Cup (used by William Morris)

Details

Date: 19th century
Dimensions: 6.7 x 11
Object Type: ceramic
Catalogue number: H3a
Owner: Burne-Jones | Edward Coley | Sir | 1833 | 1898
Credit notes: Presented by Professor and Mrs J W Mackail, 1938.

The cup and saucer was used by William Morris at The Grange, the Burne-Jones’ Fulham house, where he kept it especially for his own use when he dined there because he objected to the small size of the Burne-Jones’ coffee cups. According to a handwritten note in the WMG file by J. W. Mackail, dated 11 May 1938 …”it was kept there and always used by him, and by no one else, either then or since.” The cup and saucer are described as Flemish by Mackail. The cup does not exactly match the saucer.

Details

Date: 1584
Dimensions: 32 x 23 x 11
Object Type: book
Material: paper
Catalogue number: H34
Owner: Morris, William (1834 - 1896)
Owner: Morris, Jenny (1861 - 1935)
Credit notes: Transfer from Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter, 2011

This is a rare first edition copy of the first Icelandic bible, it is printed in three parts with separate title pages for the Old Testament, Prophets and the New Testament. It is known as Gudbrand’s Biblia, after its translator and editor Guðbrandur Þorláksson (or Gudbrandur Thorlaksson) (1541 – July 20, 1627). William Morris acquired it during his travels in Iceland in 1871. His Icelandic Diaries record how he saw in the house of one Dr Skaptason at Hnausar (in Húnavatnssýsla) ‘a fine copy of the Gudbrand Bible in its original binding brass-bound and very good’.

An inscription written by Morris in Icelandic on the first page reads: ‘This book I give to my daughter Jóhönnu on the day of her birth 17 Jan: 1891’, revealing that he gave the bible to his elder daughter Jenny on the occassion of her 30th birthday. Morris owned another edition of this bible, which remained in his possesion until his death. It is now in Princeton University Library.

Details

Date: c.1863-64
Dimensions: 60.5 x 127
Object Type: ceramic
Material: tin-glazed earthenware
Technique: hand-painted
Catalogue number: C75
Designer: Burne-Jones | Edward Coley | Sir | 1833 | 1898
Maker: Orrinsmith (née Faulkner), Lucy (1839 - 1910)
Retailer: Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co.
Credit notes: WMG Purchase, 1953

This tile panel depicts the children’s fairytale ‘Beauty and the Beast’. It was originally installed above a fire place in a bedroom of the artist Myles Birket Foster, at his home The Hill, Witley, Surrey. The scroll on the surrounding Swan tiles is inscribed with a description of the story, ‘How a Prince who by enchantment was under the form of a beast became a man again by the love of a certain maiden’.

The panel was designed by Edward Burne-Jones. The bear was based on sketches specially drawn for him by Philip Webb, who probably observed the animals at Regents Park Zoological Gardens. Lucy Faulkner, the sister of Charles Faulkner, one of the partners of Morris, Marshall, Faulkner and Co. painted Burne-Jones designs by hand onto the tiles.

Burne-Jones also designed a similar panel of ‘Sleeping Beauty’ for Birket Foster’s house (now in the V&A Museum, London).

Details

Date: c. late 1890s
Dimensions: 9.8 x 8.0
Object Type: metalwork
Material: silver
Technique: repousse
Catalogue number: H16
Owner: Morris, William (1834 - 1896)
Maker: Catterson-Smith, Robert (1853 - 1938)
Designer: Catterson-Smith, Robert (1853 - 1938)
Credit notes: Amy Tozer bequest, via Gilbert Carruthers, 1962

This silver case with repoussé design features a central glazed oval locket containing a lock of William Morris’s hair. The case is fastened at top, bottom and sides to wooden backing with silver studs. The lock of hair was cut from Morris’s head after his death by John Carruthers, who was closely associated with Morris as a Socialist and accompanied Morris on his voyage to Norway in 1896.

Two very similar cases exist, one in the collection of the Society of Antiquaries at Kelmscott Manor, donated by Virginia Surtees which has minor differences in shape of rose leaves and border. Another gold case with different floral features is in the collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum (M.33-1939) and was bequeathed by May Morris. The cases was designed by Robert Catterson-Smith, a metalworker who had also assisted in the preparation of some illustrations and decorative elements for Morris’s Kelmscott Press publications. A photograph of the Kelmscott Manor’s silver case has the caption ‘Silver. designed and executed by me R.C.S’.

This version was given by Gilbert Carruthers, who’s sister Amy Tozer bequested to the Gallery: “My sister has a lock of his hair which she said in her last wishes were to go to your museum, if you wish for it…..” Amy and Gilbert’s father was John Curruthers, who accompanied Morris on his final trip to Norway, undertaken just months before Morris died.

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

‘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

Object Type: printing block
Material: pearwood
Catalogue number: R450
Retailer: Morris & Co.
Manufacturer: Barrett's of Bethnal Green Road
Credit notes: Gift of John Lewis Partnership, 1980

This printing wood block with used to print Morris & Co.’s designs onto cotton and was made by the firm of Barrett, 249 Bethnal Green Road. William Morris’s original drawing, or those of his other chief designer’s, would be transferred onto a pearwood surface using tracing paper. Morris would check all the blocks for accuracy before the pattern was carved into the surface by Barrett’s carvers. Each block was cut to match a different colour of the design and had to register correctly to ensure the pattern was printed accurately. Small pins were inserted in the edge of the block which when printed left tiny dots of colour. This allowed the printer to line the blocks up in the right place.

At Merton Abbey the cloth was stretched over a blanket underlay on one of the long tables in the printing shop. The printer would press the printing block into a dye-pad and then lay it into position on the fabric. The block was then tapped with a mall (a led weighted mallet) to ensure an even impression on the cloth. The printer then lifted the block, applied more colour and repeated the process down the whole length of the fabric. By this time the first colour had dried, allowing the application of second colour.

Details

Date: 1876
Dimensions: 167.6 x 91.4
Object Type: design
Material: pencil, ink and watercolour on paper
Catalogue number: A31
Designer: Morris, William (1834 - 1896)
Credit notes: WMG purchase, 1940

A design for a tile panel composed of 66 earthenware tiles with painted underglaze decorated with a ‘drop’ design of foliage of Persian inspiration, in green and blue on a blue ground. This tile panel was designed by William Morris and produced by William De Morgan in 1876 and is one of six; one of which is WMG C176. They were commissioned by the banker, Edward Baring, for his bathroom at Membland Hall, north of Plymouth (now demolished).

William De Morgan had set up his pottery in Chelsea in 1872 and had already designed tile panels, and as many as 300 six inch tiles by 1877. The Membland Hall commission was to be the largest panel he had attempted. Each panel measures 1600mm x 915mm, and is made up of 66 six inch tiles. It was a remarkable achievement to have produced these large panels on such small premises.

