Morris copied the pattern from a traditional Bannister Hall print of the 1830’s. The blocks were printed with aniline dyes by Clarksons of Bannister Hall for Morris, and sold throughout the life of Morris & Co. In the twentieth century the design saw a revival in the increased popularity of floral chintz patterns and there is evidence that the design was available until 1940. This is an early example printed onto wool and cotton and made into a curtain, a companion piece is in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (T.37-1979).

Details

Date: printed 1917-1940
Dimensions: 761 x 97
Object Type: textile
Material: cotton
Technique: block-printed
Catalogue number: F398b
Designer: Morris, William, 1834, 1896
Credit notes: Presented by Mrs Lee, 1998

William Morris design Willow Bough as a wallpaper in 1887. It was adapated for fabric around 1895. This example is printed with the Morris & Company mark, which they used after moving to retail premises in George Street, Hanover Square, London in 1917.

Details

Date: design registered 5 October 1875
Dimensions: 216 x 91.5
Object Type: textile
Material: cotton
Technique: block-printed
Catalogue number: F391
Attributed designer: Faulkner, Kate
Manufacturer: Morris & Co.
Credit notes: WMG purchase, 1998

The delicately meandering carnations in this printed textile are characteristic of the lightness and movement in patterns by Kate Faulkner (1841-98), one of the most skilled designers to work for Morris & Co. Introduced to Morris through her brother Charles, who was one of the founding partners of ‘The Firm’, Faulkner initially executed painted decoration on tiles and furniture before creating her own designs for ceramics, wallpaper and textiles. The simple two tone colour scheme of this pattern is typical of many of Faulkner’s designs, and adds to the airy feel of this piece, with the large blue carnations in the foreground subtly bound to the small flowers in the background by means of swirling vines. As well as creating designs for Morris & Co., Faulkner also designed several wallpapers directly for Jeffrey & Co.

Details

Dimensions: 51 x 13.5
Object Type: textile
Technique: hand-loom jacquard woven
Catalogue number: F385
Designer: Morris, William, 1834, 1896
Manufacturer: Morris & Co.
Credit notes: Presented by Mrs Harriet Hardiment, 1997

William Morris designed Flower Garden in 1879. He described it in a letter to Georgian 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 c.1875, manufactured c.1920s
Dimensions: 85.1 x 22.6
Object Type: textile
Material: woven wool
Technique: machine-woven
Catalogue number: N13b
Designer: Morris, William, 1834, 1896
Retailer: Morris & Co. Art-Workers Ltd., 17 George Street, Hanover Square, London
Manufacturer: Wilton Royal Carpet Factory Ltd
Credit notes: WMG purchase, 1964

‘Lily’ was William Morris’s first design for a wool pile carpet. It was machine woven on a jaquard loom for Morris & Co. by Yates & Co. in Wilton, and from 1905 its successor, Wilton Royal Carpet Company. The repeating pattern is formed of stylized lily plants intertwined with scrolling flowers on a dark blue background. Although the design wasn’t registered with the Patent Office it was in production in 1877, along with a number of other designs, when Morris advised the Countess of Tullamore in Ireland on the decoration of her house. Wilton carpets were the most popular type of machine woven carpets made by Morris & Co., and of the 24 different designs available ‘Lily’ was a best seller.

This fragment, along with four others were removed from a larger piece (see N13) to make it a regular size when it was first acquired by the Gallery in 1964.

Details

Date: designed c.1875, manufactured c.1920s
Dimensions: 79.4 x 22.2
Object Type: textile
Material: woollen pile on cotton warp
Catalogue number: N13d
Designer: Morris, William, 1834, 1896
Retailer: Morris & Co. Art-Workers Ltd., 17 George Street, Hanover Square, London
Manufacturer: Wilton Royal Carpet Factory Ltd
Credit notes: WMG purchase, 1964

This fragment, along with four others were removed from a larger piece (see N13) to make it a regular size when it was first acquired by the Gallery in 1964.

