Tapestry Comb

Details

Dimensions: 51 x 13.5
Object Type: textile
Technique: hand-loom jacquard woven
Catalogue number: F385
Designer: Morris, William, 1834, 1896
Manufacturer: Morris & Co.
Credit notes: Presented by Mrs Harriet Hardiment, 1997

William Morris designed Flower Garden in 1879. He described it in a letter to Georgian 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: 1896
Dimensions: 9.3 x 15.4
Object Type: photograph
Material: platinum print
Catalogue number: PhJ901ii
Photographer: Evans, Frederick H. (26.06.1853 - 24.06.1943)
Credit notes: Gift of Mary Sloane, 1962

Details

Date: 1896
Dimensions: 18 x 15
Object Type: photograph
Material: platinum print
Catalogue number: PhJ901xxxi
Photographer: Evans, Frederick H. (26.06.1853 - 24.06.1943)
Credit notes: Gift of Mary Sloane, 1962

William Morris and Frederick Henry Evans had shared interests in typography, literature and architecture. Evans was a talented photographer and had supplied Morris with lantern slides for his lectures on architecture. In 1896 Morris invited Evans to photograph Kelmscott Manor, his country home in Oxfordshire. Morris and his wife Jane shared the house with the Pre-Raphaelite painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti from 1871 to 1874, and it remained a country retreat for Morris and the artists and intellectuals in his circle until his death in 1896.
Evans was a skilled architectural photographer, in this series he captures the unspoiled craftsmanship and organic feel that first attracted Morris to Kelmscott. After Morris’s death he assembled a number of these images in a memorial portfolio.
This view (from the north) shows the lane leading up to the main garden entrance of the house from the village. The building on the right is one of the barns to the south of the house. The pollarded trees in the distance and the cattle fence (on the left) are on the land farmed by the Hobbs family, Morris’s landlords.

Details

Date: 1896
Dimensions: 15 x 22
Object Type: photograph
Material: platinum print
Catalogue number: PhJ901xiii
Photographer: Evans, Frederick H. (26.06.1853 - 24.06.1943)
Credit notes: Gift of Mary Sloane, 1962

William Morris and Frederick Henry Evans had shared interests in typography, literature and architecture. Evans was a talented photographer and had supplied Morris with lantern slides for his lectures on architecture. In 1896 Morris invited Evans to photograph Kelmscott Manor, his country home in Oxfordshire. Morris and his wife Jane shared the house with the Pre-Raphaelite painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti from 1871 to 1874, and it remained a country retreat for Morris and the artists and intellectuals in his circle until his death in 1896.
Evans was a skilled architectural photographer, in this series he captures the unspoiled craftsmanship and organic feel that first attracted Morris to Kelmscott. After Morris’s death he assembled a number of these images in a memorial portfolio.
This photograph shows the Green Room on the ground floor of the north west angle of the house. Above the seventeenth century carved fireplace is a section of wooden panelling (since removed) designed by Philip Webb, who also supervised the installation of the Morris & Co. painted tiling. The walls are hung with Kennet pattern chintz, designed by Morris in 1883. On the right is a Morris & Co. Sussex rush seated chair.

Details

Date: 1897
Dimensions: 15 x 20
Object Type: photograph
Material: platinum print
Catalogue number: PhJ901xiv
Photographer: Evans, Frederick H. (26.06.1853 - 24.06.1943)
Credit notes: Gift of Mary Sloane, 1962

Details

Date: 1896
Dimensions: 6.9 x 15.6
Object Type: photograph
Material: platinum print
Catalogue number: NN
Photographer: Evans, Frederick H. (26.06.1853 - 24.06.1943)

William Morris first invited the bookseller and photographer Frederick H. Evans to Kelmscott Manor, his country home in Oxfordshire in 1896. Morris and his wife Jane shared the house with the Pre-Raphaelite painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti from 1871 to 1874, and it remained a country retreat for Morris and the artists and intellectuals in his circle until his death in 1896. That year Evans photographed the Manor, producing a series of platinum prints.
Evans was a skilled architectural photographer, in this series he captures the unspoiled craftsmanship and organic feel that first attracted Morris to Kelmscott.