The design for these panels is composed differently to Morris’s wallpaper designs of that period, having larger motifs and more free space. The wallpapers had smaller detail and denser patterning. The repeat design at the edges indicates that the panels were intended to be set close together so that the pattern could progress laterally.

The design for these tile panels appeared in the Morris firm’s stock-list as late as 1913. It is unlikely that Morris designed anything as large again.

Membland Hall was demolished in 1928 for its lead and fireplaces. The six panels appeared on the London market in 1972. They had been found in a cupboard at Membland Hall. Another tile of the six is on display at the V&A, London. A tile of this design is in the collection of the Museum of Applied Arts, Cologne (E04941) and was acquired in 1978.

Details

Date: 1886
Dimensions: 45.8 x 33
Object Type: design
Catalogue number: A208.4
Designer: Burne-Jones | Edward Coley | Sir | 1833 | 1898
Credit notes: WMG purchase, 1953

The fourth of four cartoons designed and made for the window of a landing in the artist’s house in Rottingdean, Sussex. The windows (now in the V&A: C.623 to 626-1920) encapsulate the story of the Quest for the Sangreal (Holy Grail) and the failure of Sir Sir Launcelot (because of his adultery with Guinevere), Sir Gawaiane (because he fails to live up to courtly ideals), and Sir Galahad (because of his worldliness), and the achievement of Sir Lancelot, due to his purity of spirit.

For references to the windows, see Angela Thirkell ‘Three Houses’, OUP 1931 p. 123.

Details

Date: 1886
Dimensions: 45.8 x 33
Object Type: design
Material: ink on paper
Catalogue number: A208.3
Designer: Burne-Jones | Edward Coley | Sir | 1833 | 1898
Credit notes: WMG purchase, 1953

The third of four cartoons designed and made for the window of a landing in the artist’s house in Rottingdean, Sussex. The windows (now in the V&A: C.623 to 626-1920) encapsulate the story of the Quest for the Sangreal (Holy Grail) and the failure of Sir Sir Launcelot (because of his adultery with Guinevere), Sir Gawaiane (because he fails to live up to courtly ideals), and Sir Galahad, depicted in this cartoon (because of his worldliness), and the achievement of Sir Lancelot, due to his purity of spirit.

For references to the windows, see Angela Thirkell ‘Three Houses’, OUP 1931 p. 123.

Details

Date: 1886
Dimensions: 45.8 x 33
Object Type: design
Catalogue number: A208.2
Designer: Burne-Jones | Edward Coley | Sir | 1833 | 1898
Credit notes: WMG purchase, 1953

The second of four cartoons designed and made for the window of a landing in the artist’s house in Rottingdean, Sussex. The windows (now in the V&A: C.623 to 626-1920) encapsulate the story of the Quest for the Sangreal (Holy Grail) and the failure of Sir Sir Launcelot (because of his adultery with Guinevere), Sir Gawaiane, depicted in this cartoon (because he fails to live up to courtly ideals) and Sir Galahad (because of his worldliness) and the achievement of Sir Lancelot, due to his purity of spirit.

For references to the windows, see Angela Thirkell ‘Three Houses’, OUP 1931 p. 123.

Details

Date: designed 1877, made 1877-1900
Dimensions: 200.7 x 142.2
Object Type: textile
Material: wool on linen
Technique: hand-embroidered
Catalogue number: F335
Designer: Morris, William (1834 - 1896)
Maker: Godman, Ada Phoebe ( - Jan 1900)
Credit notes: Purchased 1978

One panel of a set designed and made to hang in the drawing room of Smeaton Manor, Northallerton, North Yorkshire. The panels are embroidered in wool on linen and features a pattern of alternating rows of clumps of stylised flowers, large blue artichoke heads and blue flower-heads against a background arabesque pattern of stems, leaves and small flowers. It is embroidered using stem, satin, long & short, French knots, split and back stich.

The panels were worked by Mrs Ada Phoebe Godman, who lived at Smeaton Manor. She was the daughter of Sir Isaac Lowthian Bell, a wealthy customer of Morris & Co.. Godman commissioned William Morris to produce the design and her diary records its arrival on 31 August 1877. A surviving drawing shows her still working on the embroideries in 1900. The design was not exclusive, a pair of hangings from the same design were worked in silks by Mrs Margaret Beale and her daughters for their country home, Standen, East Sussex.

The two other panels from the Smeaton Manor set are in the collections of the Fitzwilliam and the V&A and a fourth, designed for a doorway was sold at auction September 2018.

Details

Date: 1861-62
Dimensions: 15.2 x 15.2
Object Type: ceramic
Material: earthenware
Technique: hand-painted
Catalogue number: C78
Designer: Webb | Philip | 1831 | 1915
Manufacturer: Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co.
Painter: Orrinsmith (née Faulkner), Lucy (1839 - 1910)
Credit notes: Presented by Mrs Hitch, 1954

Tile with flying duck above water, painted in blue on a white background. The bird appears dynamic, with its wings spread wide and its beak open. Its feathers are detailed with expressive brushstrokes, and the body features a crisscross pattern. Below the bird, wavy lines suggest water. This design is part of a series of bird-themed tiles attributed to Philip Webb, a key figure in the Arts and Crafts movement and a close associate of William Morris. The design dates from the early 1860s and reflects the hand-painted tradition employed by Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co. These tiles were likely produced for fireplaces and architectural decoration, with similar designs appearing in stained-glass panels.

Details

Date: c.1865
Dimensions: 10 x 8 cm
Object Type: printing block
Catalogue number: R193
Designer: Burne-Jones | Edward Coley | Sir | 1833 | 1898
Artist: Morris, William (1834 - 1896)
Maker: Orrinsmith (née Faulkner), Lucy (1839 - 1910)
Credit notes: Gift of Lesley Hitch, 1954

From the series of woodcuts for the projected edition of ‘The Earthly Paradise’ c.1865, ‘The Story of Cupid and Psyche’ (probably number 26 in the series). Designed by Edward Burne-Jones, drawn on the block by William Morris and cut by Lucy Faulkner (according to the handwritten inscription on the back). This block was probably a trial attempt and not used.

Details

Date: 4.3.1898
Object Type: book
Material: paper in quarter holland binding
Catalogue number: K260
Author: Morris, William (1834 - 1896)
Author: Cockerell, Sydney Carlyle (1867 - 1962)
Designer: Morris, William (1834 - 1896)
Designer: Burne-Jones | Edward Coley | Sir | 1833 | 1898
Printer: Kelmscott Press | 1891 | 1898
Publisher: Kelmscott Press | 1891 | 1898
Seller: Trustees of the William Morris Estate
Credit notes: WMG purchase, 1952

A Note by William Morris etc. was the last book to have been printed at the Kelmscott Press before its closure and the original illustration is set in one of the open-work vine borders which Morris designed for his K.P. books.

