Six pieces of braiding

Details

Date: 1960s
Object Type: textile
Material: cotton
Technique: block-printed
Catalogue number: F271d
Designer: Morris, William, 1834, 1896
Credit notes: Miss Frances J Lefroy bequest, 1965

Powdered was designed by William Morris as a wallaper in 1874. It was later adapted as a fabric c.1902. 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.

Powdered is one of several mid-1870s designs featuring willow foliage, a favourite motif which Morris drew with endless inventiveness.

Details

Date: 1874-1876
Dimensions: 86.3 x 628.7
Object Type: textile
Material: wool on linen
Technique: hand-embroidered
Catalogue number: F140c
Designer: Burne-Jones | Edward Coley | Sir | 1833 | 1898
Designer: Morris, William, 1834, 1896
Maker: Johnson, Florence
Maker: Bell, Margaret (1820 - 1886)
Credit notes: Presented by Sir Hugh Bell, Bart., 1953

This embroidery was part of a frieze of five parts commissioned by Sir Isaac Lowthian Bell and his wife Margaret for the dining room of Rounton Grange, Northallerton, Yorkshire. The panels depict the story of The Romaunt of the Rose by Geoffrey Chaucer and were based on original pictures drawn by Edward Burne-Jones c.1874-76 (see D187). The exquisite embroidery was executed by the wife and daughter of Sir Isaac Lowthian Bell, Margaret Bell and Florence Johnson, respectively.

Details

Date: designed 1876
Dimensions: 78.7 x 31.7
Object Type: textile
Material: cotton
Technique: block-printed
Catalogue number: BlF256
Designer: Morris, William, 1834, 1896
Retailer: Morris & Co.
Manufacturer: Wardle and Co. (1872 - 1908)

William Morris designed ‘African Marigold’ in 1876, the design was registered 7th October 1876 but probably not produced until a few years later. The pattern features small orange marigolds, with larger stylised lilies and curling ribbons of acanthus leaves. The original design is in the gallery’s collection (see BlA464) as well as 23 original printing blocks. Morris worked with the master-dyer Thomas Wardle in Leek, Staffordshire when first manufacturing this design on silk in 1880-81. However a letter from Morris to Wardle on 8 February 1881 shows that Morris was not pleased with the Wardle’s attempts:

‘I am sorry to say that the last goods African marigold and red marigold sent are worse instead of better: they are infact unsaleable; I should consider myself disgraced by offering them for sale: I laboured hard on making good designs for these and on getting the colour good; they are now so printed & coloured that they are no better han caricatures of my careful work.’

Although Wardle and Morris’s relationship started out well, by the early 1880s Morris’s exacting standards took on a strain on the working relationship. Later in 1881, Morris took over the dying and block-printing process of his fabrics at his own factory, Merton Abbey.

Details

Date: 1892
Dimensions: 28 x 33.6
Object Type: textile
Material: velveteen
Catalogue number: F243
Designer: Liberty & Co, Ltd
Manufacturer: Wardle and Co. (1872 - 1908)
Credit notes: Miss Elinor Pugh bequest, 1963

Printed red velveteen of produced by Wardle & Co. The design appears as a black and white block print proof on paper in the Whitworth’s Thomas Wardle and Co ‘Sample Book, Block Records (1880-1884), T.14007.60. A note alongside the proof in the sample book details:

No.30 The block belongs to Thomas Wardle

Original design No. in Catalogue Registered, No.389715 Nov 9th 82 for 2 years

Size of block 11 3/8″ wide 14 3/8″ long

Size of repeat 5¾” wide 4¾” long

The block will repeat on O (in blue pencil)

Details

Date: 1884
Dimensions: 44.1 x 30.5
Object Type: textile
Material: velveteen
Catalogue number: F242
Manufacturer: Wardle and Co. (1872 - 1908)
Credit notes: Miss Elinor Pugh bequest, 1963

‘Papara’ is a printed red velveteen of pomegranates, carnations and palmettes produced by Wardle & Co. A two-colour (dark blue outline with a indigo filling) block print proof on paper is in the Whitworth’s Thomas Wardle and Co ‘Sample Book, Block Records – Page 6’ (1909-1930), T.14008.6. A note alongside the proof in the sample book details that it was based upon plate 118 from Fischbach’s ‘Ornamente der Gewebe’ which shows an illustration in black and white, described as a 17th woven silk, probably from Lyons or Tours “in the museum in Nuremberg”. The full transcript of Wardle’s sample book reads:

109

No.109.Two Blocks. To fit Velvet. 26″ width

Size 13 inches square

Original design No.118 Fishbach. (sic) Registered 12146, 30 August 1884

Size of repeat 13 inc x 13 inc

No.13’s.

