Rose printed linen

Details

Date: 11 July 1938
Object Type: archival
Catalogue number: J910xvii
Recipient: Peirce, Mary
Credit notes: Gift of Edith Armstrong-Hunter, 1998

Postcard sent to Mary Peirce from a friend visiting in Iceland. Mary and her sister Margaret accompanied May Morris and Mary Lobb on a trip to Iceland in 1931. The address on the postcard reveals Mary was living in Bryn Mawr, Pennysylvania.

Details

Date: 1870-1880
Dimensions: 28 x 22 x 8
Object Type: sculpture
Catalogue number: H52
Owner: Morris, William, 1834, 1896
Credit notes: Transfer from Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter, 2011

This drinking horn was acquired by William Morris in Iceland, possibly a gift from a friend.

The horn was donated to the Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter in 1939 by Mary Lobb, May Morris’s companion and later transferred to the William Morris Gallery.

Details

Date: designed 1877, printed c.1960
Object Type: wallpaper
Technique: block-printed in distemper
Catalogue number: B174
Designer: Morris, William, 1834, 1896
Manufacturer: Arthur Sanderson and Sons Ltd

William Morris designed Chrysanthemum wallpaper in 1877, the original design is in the gallery’s collection (see A33). The pattern is an intricate design of pom-pom blooms and calligraphic foliage.

This version was printed by the firm Arthur Sanderson & Sons Ltd., who acquired the original wallpaper printing blocks from Morris & Co. when they closed in 1940. The pink and orange colourway is not an original Morris & Co. colourway and was probably updated by Sanderson’s in the 1960s to appeal to their modern customer.

Details

Date: designed 1913, printed c.1950s
Object Type: wallpaper
Technique: block-printed in distemper
Catalogue number: B173
Manufacturer: Arthur Sanderson and Sons Ltd
Designer: Dearle, John Henry (1859 - 1932)

Henry Dearle designed this wallpaper for Morris & Co. in 1913, it was later printed as a cotton and linen. The design of foliage and stylised flowers on a white background recalls Indian chintz patterns and is a departure from the ‘house style’ defined by William Morris. It is likely the pattern was named after the town of Brentwood in Essex, England.

This version was probably printed around 1950, using original Morris & Co. blocks by the firm Arthur Sanderson & Sons Ltd., who acquired the blocks from Morris & Co. when they closed in 1940. It is stamped down the right edge: ‘MORRIS & Co’ and ‘THE BRENTWOOD’.

Details

Date: designed 1877, printed c.1960
Object Type: wallpaper
Technique: block-printed in distemper
Catalogue number: B172
Designer: Morris, William, 1834, 1896
Manufacturer: Arthur Sanderson and Sons Ltd

William Morris designed Chrysanthemum wallpaper in 1877, the original design is in the gallery’s collection (see A33). The pattern is an intricate design of pom-pom blooms and calligraphic foliage.

This version was printed by the firm Arthur Sanderson & Sons Ltd., who acquired the original wallpaper printing blocks from Morris & Co. when they closed in 1940. The purple and turquoise colourway is not an original Morris & Co. colourway and was probably updated by Sanderson’s in the 1960s to appeal to their modern customers.

Details

Date: designed 1879, printed c.1950
Object Type: wallpaper
Technique: block-printed in distemper
Catalogue number: B171
Designer: Morris, William, 1834, 1896
Manufacturer: Arthur Sanderson and Sons Ltd

Acorn wallpaper was designed by William Morris for his firm Morris & Co., and registered 7 January 1879. The pattern combines oak leaves, acorns, willow leaves and anemone like flowers. The preliminary design is in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (E.38-1940).

This version was printed by the firm Arthur Sanderson & Sons Ltd., who acquired the original wallpaper printing blocks from Morris & Co. when they closed in 1940. It was printed using blocks cut by Sanderson and has a smaller repeat of 45.7cm compared to Morris’s original design which had a repeat of 48.3cm. It is printed with ‘MORRIS & Co ACORN’ on the right edge.

Details

Date: designed 1877, printed c.1950
Object Type: wallpaper
Technique: block-printed in distemper
Catalogue number: B168
Designer: Morris, William, 1834, 1896
Manufacturer: Arthur Sanderson and Sons Ltd

William Morris designed this wallpaper in 1877. The pattern combines apples and scrolling acanthus leaves against a background of foliage. The wallpaper required three wood-blocks with a repeat size of 30.5 x 26.7 cm. This version is a colour match for the finished wallpaper and was probably printed using original Morris & Co. blocks by the firm Arthur Sanderson & Sons Ltd. around 1950, after they acquired the blocks from Morris & Co. when they closed in 1940. It is stamped down the right edge: ‘MORRIS & Co’ and has the pattern number B9386C.