The wood-engraved illustration, ‘Psyche borne off by Zephyrus’, designed by Burne-Jones and cut by Morris, was one of those originally made for the projected illustrated edition of Morris’s The Earthly Paradise 1865-68. After Morris’s death in October 1896, an attempt was made to print the Story of Cupid and Psyche from The Earthly Paradise together with the original wood engravings made in 1865-68; this edition, to be printed at the Kelmscott Press, was to have been published by Bernard Quaritch, and a few trial pages were pulled in January 1897. [see K774 and K775] at the closure of the Kelmscott Press in 1898, the printing was to have been carried out by the Chiswick Press, but following the death of Burne-Jones, who was to have revised some of the illustrations for this edition, in June 1898, the edition was abandoned.

525 copies were printed on paper at 10s, 12 and on vellum at 2 guineas.

Details

Date: 15 November 1897
Object Type: book
Catalogue number: K10
Artist: Morris, William (1834 - 1896)
Author: Morris, William (1834 - 1896)
Credit notes: WMG purchase, 1950

This was the last romance written by Morris; it was begun in December 1895, the last words being dictated on 8 September 1896, a month or so before he died. This edition by the Kelmscott Press was overseen by May Morris, it is dated 15 November 1897 (issued 25 February 1898). 300 copies were printed on paper at 2 guineas, none on vellum. Printed on paper with ‘Flower’ watermark in Chaucer type in black and red with borders and woodcut initials designed by Morris, with a map by H. Cribb.

Details

Date: 2.4.1892
Dimensions: 21 x 15 x 2 cm.
Object Type: book
Catalogue number: K255
Author: Morris, William (1834 - 1896)
Designer: Morris, William (1834 - 1896)
Publisher: Kelmscott Press | 1891 | 1898
Seller: Reeves & Turner
Credit notes: WMG purchase, 1952

‘The Defence of Guenevere’, Morris’s first volume of poems, was originally published by Bell & Daldy 1858. Owing to a number of errors in this first edition an errata slip was included in this first edition. However, when the book was reprinted by Ellis & White in 1875, these errors were not wholly corrected and many of them also appear in the text of the Kelmscott Press edition. This was the first Kelmscott Press book to be bound in limp vellum and the only one in which the title was inscribed by hand on the spine. This copy was given by William Morris to his good friend Georgian Burne-Jones and is inscribed by him with the date 22nd May 1892. 300 copies were printed on paper at 2 guineas, 10 on vellum at about 12 guineas and sold by Reeves & Turner.

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.
Manufacturer: Wilton Royal Carpet Factory Ltd
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: designed 1884
Dimensions: 365.8 x 96.5
Object Type: textile
Material: cotton
Technique: block-printed
Catalogue number: F392
Designer: Morris, William (1834 - 1896)
Manufacturer: Morris & Co.
Credit notes: WMG purchase, 1998

Cray was designed by William Morris in 1884, one of a series of patterns created at this time named after tributaries of the River Thames and other rivers. The cray is a chalk stream, and a tributary of the River Darent, in south-East London. The pattern consists of large stem and peony-like flowers with a secondary network of flowers and leaves against a background of curling small leaves, stems and flowerheads. The size of the repat and complexity of the pattern meant that 34 different printing blocks were required to print one pattern repeat, making it Morris’s most expensive blockprinted fabric.

Details

Date: Designed 1876, printed 1877-1917
Dimensions: 94 x 98
Object Type: textile
Material: cotton
Technique: block-printed
Catalogue number: F401
Designer: Morris, William (1834 - 1896)
Manufacturer: Wardle and Co. (1872 - 1908)
Retailer: Morris & Co. Decorators Ltd, 449 Oxford Street, London
Credit notes: Presented by Michael Whiteway, 1998

Snakeshead was designed by William Morris in 1876. It was printed by Thomas Wardle at his factory in Leek, Wardle continued to print this design for Morris & Co., after Morris opened his own textile printing factory at Merton Abbey. The pink and blue on pink ground is colourway no. 1573. The selvedge is printed with Morris 7 Co’s Oxford Street address.

Details

Date: 1862
Dimensions: 63.5 x 70.5
Object Type: design
Material: black and sepia wash and pencil on paper
Catalogue number: A262
Artist: Morris, William (1834 - 1896)
Credit notes: WMG purchase, 1955

This design for a stained glass panel shows King Arthur and Sir Lancelot. It was drawn by William Morris in 1862 and is the 13th panel in a 14 part series of panels illustrating ‘The Story of Tristam and Isoude’ from Malory’s Morte d’Arthur. The panels were commisioned by Walter Dunlop, a Bradford merchant for the decoration of the entrance hall at Harden Grange, Bingley, Yorkshire. The windows were removed from the house after Dunlop’s death and are now in the collection of Bradford City Art Gallery.

The figure of King Arthur has been drawn separately and pasted down.

Details

Date: c.1861-1863
Dimensions: 26.7 x 17.8
Object Type: metalwork
Material: brass
Catalogue number: H2
Designer: Webb | Philip | 1831 | 1915
Manufacturer: Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co.
Owner: Morris, William (1834 - 1896)
Credit notes: Presented by Dr Robert Steele, 1942

This candlestick is one of a pair designed by Philip Webb and used by William Morris on his desk. Webb originally designed the candlesticks as part of the furnishings for William and Jane Morris’s first home, Red House in Bexleyheath, Kent for which he was architect. Webb’s account book lists a design for candlesticks on 28 June 1863, for which he charged £1.10s. An identical pair in copper were given as a wedding present by Philip Webb to the architect Charles Winmill and are also in the William Morris Gallery’s collection (see L20a and L20b).

Details

Date: 1900
Object Type: glass
Catalogue number: C222
Designer: Webb | Philip | 1831 | 1915
Manufacturer: James Powell & Sons, London
Merchant
Credit notes: Gift of Micheal Whiteway, 1996

Early in 1860, Phillip Webb designed a number of wine-glasses and other glass vessels for manufacture by James Powell & Sons, specifically for William Morris’s use at Red House. Subsequently, glasses from this series, along with others designed by Webb, were among the first products sold by Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Company. Around the turn of the century, manufacture of these Webb-designed glasses, with some variation in design, was revived by Powell’s and they continued in production until the 1920s/30s. This example probably dates from the c.1900 revival of the Webb range, examples of which were shown at the 1914 Exhibition of British Arts & Crafts at the Louvre, Paris.

Details

Date: designed in 1876
Dimensions: 132 x 91.5
Object Type: textile
Technique: block-printed
Catalogue number: F423
Designer: Morris, William (1834 - 1896)
Manufacturer: Morris & Co.
Maker: Wardle and Co. (1872 - 1908)
Credit notes: Presented by the Victoria and Albert Museum Department of Textiles and Dress, 2001

Honeysuckle was registered as a design by William Morris in on 11 October 1876. It was printed onto a number of different fabrics, inclusing linen, cotton, combed cotton, challis, silk, tusser silk and velveteen;. This example is challis, a type of lightweight woven fabric. It was printed for Morris & Co by Thomas Wardle & Co., Leek.