Details

Date: 1896
Dimensions: 15.3 x 19.6
Object Type: photograph
Material: platinum print
Catalogue number: PhJ901xxx
Photographer: Evans, Frederick H. (26.06.1853 - 24.06.1943)
Credit notes: Gift of Mary Sloane, 1962

Details

Date: 1896
Dimensions: 15.3 x 19.6
Object Type: photograph
Material: platinum print
Catalogue number: PhJ901xxix
Photographer: Evans, Frederick H. (26.06.1853 - 24.06.1943)
Credit notes: Gift of Mary Sloane, 1962

Details

Date: 1896
Dimensions: 18.8 x 14.6
Object Type: photograph
Material: platinum print
Catalogue number: PhJ901xxxiv
Photographer: Evans, Frederick H. (26.06.1853 - 24.06.1943)
Credit notes: Gift of Mary Sloane, 1962

Details

Date: 1896
Dimensions: 15 x 20
Object Type: photograph
Material: platinum print
Catalogue number: PhJ901xx
Photographer: Evans, Frederick H. (26.06.1853 - 24.06.1943)
Credit notes: Gift of Mary Sloane, 1962

William Morris and Frederick Henry Evans had shared interests in typography, literature and architecture. Evans was a talented photographer and had supplied Morris with lantern slides for his lectures on architecture. In 1896 Morris invited Evans to photograph Kelmscott Manor, his country home in Oxfordshire. Morris and his wife Jane shared the house with the Pre-Raphaelite painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti from 1871 to 1874, and it remained a country retreat for Morris and the artists and intellectuals in his circle until his death in 1896.
Evans was a skilled architectural photographer, in this series he captures the unspoiled craftsmanship and organic feel that first attracted Morris to Kelmscott. After Morris’s death he assembled a number of these images in a memorial portfolio.
The authenticity of Kelmscott is particularly evident in the photographs of Kelmscott’s empty loft with its light filled rooms, whitewashed walls and rough timber beams.

Details

Date: 1896
Dimensions: 19.4 x 14.8
Object Type: photograph
Material: platinum print
Catalogue number: PhJ901xxi
Photographer: Evans, Frederick H. (26.06.1853 - 24.06.1943)
Credit notes: Gift of Mary Sloane, 1962

William Morris and Frederick Henry Evans had shared interests in typography, literature and architecture. Evans was a talented photographer and had supplied Morris with lantern slides for his lectures on architecture. In 1896 Morris invited Evans to photograph Kelmscott Manor, his country home in Oxfordshire. Morris and his wife Jane shared the house with the Pre-Raphaelite painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti from 1871 to 1874, and it remained a country retreat for Morris and the artists and intellectuals in his circle until his death in 1896.
Evans was a skilled architectural photographer, in this series he captures the unspoiled craftsmanship and organic feel that first attracted Morris to Kelmscott. After Morris’s death he assembled a number of these images in a memorial portfolio.
The authenticity of Kelmscott is particularly evident in the photographs of Kelmscott’s empty loft with its light filled rooms, whitewashed walls and rough timber beams.

Details

Date: designed c.1875, manufactured c.1920s
Dimensions: 85.1 x 22.6
Object Type: textile
Material: woven wool
Technique: machine-woven
Catalogue number: N13b
Designer: Morris, William, 1834, 1896
Retailer: Morris & Co. Art-Workers Ltd., 17 George Street, Hanover Square, London
Manufacturer: Wilton Royal Carpet Factory Ltd
Credit notes: WMG purchase, 1964

‘Lily’ was William Morris’s first design for a wool pile carpet. It was machine woven on a jaquard loom for Morris & Co. by Yates & Co. in Wilton, and from 1905 its successor, Wilton Royal Carpet Company. The repeating pattern is formed of stylized lily plants intertwined with scrolling flowers on a dark blue background. Although the design wasn’t registered with the Patent Office it was in production in 1877, along with a number of other designs, when Morris advised the Countess of Tullamore in Ireland on the decoration of her house. Wilton carpets were the most popular type of machine woven carpets made by Morris & Co., and of the 24 different designs available ‘Lily’ was a best seller.