Details

Date: January 1864
Dimensions: 175.3 x 58.4
Object Type: design
Material: sepia wash and pencil on paper
Catalogue number: BLA433
Designer: Burne-Jones | Edward Coley | Sir | 1833 | 1898
Attributed designer: Morris & Co.

Large stained glass cartoon in sepia depicting Christ attended by lamenting angels, two above holding sun and moon inscribed ‘SOL’ and ‘LUNA’. The figures were drawn by Edward Burne-Jones with decorative foliage probably completed by the Morris workshop. The cartoon is inscribed with instructions for completion for Amington Church (St. Editha) in Staffordshire. The church was built in 1864 by the Arts and Crafts architect George Edmund Street. Burne-Jones designed two of the church’s windows, the Crucifixion was designed in January 1864 and was the central window of the three chancel windows.

Details

Date: 1886
Object Type: drawing
Material: pencil on paper
Catalogue number: D231
Artist: Solomon, Simeon, 1840, 1905
Credit notes: Presented by Miss Martha Lugg Wooldridge, 1955

This portrait shows the head of a youth, representing Love in sleep. The portrait recalls Simeon Solomon’s mystical prose piece called Vision of Love Revealed in Sleep which he published privately in 1871. The narrative, which was of central importance to the artist’s career, was based on the platonic theme of the fulfillment of the soul through earthly love.

Details

Date: designed 1877, printed before 1940
Object Type: wallpaper
Technique: block-printed in distemper
Catalogue number: B167a
Designer: Morris, William, 1834, 1896
Manufacturer: Jeffrey & Co.
Retailer: Morris & Co.

William Morris designed this wallpaper in 1877. The pattern combines apples and scrolling acanthus leaves against a background of foliage. The wallpaper required three wood-blocks with a repeat size of 30.5 x 26.7 cm. The wallpaper was printed by Jeffrey & Co., who printed all Morris & Co.’s wallpapers. On the reverse the pattern colourway number ‘Apple 97’ is written in blue crayon, although this was the identifying number for the blue colouway, green was no.98 and the brown/pink colourway no.99.

May Morris used Apple to decorate her workroom at her in Hammersmith Terrace.

Details

Date: c.1909 - 1910
Dimensions: 97.2 x 43.8 x 45.7
Object Type: furniture
Material: oak and rush seat
Catalogue number: G68b
Credit notes: Presented by Miss Rhoda Wells, 1980.

One of four with G67, G69, G70. A sample of the chair is illustrated in the Morris & Company’s 1910/11 catalogue ‘Specimens of Upholstered Furniture’ no. 192 which was available in green or brown stain, priced at 14/- (=70 pence) with matching armchair no. 191, priced at 23/- (=£1.30p). The design is adapted from a traditional country type and is close to some of the furniture made by Ernest Gimson, such as G56. The chairs were apparently re-rushed c. 1970 by the Workshops for the Blind.

Details

Date: designed 1888-89, printed c.1950
Object Type: wallpaper
Technique: block-printed in distemper
Catalogue number: B165
Designer: Morris, William, 1834, 1896
Manufacturer: Arthur Sanderson and Sons Ltd

William Morris designed Borage Ceiling wallpaper between 1888-1889. As the name suggests, the paper was intended to decorate interior ceilings and forms a square repeat of 50.8 x 50.8 cm.

This version was printed around 1950, using original Morris & Co. blocks by the firm Arthur Sanderson & Sons Ltd., who acquired the blocks from Morris & Co. when they closed in 1940. It is stamped down the right edge: ‘BORAGE CEILING PAPER’ and ‘MORRIS & Co’.

Details

Date: designed 1862, printed c.1950
Dimensions: 54.6
Object Type: wallpaper
Technique: block-printed in distemper
Catalogue number: B162
Designer: Morris, William, 1834, 1896
Manufacturer: Arthur Sanderson and Sons Ltd

William Morris designed Fruit (also referred to as Pomegranate) in 1862 and it is one of his earliest designs for wallpaper. The pattern is formed of pomegranates, oranges and limes surrounded by foliage and flowers. The original design is in the colection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (E.299-2009) and included olive branches which were removed in the finished wallpaper. Morris first tried printing wallpaper at his studio in Red Lion Square in oil colours from etched zinc blocks. Unsuccessful, he ordered traditional pearwood printing blocks to be cut for ‘Fruit’ and production was then subcontracted out to Jeffrey & Co. of Islington, which specialised in the production of hand-printed wallpapers and continued to print the firm’s wallpapers.

Morris & Co. originally produced the paper in cream and blue colourways, a black colourway appeared around 1917. This version was printed by the firm Arthur Sanderson & Sons Ltd., who acquired the original wallpaper printing blocks from Morris & Co. when they closed in 1940.

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