Details

Date: 1867
Dimensions: 54 x 37
Object Type: watercolour
Material: watercolour on paper
Catalogue number: BrW48
Attributed artist: Rossetti | Dante Gabriel | 1828 | 1882
Attributed artist: Dunn, Henry Treffry, 1838, 1899
Credit notes: Brangwyn gift, 1935

This is one of three watercolour replicas painted by Rossetti and assistants of his original oil painting, for which the model was Alexa Wilding, whereas here the model is Ellen Smith, a laundry maid who Rossetti ‘discovered’ in Chelsea.

This painting was largely painted under Rossetti’s supervision by H. T. Dunn, who became his studio assistant in 1867. It is probable the finishing touches were added by Rossetti himself, as the quality of the execution is superior to most of Dunn’s works. The couplet of poetry inscribed on the frame is from a French ballad, pledging happiness by day and night to the unseen partner of the loving cup.

Details

Date: c. 1881
Dimensions: 49 x 39
Object Type: oil
Material: oil on canvas
Catalogue number: O87
Artist: Burne-Jones | Edward Coley | Sir | 1833 | 1898
Credit notes: WMG purchase, 1954

The image was based on a stained glass panel that Burne-Jones designed in 1878, one of a set of nine representing the Planets. Formerly depicting a full-length nude seated on a rock, in 1958 the canvas was cut down to its present size. The discarded canvas was not kept nor was a photographic record taken of the painting in its original state.

The stained glass was made by Morris & Co for the music room at ‘Woodlands’, the home of Sir Angus Holden situated on the outskirts of Bradford, Yorkshire. The stained glass no longer survives but the cartoons, including ‘The Evening Star’, are now at Torre Abbey, Torquay, Devon.

Details

Date: 1870
Dimensions: 78 x 55.5
Object Type: oil
Material: oil on canvas
Catalogue number: BrO30
Artist: Crane, Walter, 1845, 1915
Credit notes: Brangwyn gift, 1936

‘Love’s Altar’ was painted by Walter Crane in 1870. It depicts a young man kneeling before an altar surmounted by a portrait of a young woman. The portrait is of Crane’s fiancée Mary Frances Andrews, whom he later married on 6 September 1871. Crane wrote a sonnet to accompany the work, published in ‘A Book of Verse’, 1891 (see below). It was exhibited at the Old Bond Street Gallery in 1870 described as ‘Love’s Sanctuary’. Whilst on display it attracted adverse criticism, the ‘Art Journal’ describing it an ‘an irreverent parody’ and commenting on ‘the incongruity of medieval treatment coupled with classical costume and accessories’.

Love’s Sanctuary

NO more I go to worship with the crowd

In Christian temples, pagan now to me,

No dim cathedral hears me pray aloud,

I sing no credo, as it used to be:

Though kneeling not beneath the roof of Rome,

Or in protesting fanes, I have a shrine—

A holiest of holies—Love’s sweet home,

On whose white altar lies life’s bread and wine.

There oft, in saddened times and weary hours,

To secret sanctuary do I flee,

Where one sweet presence soothes, like breath of flowers,

To whom their incense rises ceaselessly;

For there, though not a Roman devotee,

Sweet virgin Mary I do worship thee.

Details

Dimensions: 15.2 x 15.2
Object Type: ceramic
Material: earthenware tiles painted in enamels
Catalogue number: C82c
Designer and maker: Burne-Jones | Edward Coley | Sir | 1833 | 1898
Painter: Orrinsmith (née Faulkner), Lucy (1839 - 1910)
Credit notes: Presented by Mrs L. Hitch, 1954

This series of 7 tiles depicts the story of Cinderella. It was designed by Edward Burne-Jones and painted by Lucy Faulkner. Burne-Jones account book for September 30, 1862 refers to : “10 designs for tiles, Cinderella paid £7.10s” which may well be the set made for Myles Birket Foster’s house, The Hill at Witley Surrey. The tiles were intended for an overmantel panel and four two tile figures, the original designs are in the V&A and Fitzwilliam. This set shows the colours having run during the firing, suggesting they were either trial samplers or rejects and kept by Lucy Faulkner. Other sets exist in the Gallery’s collection (WMG202), the Walker Art Gallery and the Sanford and Helen Berger Collection, The Huntington Library in California.

Details

Dimensions: 15.2 x 15.2
Object Type: ceramic
Material: earthenware tiles painted in enamels
Catalogue number: C82d
Designer: Burne-Jones | Edward Coley | Sir | 1833 | 1898
Painter: Orrinsmith (née Faulkner), Lucy (1839 - 1910)
Credit notes: Presented by Mrs L. Hitch, 1954

Details

Dimensions: 15.2 x 15.2
Object Type: ceramic
Material: earthenware tiles painted in enamels
Catalogue number: C82e
Designer: Burne-Jones | Edward Coley | Sir | 1833 | 1898
Painter: Orrinsmith (née Faulkner), Lucy (1839 - 1910)
Credit notes: Presented by Mrs L. Hitch, 1954

Details

Dimensions: 15.2 x 15.2
Object Type: ceramic
Material: earthenware tiles painted in enamels
Catalogue number: C82f
Designer: Burne-Jones | Edward Coley | Sir | 1833 | 1898
Painter: Orrinsmith (née Faulkner), Lucy (1839 - 1910)
Credit notes: Presented by Mrs L. Hitch, 1954

Details

Dimensions: 15.2 x 15.2
Object Type: ceramic
Material: earthenware tiles painted in enamels
Catalogue number: C82
Designer: Burne-Jones | Edward Coley | Sir | 1833 | 1898
Painter: Orrinsmith (née Faulkner), Lucy (1839 - 1910)
Credit notes: Presented by Mrs L. Hitch, 1954

Details

Dimensions: 15.2 x 15.2
Object Type: ceramic
Material: earthenware tiles painted in enamels
Catalogue number: C82a
Designer: Burne-Jones | Edward Coley | Sir | 1833 | 1898
Painter: Orrinsmith (née Faulkner), Lucy (1839 - 1910)
Credit notes: Presented by Mrs L. Hitch, 1954

Details

Date: c.1875
Dimensions: 71.1 x 35.6
Object Type: design
Material: pencil, ink and watercolour on paper
Catalogue number: A209
Artist: Webb | Philip | 1831 | 1915
Manufacturer: Morris & Co.
Credit notes: WMG purchase, 1940

This full-size drawing for an embroidered frieze was produced for Morris & Co. by Phillip Webb in around 1880. 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. In the finished frieze (see William Morris Gallery F430), the peacock is surrounded by gleaming golden grape vines designed by Morris.

