Floral silk brocade

Details

Date: c. 1895-96
Dimensions: 109 x 60.5 x 30
Object Type: furniture
Catalogue number: G79
Designer and maker: Morris & Co.
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: c.1830
Object Type: watercolour
Catalogue number: BrE7
Artist: Gakutei, Yashima (c.1786 - c.1868)
Credit notes: Brangwyn gift, 1940

The Yoshiwara quarter in Edo (now Tokyo) was a famous area licensed for prostitution, popular amongst wealthy clients. The quarter formed its own social hierarchy in which courtesans were distinguished from ordinary prostitutes. This painting shows off the elaborate dress and hairstyle worn by courtesans. A richly patterned sash is worn over the kimono, tied at the front to confirm her high status. Yashima Gakutei was a Japanese artist and poet who was a pupil of both Totoya Hokkei and Hokusai. In the late 19^th century, a craze for Japanese art and design swept Europe and had a profound impact on the artistic movements of the day. The famous colour woodblock prints, which so inspired Van Gogh, Whistler and Rossetti when they first appeared in the 1850s, and were widely available in London’s shops when Frank Brangwyn acquired this work.

Details

Date: c.1913
Object Type: drawing
Catalogue number: D298
Artist: Crane, Walter, 1845, 1915
Credit notes: WMG purchase, 1971

This illustration by Walter Crane appeared in the book ‘Pages for Young Socialists’, 1913 by F.J. Gould. It accompanied the first chapter of the book, entitled ‘The Beating Heart’, which describes a scene in a book by Sir Frederick Travers, where the author watched a procession of poorly paid men carrying wood up a narrow path in Simla, India: “The men wanted a few pence to buy food for themselves and their families. From sunrise to sunset they walked, one by one, fifty in a line; hour by hour as beasts might plod and tramp; hour after hour, hoping the day might end and the light of the stars bring rest.” The term ‘coolie’ was used by the British to describe indentured labourers, usually from South Asia, South East Asia or China. It is now regarded as a pejorative term. Gould goes on to argue that work is a human right, and should be enjoyable, useful and workers should receive just pay.

Details

Object Type: drawing
Material: pencil on paper
Catalogue number: D432
Artist: Cockerell, Olive (1869 - 1910)
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.

Olive provided illustrations for stories by Anna Marie Diana Wilhelmina Pickering, sister of Evelyn Pickering de Morgan, including her popular Queen of the Goblins published in 1892. She also illustrated The Windfairies by Mary de Morgan, sister of William de Morgan, which was published in 1900. Mary de Morgan’s previous books of fairy stories had been illustrated by William de Morgan and Walter Crane.

Olive developed an interest in fairy stories from a young age. Her godmother, the social reformer Octavia Hill, send her a brooch in 1876 writing: ‘It is a funny little old-fashioned brooch, but I thought it was very pretty; and I liked it, because it looked as if it had a history. I thought you might like it for this reason too. But I am afraid it will not begin to speak to you, like those delightful things in Andersen’s stories.’

Details

Date: c.1871
Object Type: archival
Material: pen on paper
Technique: hand-written
Catalogue number: J2419
Author: Morris | May | 1862 | 1938
Recipient: Morris (née Burden) | Jane | 1839 | 1914
Credit notes: Presented by C.E. Robins, 2007

This letter was written by May Morris to her mother Jane, around 1871. It describes her and her sister Jenny’s visit to stay with their grandmother Emma Morris and their aunt, possibly at Leyton House where Emma lived until July 1871, afterwhich she moved to The Lordship, Much Hadham. In the letter May mentions flowers in Epping Forest, suggesting the letter was written at Leyton as the Forest is nearer to Epping Forest than Much Hadham.

Details

Date: 5 July 1870
Object Type: archival
Material: pen on paper
Technique: hand-written
Catalogue number: J2418
Author: Morris | May | 1862 | 1938
Recipient: Morris (née Burden) | Jane | 1839 | 1914
Credit notes: Presented by C.E. Robins, 2007

This letter was written by May Morris to her mother Jane in 1870 when she was eight years old. It describes her and her sister Jenny’s first visit to Naworth Castle in July 1870. Naworth was the Cumbrian home of George and Rosalind Howard, good friends of the Morris family. During the trip, George Howard sketched May and her older sister Jenny for an oil portrait (now in the collection of Society of Antiquaries, Kelmscott Manor). May also wrote an account of her trip to Naworth, also in the William Morris Gallery’s collection (J2416).

