Watercolour of two ships docking

Details

Date: c. 1880s
Dimensions: 22.6 x 31.1
Object Type: watercolour
Material: pencil and watercolour on paper
Catalogue number: D294x
Artist: Morris | May | 1862 | 1938
Credit notes: WMG purchase, 1963

This watercolour by May Morris shows a bedroom at The Grange, Fulham- the family home of Edward and Georgiana Burne-Jones. The bedroom is their daughter Margaret’s. On the mantlepiece are candlesticks designed by Philip Webb (for same design see WMG objects: H2, L20&a) and lustre vases, probably by William De Morgan. A pair of candlesticks acquired from Edward Burne-Jones are in the V&A, possible the same as the ones depicted here.

Details

Date: c. 1824
Dimensions: 8.3 x 6.3
Object Type: watercolour
Catalogue number: H30
Sitter: Morris (née Shelton), Emma (1805 - 1894)
Artist: Unknown
Owner: Morris | Effie | Miss
Credit notes: Purchased with assistance from the V&A/MGC Purchase Grant Fund, National Art Collections Fund, Friends of William Morris Gallery and Walthamstow Historical Society.

This miniature shows the mother of William Morris. It was probably painted to celebrate her engagement to William Morris Snr. Emma was the daughter of Joseph Shelton who had been a neighbour of the Morrises in Worcester.

After Emma and William married they lived over William’s business premises in Lombard Street, London but in 1833 after the birth of their first two children, they moved to Elm House, Clay Street, Walthamstow from where William Morris Snr. travelled in daily to the city by stage coach. It was at Elm Lodge that William Morris, was born in 1834 – his parents’ eldest son and third child; six more children were to follow.

In 1840 the the family moved to Woodford Hall, a Georgian mansion standing in fifty acres of park adjoining Epping Forest. Seven years later Wiliam Morris Snr. died and Emma and the children moved to a smaller house, Water House (now the William Morris Gallery) where she remained until 1856. Emma later moved to Leyton House, and finally to The Lordship, Much Hadham, where she died at the age of 89 in 1894.

Details

Date: 11.1824
Dimensions: 7.6 x 6.3
Object Type: watercolour
Catalogue number: H29
Owner: Morris | Effie | Miss
Sitter: Morris, William, Snr (1797 - 1847)
Artist: Wheeler, Thomas (fl. 1817 - 1845)
Credit notes: Purchased with assistance from the V&A/MGC Purchase Grant Fund, National Art Collections Fund, Friends of William Morris Gallery and Walthamstow Historical Society.

This portrait miniature shows William Morris’s father, William Morris Snr. It was probably painted in 1824 to celebrate Morris Snr’s engagement to Emma Shelton. Another portrait miniature of Emma is also in the collection (Object number H30).

In about 1820, Moris Snr. was articled as a clerk in the firm of Harris, Sanderson and Harris, discount brokers, at 32 Lombard Street. In his early thirties, he became a partner in the firm, then known as Sanderson & Co. and in July 1826, soon after his admission to partnership in the firm William married Emma Shelton.

At first the couple lived over the business in Lombard Street, but in 1833 after the birth of their first two daughters, they moved to Elm House, Clay Street, Walthamstow, from where William Morris Snr. travelled in daily to the city by stage coach. It was at Elm House that William Morris was born in 1834 – his parents’ eldest son and third child; six more children were to follow.

William Morris Snr’s father had been ‘very religious’ and he himself was a staunch Evangelical. He was also a shrewd business man, making a considerable fortune and becoming a well-known figure in the City. In 1840 he moved his family from Elm House to Woodford Hall, a Georgian mansion standing in fifty acres of park adjoining Epping Forest.

Morris Snr invested in Devon Great Consuls, a highly profitable company launched in 1844 to mine copper near Tavistock, He held 272 shares which for a while rose to the value of over £200, 000. His own enjoyment of this wealth was brief as he died at the age of fifty in 1847 and was buried in the churchyard at Woodford where his tomb still remains. His widow and the family moved in 1848 to live in a smaller establishment, the Water House (now the William Morris Gallery) where they remained until 1856. Emma later moved to Leyton House, and finally to The Lordship, Much Hadham, where she died at the age of 89 in 1894.

Details

Date: c.1910
Dimensions: 15 x 12
Object Type: watercolour
Material: watercolour on paper
Catalogue number: W223
Artist: Cockerell, Olive (1869 - 1910)
Sitter: Carruthers Tozer, Amy (1896 - 1938)
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. This portrait by her shows Amy Jane Tozer, née Carruthers. Amy Jane was a friend of May and Jane Morris and daughter of William Caruthers, a friend of William Morris and who accompanied Morris on his cruise to Spitsbergen Island in 1896.

Object Type: watercolour

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