Details

Date: 1880s
Object Type: design
Catalogue number: A301
Artist: Dearle, John Henry (1859 - 1932)
Artist: Morris, William (1834 - 1896)
Credit notes: WMG purchase, 1960

This drawing is inscribed ‘Drawing Room Cornice, 9 Chesterfield Gardens by William Morris’. A section of the wallpaper printed from the design is also in the Gallery’s collection. The relatively large scale of the pattern, appropriate to the decoration of what was presumably a spacious room, is typical of Morris & Co.’s interior-decoration schemes from the mid-1880s, as is the relatively light colouring. 9 Chesterfield Gardens was the London home of Lord Henry Leconfield.

Details

Date: 1872
Object Type: design
Material: watercolour, bodycolour and pencil on paper
Catalogue number: A260
Artist: Burne-Jones | Edward Coley | Sir | 1833 | 1898
Credit notes: WMG purchase, 1954

This watercolour composition by Edward Burne-Jones is one of four designs for stained glass windows executed by Morris & Co. in 1872. They were made for the 18th century chapel at Castle Howard, North Yorkshire, and depict the Christian story of the birth of Jesus: ‘The Annunciation’, ‘The Nativity’, ‘Adoration of the Magi’, and ‘The Flight into Egypt’. The Morrises were good friends with the then Earl and Countess of Carlisle, George and Rosalind Howard, and would often exchange letters and pay visits. The Howards extensively modernised the interiors of their stately home with Morris & Co. designs during the late 19th century, notably redecorating the chapel and perhaps controversially covering a wall of Pellegrini frescoes with ‘Bird and Anemone’ wallpaper . Much of this was later removed, but the Arts and Crafts additions to the chapel, including these windows, remain to be seen today, a testament to their friendship.

Here, we see ‘The Flight Into Egypt’, with Mary and Joseph beginning their journey to seek sanctuary from the wrath of King Herod. The bold, linear style is somewhat different to the lush, delicately painted masterpieces Burne-Jones became known for, and relates directly to the final product. We can see the artist beginning to imagine how the glass will fit together, which elements will be leaded and which details will be hand painted. This image would then have been worked up into a full-size cartoon before being transferred to glass. A window using this same design was reproduced by Morris & Co. in the early 20th century, and can be seen in the Epiphany Chapel at Winchester Cathedral, Hampshire.

Details

Date: 1886
Dimensions: 101.6 x 68.6
Object Type: design
Material: watercolour on paper
Catalogue number: A30
Artist: Morris, William (1834 - 1896)
Credit notes: WMG purchase, 1940

One of the more ‘formal’ of Morris’s 1880s wallpapers, ‘Lily and Pomegranate’ resembles some of the historic textiles which Morris studied at the South Kensington Museum. The dotted background is a favourite device of Morris’s, found in both his wallpapers and textiles, and one which he enjoyed painting in his designs. When a friend asked him why he did not hand over such mechanical work to an assistant, Morris replied ‘After taking all the trouble to draw it, do you think I’d be such a fool as not to do the dots?’

Details

Date: designed 1862, printed before 1940
Dimensions: 63.4 x 57
Object Type: wallpaper
Material: paper
Technique: block-printed
Catalogue number: B124
Manufacturer: Morris & Co.
Designer: Morris, William (1834 - 1896)
Manufacturer: Jeffrey & Co.
Credit notes: Presented by Miss H. Brooks, 1991

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, peaches, oranges and lemons surrounded by the fruit tree foliage and flowers. The original design is in the collection 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.

This example is stamped on the right edge ‘Morris & Co’.

Details

Date: c. 1895-96
Dimensions: 109 x 60.5 x 30
Object Type: furniture
Catalogue number: G79
Designer and maker: Morris & Co.
Designer: Morris | May | 1862 | 1938
Designer: Dearle, John Henry (1859 - 1932)
Credit notes: Purchased with assistance from the Friends of the William Morris Gallery, 2017

This firescreen was produced by Morris & Co. The embroidery is ‘Clanfield’ design and was designed by either May Morris or Henry Dearle. The embroidery is of a high quality suggesting it was made in the Morris & Co. embroidery workshop, Morris & Co. also produced embroidery kits that could be worked at home. An example of ‘Clanfield’ is illustrated in ‘The Studio’ magazine for 1896-7 in a review of the 1896 Arts and Crafts exhibition, worked by Flora E.J. Hayman.

Details

Date: Designed c.1888
Dimensions: 65 x 65
Object Type: textile
Material: silk and linen
Technique: hand-loom jacquard woven
Catalogue number: F406
Attributed designer: Dearle, John Henry (1859 - 1932)
Attributed designer: Morris, William (1834 - 1896)
Manufacturer: Morris & Co.
Credit notes: Presented by Ms A McEwan, 1998

Described by May Morris as ‘fit for a queen’s chamber’, this luxurious fabric is one of the last textile designs attributed to her father. Woven at Merton Abbey on hand-activated Jacquard looms, its shimmering texture is created by the contrast between the linen ground and silk pattern. In addition to its use within wealthy homes, Golden Bough was also popular for church furnishing, a profitable aspect of Morris’s business.

Details

Date: c.1880
Dimensions: 172.7 x 57.3
Object Type: design
Material: pastel on paper
Catalogue number: A136
Artist: Burne-Jones | Edward Coley | Sir | 1833 | 1898
Credit notes: Frank Brangwyn, 1936

This design is a coloured pastel finished drawing from the Morris & Co. East window of St. Martin’s Church, Brampton, Cumbria, 1880-1881. The windows at Brampton are one of Morris & Co’s masterpieces. After the windows were complete, Burne-Jones used coloured chalks to transform his design into this highly finished work.

The pelican feeding its young with drops of blood from its breast is a Christian emblem for the sacrifice of Christ on the cross. The nest sits on top of a highly stylised tree with sinuous curves. In the 20th century, the art historian Nikolaus Pevsner published this design as a precursor of Art Nouveau.

Details

Date: 1885
Dimensions: 307 x 156
Object Type: textile
Material: wool on cotton lining
Catalogue number: F139
Designer: Morris, William (1834 - 1896)
Retailer: Morris & Co. Decorators Ltd, 449 Oxford Street, London
Maker: Morris | May | 1862 | 1938
Maker: Sleath, William
Maker: Knight, W.H.
Credit notes: WMG purchase with assistance from the Victoria and Albert Museum, 1953

Designed by William Morris, this high-warp tapestry, depicts a fruit tree with a bird and woodpecker in its branches, the trunk wound round with scrolling acanthus leaves and side borders of honeysuckle growing around tree trunks and a line of text at top and bottom written in Gothic script on scrolls: “i once a king and chief, now am the tree barks thief,/ever twixt trunk and leaf chasing the prey”. The text refers to the classical legend of Picus, one of the ancient kings of Italy, who refused to be seduced by Circe and she in revenge turned him into a woodpecker.