Details

Date: designed c.1875, manufactured c.1920s
Dimensions: 101.6 x 16.5
Object Type: textile
Material: woollen pile on cotton warp
Technique: power-loom jacquard woven
Catalogue number: N13c
Designer: Morris, William, 1834, 1896
Retailer: Morris & Co. Art-Workers Ltd., 17 George Street, Hanover Square, London
Manufacturer: Wilton Royal Carpet Factory Ltd
Credit notes: WMG purchase, 1964

This fragment, along with four others were removed from a larger piece (see N13) to make it a regular size when it was first acquired by the Gallery in 1964.

Details

Date: designed c.1875, manufactured c.1920s
Dimensions: 29.8 x 15.5
Object Type: textile
Technique: power-loom jacquard woven
Catalogue number: N13a
Designer: Morris, William, 1834, 1896
Retailer: Morris & Co. Art-Workers Ltd., 17 George Street, Hanover Square, London
Manufacturer: Wilton Royal Carpet Factory Ltd
Credit notes: WMG purchase, 1964

This fragment, along with four others were removed from a larger piece (see N13) to make it a regular size when it was first acquired by the Gallery in 1964.

Details

Date: c. 1900
Dimensions: 274.3 x 213.4
Object Type: textile
Technique: machine-woven
Catalogue number: N5
Designer: Dearle, John Henry (1859 - 1932)
Retailer: Morris & Co.
Credit notes: Presented by Miss M.L. Wooldridge, 1955

One of a number of patterned carpets designed by John Henry Dearle around 1900 for Morris & Co. to be made by machine; the pattern emulated the effect of the more expensive hand-knotted Hammersmith carpets. Another example is in the collection of the Society of Antiquaries, Kelmscott Manor. The carpet 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: c.1880s
Dimensions: 185.4 x 94 including fringe
Object Type: textile
Material: woollen pile on cotton warp
Technique: hand-knotted
Catalogue number: N10
Designer: Morris, William, 1834, 1896
Credit notes: Presented by Miss M.L. Wooldridge, 1955

This small ‘Hammersmith rug’ was designed by William Morris. The border of peonies and pastel colouring shows the influence of Chinese design. 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, with whom she shared with the radical preacher Stewart Headlam (Headlam is perhaps most famous for putting up half of Oscar Wilde’s bail when he was tried for ‘gross indecency’ in 1885).

A similar example was given by Morris to Maragret Mackail (nee Burne-Jones) on the occassion of her wedding in 1888, this is now in the Victoria and Albert Museum (T.104-1953). Another small rug to the same design was lent by Mrs. Lucius Gubbins to the Victoria & Albert Museum William Morris centenary exhibition in 1934 (94). It is reproduced in Gerald H. Crow’s “William Morris – Designer” published by ‘The Studio’ 1934 p. 81.

The same design was later woven at Wilton (their no. 6213).

Details

Date: c.1932
Dimensions: 17 x 24
Object Type: textile
Material: wool on canvas
Technique: hand-embroidered
Catalogue number: F338
Designer and maker: Morris | May | 1862 | 1938
Credit notes: Purchased 1986

Small bag worked by May Morris in wool in tapestry stitch on canvas in very dark green, the front with the letter ‘M’ worked in brown within a roundel frame, the reverse with broad bottom border band of horizontal stylised leaves and flowers and central decorative motif, narrow decorative borders all round edges on both front and back, and a patterned handle in cream, dull brown, maroon and dull pink wools; interior lining in dark brown silk.

Details

Date: c.1880s - 1890s
Dimensions: 22.8 x 15.4
Object Type: textile
Material: silks and gold thread on linen
Technique: hand-embroidered
Catalogue number: F337
Designer: Morris | May | 1862 | 1938
Maker: Morris, Jenny (1861 - 1935)
Credit notes: Purchased 1986

This bag was designed and made by William Morris’s two daughters, May and Jenny. It was designed by May to contain a ‘Psalter’ (a book of psalms), from William Morris’s extensive collection of medieval manuscripts. The bag is made of indigo linen and embroidered by Jenny in silk with the word “Psalterium” in Gothic script. Stitches include back stitch, stem stitch, long & short stitch, loop stitch, satin stitch, couching and buttonhole stitch round edges with words filled in with chain stitch, pomegranate is padded laid work, surface couched in gold thread.

Object Type: textile

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