According to the Whitworth, the code 13,s indicates the pattern was produced on commision to an external company.

Details

Date: 1892
Dimensions: 28 x 40.6
Object Type: textile
Material: cotton velvet
Catalogue number: F241
Retailer: Liberty & Co, Ltd
Manufacturer: Wardle and Co. (1872 - 1908)
Credit notes: Miss Elinor Pugh bequest, 1963

Printed red velveteen of strawberries produced by Wardle & Co. The design appears as as a black and white block print proof on paper in the Whitworth’s Thomas Wardle and Co ‘Sample Book, Block Records (1880-1884), T.14007.28. A note alongside the proof in the sample book details:

No.14 P.C. 14 rows

The block belongs to Thomas Wardle

Original design No. 468 in Catalogue Registered No.389710 Nov. 9th 82 for 2 years

Size of block 10″ wide 15″ long

Size of repeat 2½” wide 2½” long

The block will repeat onO (in blue pencil)No.1 prints outline of the whole pattern.

Details

Date: designed 1878
Dimensions: 87 x137.2
Object Type: textile
Material: woven wool
Technique: hand-loom jacquard woven
Catalogue number: F26ciii
Designer: Morris, William, 1834, 1896
Credit notes: WMG purchase, 1940

‘Peacock and Dragon’ was designed by William Morris in 1878. It was first hand-woven on jacquard looms at Morris & Co’s premises in Queen Square, London and later at the firm’s factory Merton Abbey, Surrey. It was available in two widths: 183 cm (72 in.) and also in 137 cm (54 in). It was available in two colourways, Morris & Co. pattern no: 200 (5 colourways) and 5623 (2 colourways). The size of pattern repeat: 109 x 90 cm. (43 x 35.5 in.).

This example is one width of a double width pair of curtains made by the Gallery for display in the 1960s, the four widths were separated around 1988 to form four lengths (see F26). The curtains were made from an original 30 yard length of 54 inch width five colourway fabric, acquired from Morris & Co. when it closed in 1940.

Details

Date: designed 1878
Dimensions: 253 x137.2
Object Type: textile
Material: woven wool
Technique: hand-loom jacquard woven
Catalogue number: F26ci
Designer: Morris, William, 1834, 1896
Credit notes: WMG purchase, 1940

Details

Date: late nineteenth century
Object Type: textile
Catalogue number: H25a
Owner: Mackmurdo | Arthur Heygate | 1851 | 1942
Credit notes: Miss E. Pugh bequest, 1963

This indigo blue smock was owned and worn by the artist Arthur Heygate Mackmurdo. The smock is worn with use and patched in places. In his 1968 work, Studies in art, architecture, and design, the architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner recalls a past meeting with A.H. Mackmurdo (1851-1942) age 86: ‘He walked with me and talked of his economic conceits, his light blue eyes glittering, his wavy white hair blown by a breeze, a black coat slipped on over his butcher-blue blouse or blue shirt – the kind of blue blouse that William Morris wore, and which Voysey wore. The shirt being in this case- as in other cases- a profession of faith.’

Details

Dimensions: 21 x 19
Object Type: textile
Material: wool on canvas
Technique: hand-embroidered
Catalogue number: F229
Designer and maker: Pugh, Elinor M., Miss, 1962
Credit notes: Miss Elinor Pugh Bequest, 1963

“The juxtaposition of the inner bands of vivid colours, and the outer bands of dull tones creates an immersive pattern that draws the viewer in to the centre of the object. The inner section appears illuminated and the central motif resembles both a window and a candle. The gaudy colours make it difficult to place this object within an established art historical framework. It is outside the canon.”
Lucinda Purkis and Raizel Frankl-Slater, WMG Young Producers

Details

Date: Design registered 1876
Dimensions: 85.1 x 95.5
Object Type: textile
Material: cotton
Technique: block-printed
Catalogue number: F223
Designer: Morris, William, 1834, 1896
Manufacturer: Morris & Co.
Credit notes: Presented by Mrs Charles Bramley, 1962

Designed by William Morris in 1876, his daughter May Morris described Honeysuckle as ‘the most truely “Morrisian” in character of all his-pattern making in later life”. The pattern combines four of his favourite flowers for pattern making- crown imperial, tulip, honeysuckle and fritillary, which overlay a dense background of yew.