By the mid-1880s tapestry designs at Morris & Co. were largely a collaborative effort with groups of artists working together on the design. However, this tapestry is unusual in that is was designed entirely by William Morris and woven at Merton Abbey under his strict supervision. It was woven at Merton Abbey, Morris & Co.’s factory in 1885 by WH Knight and William Sleath. The tapestry was exhibited at the first Arts & Crafts Exhibition Society in 1888, lent by Morris & Co., with Knight and Sleath’s names listed in the accompanying catalogue (no.50h). It was bought by Sir Byron Peters (1867 – 1939) and hung for a number of years in the billiard room at 24 Bedford Square, Bloomsbury, the home of George Prothero, President of the Royal Historical Society. The inscription was embroidered by May Morris and assistants.

A trial weaving of a similar honeysuckle border is in the V&A.

Details

Dimensions: 28 x 22.7
Object Type: photograph
Material: photograph
Catalogue number: P754
Photographer: Walker | Emery | 1851 | 1933
Credit notes: Presented by Miss Dorothy Walker, 1955

This photograph captures the dining room of Kelmscott House in Hammersmith, home of the Morris family. Dominating the space is a magnificent 17th-century Iranian ‘Vase’ carpet, dramatically draped across the wall and ceiling. The carpet was given to the V&A by Jane Morris when she left Kelmscott House in 1897. In front stands a Cypress wood chest displaying examples of Iranian metalwork, including two brass peacocks that are now at Kelmscott Manor. Above the doorway hangs a portrait of Jane Morris by Dante Gabriel Rossetti.

Details

Date: 1876
Dimensions: 94.5 x 66.2
Object Type: design
Catalogue number: BLA464
Designer: Morris, William (1834 - 1896)

This design is for a printed textile, ‘African Marigold’. The design features small marigolds, with larger stylised lilies and curling ribbons of acanthus leaves. You can see that alterations have been made and lines have been rubbed out. Morris drew, revised and finally coloured a pattern on a single sheet of paper, believing that a harmonious piece of work should be done in one attempt. The design is stencilled on reverse with title, Morris & Co. address at Merton Abbey and numbered ‘No.1’.

African Marigold was first printed as chintz by Thomas Wardle of Leek. Two samples are held in WMG: F5 (green on natural ground) and BlF256 (red on natural ground).

Details

Date: c. 1879
Dimensions: 28 x 69
Object Type: textile
Technique: hand-loom jacquard woven
Catalogue number: F409
Designer: Morris, William (1834 - 1896)
Manufacturer: Morris & Co.
Credit notes: Purchased from Haslam & Whiteway, 1998

William Morris designed Flower Garden in 1879. He described it in a letter to a Georgiana 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 1883
Dimensions: 56 x 54
Object Type: wallpaper
Technique: block-printed
Catalogue number: B52b
Designer: Morris | May | 1862 | 1938
Manufacturer: Jeffrey & Co.
Credit notes: WMG purchase, 1955

During her first three years working for Morris & Co, May Morris designed three wallpapers. ‘Honeysuckle’ was her most popular and enduring pattern and its light and uplifting design proved very successful for the firm. The design is based on a net structure of untamed woody stems, small curling leaves in two tones and honeysuckle flowers set against a plain background and was printed in four colourways. The repeat is 54cm.

Until recently questions surround who originally designed ‘Honeysuckle’, with some arguing that May’s father, William Morris was in fact the chief designer of the wallpaper. This is based on its earliest known attribution from 1890 by the writer of an article in The Woman’s World where it was credited to William Morris. However it was not unusual at this time for the designs of both May and Henry Dearle, Morris & Co.’s chief designer, to be credited to the firm’s more famous owner: the association tended to make the products more commercially viable. The first time the design is attributed to May appeared twenty years after The Womans World article in the Morris & Co. wallpaper catalogue from about 1909 and is confirmed in a letter by May.

Details

Dimensions: 95.3 x 68.5 x 78.7
Object Type: furniture
Material: turned ebonised wood
Catalogue number: G38
Designer: Webb | Philip | 1831 | 1915
Manufacturer: Morris & Co.
Owner: Morris, William (1834 - 1896)
Credit notes: Presented by Joan and Nora Larkin, 1967

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.

According to a letter in the Gallery files from the donor, Mrs Joan Larkin, (4th September, 1967) this chair (G38) originally belonged to the Morrises, and was presented to Dr Robert Steele by May Morris, daughter of William Morris. Robert Steele was May Morris’s executor, and after his death it passed to his family and finally to his grand-daughters, the Misses J and N Larkin, who presented it in 1967. A handwritten green tag, signed by Miss Larkin describes the armchair as “used by William Morris up to time of his death and for a great many years before..” and described in a letter by Joan Larken thus: “..it was a favourite armchair for W.M., he used to read over his writings and proofs therein as recalled by my grandfather,…Miss May Morris passed it on to him…” The chair was damaged in the Blitz (during the Second World War).

Originally the chair was upholstered in Morris ‘Utrecht’ velvet in green for the deep-buttoned back and seat cushions and arm pads; however it was re-upholstered in 1979-80 by the Gallery in Liberty’s reproduction Moris ‘Daffodil’ chintz in dark blue.

Details

Date: c. 1863
Dimensions: 88.9 x 50.8 x 45.7
Object Type: furniture
Material: wood and rush seat
Technique: painted wood
Catalogue number: G77
Manufacturer: Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co.
Attributed designer: Rossetti | Dante Gabriel | 1828 | 1882
Credit notes: WMG Purchase, 1994

In style and construction this armchair complements Morris & Co’s range of ‘Sussex’ chairs, also based on traditonal types, which the Firm manufactured from the mid-1860s. The earliest known illustrations of the ‘Rossetti’ chair date from mid-July 1863, where it appears in photographs taken by William Downey in the garden of Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s house, Tudor House, Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, London, of William Bell Scott, Rossetti and Ruskin. See the chair in the right corner of the room in Henry Treffry Dunn’s gouache of 1882 (National Portrait Gallery) of Rossetti reading his ‘Ballads & Poems’ to Theodore Watts-Dunton in the drawing room at Tudor House, 1882, which has red-painted decoration similar to this example. The style suggests origins in French provincial furniture but possibly Rossetti urged the firm to produce chairs in a similar style to the French example he posessed.
Made by Morris & Co. as part of its rush-seated furniture range, the chair continued to be made well into the 20th century, see the Morris & Co. catalogue c. 1911 ‘Specimens of Upholstered Furniture’ where it was priced at 16/6. The examples with additional red painted decoration, as G77, are uncommon and were probably made to special order; a few green-stained examples are also known.

Details

Date: c. 1870s
Dimensions: 85.1 x 137.2 x 41
Object Type: furniture
Material: turned, ebonised wood with rush seat
Catalogue number: G28
Manufacturer: Morris & Co.
Retailer: Morris & Co.
Credit notes: WMG purchase, 1959

Rush-seated settle in turned, ebonised wood frame. This settle is an extended version of a single chair, widely attributed to the designer Philip Webb in the early 1860s. It was manufactured by Morris, Marshall, Faulkner and Co. and continuously produced by Morris & Co. until the twentieth century. The full range included this three-seater settle as well as armchairs and armless chairs. The name ‘Sussex’ chair can be attributed to Morris’s biographer J.W. Mackail who commented that the chair was adapted from a country chair found in Sussex.