Details

Date: June 1870
Object Type: archival
Material: pen on paper
Technique: hand-written
Catalogue number: J2417
Author: Morris | May | 1862 | 1938
Recipient: Morris (née Burden) | Jane | 1839 | 1914
Credit notes: Presented by C.E. Robins, 2007

This letter was written by May Morris to her mother Jane around 30 June 1870 when she was eight years old. It describes her and her sister Jenny’s first visit to Naworth Castle in June-July 1870. Naworth was the Cumbrian home of George and Rosalind Howard, good friends of the Morris family. During the trip, George Howard sketched May and her older sister Jenny for an oil portrait (now in the collection of Society of Antiquaries, Kelmscott Manor). May also wrote an account of her trip to Naworth, also in the William Morris Gallery’s collection (J2416).

Details

Date: December 1870
Dimensions: 16.4 x 11.2
Object Type: archival
Material: pen on paper
Catalogue number: J2416
Author: Morris | May | 1862 | 1938
Credit notes: Presented by C.E. Robins, 2007

This diary was written by May Morris in December 1870 when she was eight years old. It describes her and her sister Jenny’s first visit to Naworth Castle from 27^th June 1870. Naworth was the Cumbrian home of the Howard family, good friends of the Morris family. In the the first couple of pages May provides a description of her character and appearance:

“Having spent the greater past of last summer amongst the beautiful hills of Cumberland with my sister Jane, I write this short account of our doings for the benefit of our Mamma and in case this little story should fall into the hands of someone that does not know me I shall now present a description of myself. I am a great tomboy but I was not such a great one there because I was afraid of setting the little children we were staying with a bad example. I shall be nine next twenty fifth of March. I am very untidy and always very dirty and sometimes I am ashamed to say very naughty. I have got light curly hair cut on my forehead. My eyes are blue. I am neither fat nor very thin. Now I have described myself I will have my readers judge whether I am pretty or ugly. If I write a long preface I shall have nothing to say in my book. Mary Morris”

The proceeding pages describe May’s explorations of the local countryside and the events that occured during her holiday. Jane Morris refers to this journal in a letter to George Howard 19th December 1870: ‘May, I believe is writing a Journal of all their proceedings at Naworth’. (Howard Collection)

Details

Date: 1900-1910
Dimensions: 16.4 x 10.6
Object Type: photograph
Material: photograph
Catalogue number: P808
Sitter: King (neé Morris), Sarah Emma (1828 - 23.08.1921)
Credit notes: Presented by C.E. Robins, 2007

Sarah Emma King (neé Morris) was first cousin of William Morris. Her father was John Morris, brother to William Morris Snr (William Morris’s father).

Details

Date: c.1870-1880
Object Type: photograph
Material: photograph
Catalogue number: P806
Photographer: Robert Faulkner & Co.
Sitter: Howard (née Stanley), Rosalind Frances, Countess of Carlisle (1845 - 1921)
Credit notes: Presented by C.E. Robins, 2007

Rosalind Frances Howard, Countess of Carlisle and her husband George were good friends of the Morris family. The two families went on holidays together in Italy and the Morrises frequently stayed with them at their home Naworth Castle in Cumberland. Rosalind was called ‘The Radical Countess’ due to her campaigning for women’s political rights and of temperance reform. Besides having eleven children, she helped managed the family estates, and was an active member of local government. In 1890 she became a member of the Women’s Liberal Federation and persuaded the organisation to support extending the suffrage to all women.

Details

Date: c. 1930s
Dimensions: 16.4 x 12.2
Object Type: photograph
Material: photograph
Catalogue number: P845
Sitter: Mackmurdo | Arthur Heygate | 1851 | 1942

The artist Arthur Heygate mackmurdo photographed seated in a garden, wearing an artist’s smock. 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

Date: c. 1899-1902
Object Type: archival
Material: pen on paper
Technique: hand-written
Catalogue number: J561iv
Artist: Morris | May | 1862 | 1938
Credit notes: Transferred from the Victoria and Albert Museum, whom presented by Dr. Robert Steele

This lecture note dates from May Morris’s time teaching embroidery at Birmingham Municipal School of Art and the Central School of Arts and Crafts in London. The notes and sketches set out her plans for practical lessons, covering design, technique and materials.

Details

Date: c. 1899-1902
Object Type: archival
Material: pen on paper
Technique: hand-written
Catalogue number: J561xiii
Artist: Morris | May | 1862 | 1938
Credit notes: Transferred from the Victoria and Albert Museum, whom presented by Dr. Robert Steele

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