Details

Date: design registered 27 February 1896
Dimensions: 187.3 x 72.4
Object Type: textile
Material: cotton
Technique: block-printed
Catalogue number: F221
Designer: Dearle, John Henry (1859 - 1932)
Manufacturer: Morris & Co.
Credit notes: Presented by Mrs Charles Bramley, 1962

‘Compton’ was previously thought to have been William Morris’s last design for a wallpaper (and adapted as a pattern for fabric). This was confirmed by May Morris in her ‘Collected Works of William Morris’. However, following Linda Parry’s research it is thought to have in fact been designed by Morris & Co.’s Chief Designer Henry Dearle. Morris and Co. redesigned the the residence of Laurence W. Hodson, Compton Hall near Wolverhampton in 1895-6, 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 house designs. Rather, he and Dearle worked together, sending designs back and forth and correcting each other’s work. The evidence to suggest this is in fact Dearle’s design, is further strengthened by its similarity to his other work, particularly ‘Leicester’ wallpaper.

Details

Dimensions: 1253.5 x 94.6
Object Type: textile
Material: cotton
Technique: indigo discharge
Catalogue number: F220
Designer: Morris, William, 1834, 1896
Manufacturer: Morris & Co.
Credit notes: Mary Annie Sloane bequest, 1962

Bird and Anemone was designed by William Morris in 1881 and the design registered on 17th June 1882. The monochrome pattern is one of only three designs issued by Morris as both a wallpaper and a printed cotton. Although they were produced at approximately the same time, the narrow upright rectangular repeat suggests it was however probably first intended as a textile design. The pattern was one of the first textiles to be printed at Morris’s factory Merton Abbey, and he produced it in this colourway using the indigo-discharge method and a red colourway.

Details

Date: reg 15 April 1875, printed 1917-1940
Dimensions: 184.8 x 97.2
Object Type: textile
Material: cotton
Technique: block-printed
Catalogue number: F211
Designer: Morris, William, 1834, 1896
Manufacturer: Morris & Co.
Credit notes: Miss Mary Ann Sloane bequest, 1962

Tulip was designed by William Morris in 1875 and manufactured by Wardle & Co. in Leek, Staffordshire. The design features horizontal rows of variagated tulips and acanthus leaves. The Gallery holds the original design and wood blocks used to print the cotton. Morris advised would-be designers to create forms of flowers and leaves ‘that are obvioulsy fit for printing with a block; to mask the construction of our pattern enough from counting the repeats‘ (Some Hints on Pattern Designing, 1880)

Details

Date: 1875-1880
Dimensions: 79 x 106.9
Object Type: textile
Material: wool on linen
Technique: embroidery
Catalogue number: F430
Designer: Morris, William, 1834, 1896
Designer: Webb | Philip | 1831 | 1915
Manufacturer: Morris & Co.
Credit notes: Purchased with grants from the V&A Purchase Grant Fund and Friends of the William Morris Gallery, 2004

This embroidered panel was designed by Philip Webb and William Morris and produced by Morris & Co.’s embroidery department. The panel is cut from a larger embroidery and depicts a peacock (designed by Webb) surrounded by a repeating pattern of grapes and vines (designed by Morris). Webb’s full-size drawing for the central peacock is also in the Gallery’s collection (see A209). Webb was primarily an architect, notably designing Morris’s Red House, but was also a gifted draughtsman with a particular interest in the natural world. As a young boy, he studied the illustrations of Thomas Bewick, the influence of whom remained evident throughout Webb’s artistic output. William Morris would often ask Webb to draw the animals within his designs for wallpapers, tapestries and textiles, recognising his superior skill. See for example ‘Trellis’, Morris’s first wallpaper design (William Morris Gallery BLA472), and ‘The Forest’, a large tapestry woven at Merton Abbey in 1887, which also incorporates a peacock into its design alongside Morris’s swirling acanthus leaves.

Details

Date: designed 1878
Object Type: textile
Material: woven wool
Technique: hand-loom jacquard woven
Catalogue number: F26civ
Designer: Morris, William, 1834, 1896
Credit notes: WMG purchase, 1940

Details

Dimensions: 88.9 x 81.3
Object Type: textile
Material: velveteen
Technique: woven and block-printed
Catalogue number: F200a
Designer: Mackmurdo | Arthur Heygate | 1851 | 1942
Manufacturer: Century Guild

This is one of the Century Guild’s most successful designs, it features scrolling and interwoven brambles with clusters of blackberries, enclosing pairs of squirrels holding nuts. The Century Guild monogram is incorporated in the design. Whilst some of AH Mackmurdo’s designs for textiles were too large and busy, this design features clear outlines, a harmonious repeat and is an approriate scale for a furnishing fabric. The design was also produced in as a cotton in red and yellow colourways.

Details

Date: c. 1882
Dimensions: 189.9 x 78.7
Object Type: textile
Material: cotton velvet
Technique: woven and block-printed
Catalogue number: F200
Designer: Mackmurdo | Arthur Heygate | 1851 | 1942
Manufacturer: Century Guild
Manufacturer: Simpson & Godlee
Credit notes: Presented by Miss E.Pugh, 1961

Object Type: textile

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