Details

Date: c.1860s
Dimensions: 86.4 x 49 x 41.3
Object Type: furniture
Material: turned, ebonised wood with rush seat
Catalogue number: G27a
Owner: Brown, Ford Madox, 1821, 1893
Manufacturer: Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co.
Retailer: Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & 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 G27b, 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.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: designed 1886, printed before 1940
Dimensions: 90.8 x 52.7
Object Type: wallpaper
Technique: block-printed
Catalogue number: B58
Designer: Morris, William (1834 - 1896)
Manufacturer: Jeffrey & Co.
Retailer: Morris & Co.
Credit notes: Presented by Mrs Edward Unwin, 1956

William Morris designed Lily and Pomegranate wallpaper in 1886, the original design is also in the Gallery’s collection, see A30. The pattern combines a central tulip plant, with adjacent lilies, pomegranate fruit and marigold flowers set against a dotted background.

This version was formerly owned by the architect Sir Raymond Unwin, who knew Morris.

Details

Date: designed 1874, reg. 22 July 1875, printed c.1880-9
Dimensions: 90.2 x 38.1
Object Type: wallpaper
Material: paper
Technique: block-printed in distemper
Catalogue number: B47
Designer: Morris, William (1834 - 1896)
Manufacturer: Jeffrey & Co.
Retailer: Morris & Co.
Credit notes: Transferred from Temple Newsam House, 1952

William Morris designed this wallpaper of scrolling acanthus leaves in 1874 and registered the design for Morris & Co. on 22 July 1875. The size of the repeat is 66cm x 53.3cm and required 30 woodblocks to complete one repeat, making it one of the firm’s more expensive wallpapers, retailing for 16s a roll. The original design is in Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery (1941P413) and the working drawing in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (CIRC.297-1955).

This fragment came from a former bedroom in Temple Newsam House, nr. Leeds, when it was being redecorated in April 1952. A larger example is in Temple Newsam’s collection (2013.0001.0168). It was probably hung by Emily Meynell Ingram in the 1880s and 90s, perhaps c.1894 when the Duke and Duchess of York stayed at Temple Newsam.

Details

Date: designed 1891, printed before 1940
Dimensions: 91.4 x 55.9
Object Type: wallpaper
Technique: block-printed
Catalogue number: B54
Manufacturer: Jeffrey & Co.
Retailer: Morris & Co.
Designer: Dearle, John Henry (1859 - 1932)
Credit notes: Presented by Mrs Edward Unwin, 1956

John Henry Dearle first designed this as a pattern for chintz in 1887. It was also available as a printed velveteen and madras muslin, using the name ‘Cherwell’. Morris & Co. started producing it as a wallpaper from 1890 onwards. The pattern combines acanthus leaves and flowers, including pinks, thistles and chrysanthemums on a dotted background.

The repeat size is 76.8 x 53.3 cm. Printed on right edge: ‘MORRIS & Co’. In pencil on right: ‘Double Bough 305 9/9’.

Details

Date: designed 1884, printed before 1940
Dimensions: 91.4 x 55.9
Object Type: wallpaper
Technique: block-printed
Catalogue number: B34b
Designer: Morris, William (1834 - 1896)
Manufacturer: Jeffrey & Co.
Credit notes: Presented by Mrs Edward Unwin, 1956

William Morris frequently used tulips in his design for fabric and wallpaper. Here the small wild tulips form a mid ground with a foreground of ribbons of larger peonies intertwining with scrolling stems. Morris’s daughter May wrote how the character of this design was ‘all “Kelmscott” to me: the peony and the wild tulip are two of the richest blossomings of the spring garden at the Manor”. Kelmscott Manor was the Morris family’s country home in Oxfordshire.

Morris registered the design for ‘Wild Tulip’ wallpaper on 21st November 1884. The repeat is 64.8 x 26.7. This example in orange is printed down the right edge ‘MORRIS & Co Ltd REGISTERED No 175’ and pencilled in the right margin: ‘Wild Tulip 162 (price) 8/6’. Number 162 is the Morris & Co. colourway number for the salmon pink version of this wallpaper, other colourways were also available.

Details

Date: 1885
Dimensions: 115 x 89
Object Type: design
Material: pencil and watercolour on paper
Catalogue number: A38
Artist: Morris, William (1834 - 1896)
Credit notes: WMG purchase, 1940

Pattern of red and white tulips on winding stems against a blue background of interweaving sprays of delicate flowers, stems and leaves on white ground. This design was drawn by Morris as a pattern for cotton and linen. A related working drawing for this design is also in the collection (BlA453) and is annotated with instructions to block cutters. The design for Medway was also reused for wallpaper called ‘Garden Tulip’. The original design for ‘Garden Tulip’ is in Birmingham City Art Gallery (Inv. no: 1941p412).

Details

Date: early 1860s
Dimensions: 185.5 x 66.3
Object Type: textile
Material: wool on linen
Technique: embroidery
Catalogue number: F390ii
Designer: Morris, William (1834 - 1896)
Credit notes: Purchased with assistance of the MGC/V&A Purchase Grant Fund and the Friends of the William Morris Gallery, 1997

This embroidered hanging was designed by William Morris and probably hung in his first home, Red House in Bexleyheath. It was most likely stitched by a small team that may have included Morris’s wife Jane and her sister Elizabeth Burden. In the early days of their marriage Morris and Jane often worked on embroideries together. They enjoyed unpicking old pieces of embroidery that they admired to learn the different stitching techniques. Morris’s enthusiasm for medieval art is clear in his early embroidery designs, such as this one. The tree, banner and bird motif was inspired by an illustration in a fifteenth-century manuscript that he had been studying in the British Museum. The French inscription, ‘Qui Bien Aime Tard Oublie’, translates as ‘who loves best forgets slowly’ and is taken from Geoffrey Chaucer’s poem ‘Parliament of Fowls’. It simple terms it means ‘one never forgets true love’.

The embroidery was one of a set of identical hangings installed at Penkill Castle in Ayrshire, Scotland by the late 1860s. The castle belonged to Alice Boyd, mistress of the painter William Bell Scott, who was closely connected to Dante Gabriel Rossetti and the Pre-Raphaelite circle. In a letter to Boyd in 1868, Rossetti referrers to the embroideries as “the Topsaic tapestries” a reference to Morris’s nickname ‘Topsy’. The hangings were likely an early product produced by Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co after it was founded in 1861. A very similar pattern can be seen on the hanging in the background of William Morris’s only easel painting, ‘La Belle Iseult’, painted in 1858.