This fragment, along with four others were removed from a larger piece (see N13) to make it a regular size when it was first acquired by the Gallery in 1964.

Details

Date: designed c.1875, manufactured c.1920s
Dimensions: 79.4 x 22.2
Object Type: textile
Material: woollen pile on cotton warp
Catalogue number: N13d
Designer: Morris, William, 1834, 1896
Retailer: Morris & Co. Art-Workers Ltd., 17 George Street, Hanover Square, London
Manufacturer: Wilton Royal Carpet Factory Ltd
Credit notes: WMG purchase, 1964

This fragment, along with four others were removed from a larger piece (see N13) to make it a regular size when it was first acquired by the Gallery in 1964.

Details

Date: designed c.1875, manufactured c.1920s
Dimensions: 101.6 x 16.5
Object Type: textile
Material: woollen pile on cotton warp
Technique: power-loom jacquard woven
Catalogue number: N13c
Designer: Morris, William, 1834, 1896
Retailer: Morris & Co. Art-Workers Ltd., 17 George Street, Hanover Square, London
Manufacturer: Wilton Royal Carpet Factory Ltd
Credit notes: WMG purchase, 1964

This fragment, along with four others were removed from a larger piece (see N13) to make it a regular size when it was first acquired by the Gallery in 1964.

Details

Date: designed c.1875, manufactured c.1920s
Dimensions: 29.8 x 15.5
Object Type: textile
Technique: power-loom jacquard woven
Catalogue number: N13a
Designer: Morris, William, 1834, 1896
Retailer: Morris & Co. Art-Workers Ltd., 17 George Street, Hanover Square, London
Manufacturer: Wilton Royal Carpet Factory Ltd
Credit notes: WMG purchase, 1964

This fragment, along with four others were removed from a larger piece (see N13) to make it a regular size when it was first acquired by the Gallery in 1964.

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.
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: c.1880s
Dimensions: 185.4 x 94 including fringe
Object Type: textile
Material: woollen pile on cotton warp
Technique: hand-knotted
Catalogue number: N10
Designer: Morris, William, 1834, 1896
Credit notes: Presented by Miss M.L. Wooldridge, 1955

This small ‘Hammersmith rug’ was designed by William Morris. The border of peonies and pastel colouring shows the influence of Chinese design. This rug was given to the Gallery by Martha Wooldridge, (1863-1958) a classical dancer who purchased it around 1898 for her home, the Arts & Crafts House called ‘Wavertree’ in St Margarets, Twickenham, with whom she shared with the radical preacher Stewart Headlam (Headlam is perhaps most famous for putting up half of Oscar Wilde’s bail when he was tried for ‘gross indecency’ in 1885).

A similar example was given by Morris to Maragret Mackail (nee Burne-Jones) on the occassion of her wedding in 1888, this is now in the Victoria and Albert Museum (T.104-1953). Another small rug to the same design was lent by Mrs. Lucius Gubbins to the Victoria & Albert Museum William Morris centenary exhibition in 1934 (94). It is reproduced in Gerald H. Crow’s “William Morris – Designer” published by ‘The Studio’ 1934 p. 81.

The same design was later woven at Wilton (their no. 6213).

Details

Date: c.1932
Dimensions: 17 x 24
Object Type: textile
Material: wool on canvas
Technique: hand-embroidered
Catalogue number: F338
Designer and maker: Morris | May | 1862 | 1938
Credit notes: Purchased 1986

Small bag worked by May Morris in wool in tapestry stitch on canvas in very dark green, the front with the letter ‘M’ worked in brown within a roundel frame, the reverse with broad bottom border band of horizontal stylised leaves and flowers and central decorative motif, narrow decorative borders all round edges on both front and back, and a patterned handle in cream, dull brown, maroon and dull pink wools; interior lining in dark brown silk.

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