Details

Date: 1857
Dimensions: 116.8 cm
Object Type: metalwork
Material: iron
Catalogue number: H1a
Designer: Morris, William (1834 - 1896)
Owner: Morris, William (1834 - 1896)
Credit notes: Presented by J. W. Mackail, 1926.

This sword was designed by William Morris as a model for the mural paintings in the Oxford Union in 1857. It was made for Morris along with a helmet and suit of chainmail by a blacksmith near Oxford Castle. Edward Burne-Jones described the episode at Oxford that led to Morris commissioning the props in John William Mackail’s ‘Life of William Morris’: ‘For the purposes of our drawing we often needed armour, and of a date and design so remote that no examples existed for our use. Therefore Morris, whose knowledge of all these things seemed to have been born in him, and who never at any time needed books of reference for anything, set to work to make designs for an ancient kind of helmet called a basinet, and for a great surcoat of ringed mail with a hood of mail and the skirt coming below the knees. These were made for him by a stout little smith who had a forge near the Castle. Morris’s visits to the forge were daily, but what scenes happened there we shall never know’

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, Morris 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: 1892
Object Type: book
Catalogue number: K16
Author: Ruskin, John, 1819, 1900
Publisher: Kelmscott Press | 1891 | 1898
Designer: William Morris Gallery

This text changed Morris’s life. He described it as ‘one of the very few necessary and inevitable utterances of the century’. Its author, John Ruskin, compares Victorian art unfavourably with medieval art. He argues that industrialisation
has stifled creativity and damaged both art and society. This version was published by Morris’s Kelmscott Press and includes a preface by Morris. It is set Golden type, a font designed by Morris, and is printed on paper with still vellum binding with ties. The woodcut initials and ornament are also by Morris.

Details

Date: 1857
Dimensions: 45 x 16 x 25
Object Type: metalwork
Catalogue number: H1
Designer: Morris, William (1834 - 1896)
Owner: Morris, William (1834 - 1896)
Credit notes: Presented by J. W. Mackail, 1927

This helmet was designed by William Morris as a model for the mural paintings in the Oxford Union in 1857. It is a type of ‘bascinet’ with a visor based on historic helmets that were common in the fourteenth century. The helmet was made for Morris along with a sword and suit of chainmail by a blacksmith near Oxford Castle. It features an adjustable visor and red-painted neckpiece supporting chain mail gorget.

Edward Burne-Jones described the episode at Oxford that led to Morris commissioning the props in John William Mackail’s ‘Life of William Morris’: ‘For the purposes of our drawing we often needed armour, and of a date and design so remote that no examples existed for our use. Therefore Morris, whose knowledge of all these things seemed to have been born in him, and who never at any time needed books of reference for anything, set to work to make designs for an ancient kind of helmet called a basinet, and for a great surcoat of ringed mail with a hood of mail and the skirt coming below the knees. These were made for him by a stout little smith who had a forge near the Castle. Morris’s visits to the forge were daily, but what scenes happened there we shall never know ; the encounters between these two workmen were always stubborn and angry as far as I could see. One afternoon when I was working high up at my picture, I heard a strange bellowing in the building, and turning round to find the cause, saw an unwonted sight. The basinet was being tried on, but the visor, for some reason, would not lift, and I saw Morris embedded in iron, dancing with rage and roaring inside.’

Details

Date: c.1856
Dimensions: 62.9 x 74.9 x 51.5
Object Type: furniture
Technique: painted wood
Catalogue number: H26
Attributed artist: Morris, William (1834 - 1896)
Attributed designer: Morris, William (1834 - 1896)
Credit notes: Presented by Dr C. E. Newman, CBE, FRCP, 1965

This rudimentary chair was designed by William Morris either for his lodgings in Red Lion Square, which he shared with Edward Burne-Jones in the late 1850s, or for Red House at Bexleyheath in the early 1860s. It features stylised birds and flowers in oil paints. The shape of the chair is thought to have inspired the similar chairs depicted by Burne-Jones in the first of his ‘Holy Grail’ tapestries, ‘The Summons’ which he designed for Morris & Co. for the dining room of Stanmore Hall in 1890.

The fictional chairs in Burne-Jones’s tapestry in turn inspired the real ones created by M. H. Baillie Scott in 1898 for Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig of Hesse’s New Palace at Darmstadt. From these ‘barrel chairs’ can be traced a numerous progeny of similar furniture by European and American designers of the 1900s. Morris’s chair was deliberately simple and could have been easily put together by a joiner rather than a specialist furniture maker.

Details

Date: 1866
Dimensions: 47.5 x 79.5
Object Type: watercolour
Material: watercolour on paper
Catalogue number: BrW65
Artist: Burne-Jones | Edward Coley | Sir | 1833 | 1898
Credit notes: Brangwyn gift, 1941

The picture is Burne-Jones’s most considered essay in the prevailing classical style of the later 1860s. The mood of restrained sadness, the chalky colours (characteristic of other paintings of 1866), the simple outlines and low relief of the figures all point to this conclusion. The design owes much to Burne-Jones’s study of the Parthenon frieze in the British Museum, and in fact a drawing at Birmingham for the figure on the right (207’04) showing the figure sitting upright, is very close to the figure of Ares in the group of seated deities (Parthenon frieze, slab IV, fig.27) which he copied about 1864 in a sketch book in the Victoria and Albert Museum. (E.3-1955). The Lament though dated 1866 was largely painted in 1865. There are numerous studies for The Lament and a later oil version was sold at Christie’s (4 July 1967 lot 57) which has a different background.

Details

Date: c.1870
Dimensions: 63 x 45
Object Type: oil
Material: oil on canvas
Catalogue number: O127
Artist: Murray, Charles Fairfax, 1849, 1919
Credit notes: Presented by Mrs Stephanie Godwin, 1993

This portrait of William Morris, painted when he was about 36 years old, was owned by his mother, Emma. It shows a typical Victorian gentleman, sombrely dressed, regarding the viewer with thoughtful eyes. Morris had a complicated relationship with his family, whose financial interests and social conservatism were in direct opposition to his own Socialist beliefs. Emma was bitterly upset when William decided against becoming a clergyman in order to follow a career in the arts. He was aware of her feelings of disappointment, writing to her that his four brothers “shall keep up the family honour in the World and perhaps even I myself shall not utterly disgrace it”. This portrait suggests that Emma was ultimately proud of her eldest surviving son, though preferred to think of him as an educated gentleman rather than a radical artist.

Fairfax Murray was taken up by the art critic John Ruskin and age 16 was installed as Edward Burne-Jone’s first studio assistant in 1867. He quickly became acquainted with Pre-Raphaelite founder Dante Gabriel Rossetti and the friend of William Morris and Philip Webb. He was given work as artist and glass-painter for Morris, Marshall, Faulkner and Co., working to Burne Jones’s designs and also illuminated Morris’s manuscripts. A watercolur of Morris by Fairfax Murray from the same time is in the National Portrait Gallery’s collection (3652).

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