Carvingplate from Royal Doulton Dinner Service

Details

Date: designed c.1882-83, printed 1962
Object Type: wallpaper
Technique: machine printed
Catalogue number: B88a
Designer: Morris, William, 1834, 1896
Manufacturer: Arthur Sanderson and Sons Ltd
Credit notes: Presented by Arthur Sanderson & Sons Ltd, 1962

William Morris designed this wallpaper between 1882-1883. The small square repeat of flowering bramble branches against a dotted background is just 26.7 x 27.7cm. The title could be a reference to the town of Christchurch, Hampshire. In 1882, Morris was staying nearby in Bournemouth and wrote in a letter objecting to plans to renovate Priory Church in Christchurch (see Norman Kelvin’s The Collected Letters of William Morris, Volume II, Part A: 1881-1884, p.139).

This version was machine printed in 1962 by the firm Arthur Sanderson & Sons Ltd., who acquired the original wallpaper printing woodblocks from Morris & Co. when they closed in 1940. It is printed down the right edge: ‘MADE IN ENGLAND / TRIM JOIN / MORRIS & Co’ and stamped on the reverse with the Sanderson colourway number ‘AS&S 90327’.

Details

Date: May 1903
Dimensions: 186 x 112
Object Type: design
Material: pencil and ink
Catalogue number: A1202
Designer: Jack, George Washington Henry (1855 - 1931)
Credit notes: Gift of John Brandon-Jones, 2003

This lectern was designed for Eglwys Cwymmin- Ancient Church of St. Margaret in Carmarthenshire in south-west Wales. The design which was intended to be carved in oak depicts a figure of St Margaret. A letter written to Jack from Philip Webb on 29 June 1903 (see The Letters of Philip Webb, Volume 4) explains how the design was not suited to the simplicity of the building, and was therefore rejected. Webb wrote “your good design- good in itself- is, I think, not likely to look as well in the church as it does in your sketch, and I’m sure would disappoint you ever saw the made thing in the building. Webb was working on the restoration of the church.

Details

Date: 1890
Object Type: glass
Material: stained, painted, leaded glass
Catalogue number: C196.2
Manufacturer: Morris & Co.
Designer: Burne-Jones | Edward Coley | Sir | 1833 | 1898
Credit notes: WMG purchase, 1990

The panel was formerly in the lancet window on the north side of the sanctuary in Holy Trinity Church, Habergham Eaves, Burnley, Lancashire (now redundant). The design for the window by Burne-Jones (BJ 143), present whereabouts unknown, was first used in the west window of the Cathedral, Calcutta (1873-75) and subsequently at: Aldenham, Herts 1895; Ashton-under-Lyne 1896; Bensted (?) 1878: Blackburn Cathedral 1889; Brompton, Cumbria 1878; Broughty Ferry, 1884; Cheadle (Royal) 1909; Chelsea 1894/5; Cromer 1894, Cullompton 1930; Dundee (St.Mary) 1893; Glasgow (Woodlands) 1902; Heywood 1898; Hillingdon (as Godliness) 1926; Knotty Ash 1890; Leek (All Saints) 1923; Leigh 1890; Liverpool (Ullet Road) 1901; Meole Brace 1894; Montreal (Crescent Street) 1901; Neston 1894; Oxford ( Manchester College, as Faith) 1897; Putney, All Saints 1884; Whitfield 1930, Wilden 1907, Wirksworth 1909. The design for the quarry roundels belongs to the WMG (BLA 441) The window was purchased as a pair with the “Dorcas” panel, designed by Ford Madox Brown and distributed by Morris & Co.

Details

Date: c. 1879
Dimensions: 15 x 14
Object Type: drawing
Material: pencil on paper
Catalogue number: D167iv
Artist: Mackmurdo | Arthur Heygate | 1851 | 1942
Credit notes: A.H. Mackmurdo Bequest 1942

In 1874 Artur Heygate Mackmurdo ‘travelled to Italy with Ruskin’, some writers have interpreted this as him being guided by Ruskin’s writings but it is more likely he was an assistant to Ruskin during an extended trip to the area. Mackmurdo stayed in Italy for two winters and a summer between, most likely from 1874 to 1876. It may have been during this time that he ventured across to Switzerland to sketch the Lucerne woodbarn depicted here.

On Ruskin’s research trips his assistants would have been assigned particular buildings or artworks to record for Ruskin’s publications and lectures. Mackmurdo would have therefore been instructed in illustrated buildings and likely utilised those skills to execute this study.

Details

Date: 1960s
Object Type: textile
Material: cotton
Technique: block-printed
Catalogue number: F271d
Designer: Morris, William, 1834, 1896
Credit notes: Miss Frances J Lefroy bequest, 1965

Powdered was designed by William Morris as a wallaper in 1874. It was later adapted as a fabric c.1902. It takes it name from the relatively informal arrangement of meadow flower sprigs- unconnected by a linking devices- over the surface of the paper. Among the six flowers featured, rose, speedwell, pansy and cornflower have been identified.

Powdered is one of several mid-1870s designs featuring willow foliage, a favourite motif which Morris drew with endless inventiveness.

Details

Date: 1874-1876
Dimensions: 86.3 x 628.7
Object Type: textile
Material: wool on linen
Technique: hand-embroidered
Catalogue number: F140c
Designer: Burne-Jones | Edward Coley | Sir | 1833 | 1898
Designer: Morris, William, 1834, 1896
Maker: Johnson, Florence
Maker: Bell, Margaret (1820 - 1886)
Credit notes: Presented by Sir Hugh Bell, Bart., 1953

This embroidery was part of a frieze of five parts commissioned by Sir Isaac Lowthian Bell and his wife Margaret for the dining room of Rounton Grange, Northallerton, Yorkshire. The panels depict the story of The Romaunt of the Rose by Geoffrey Chaucer and were based on original pictures drawn by Edward Burne-Jones c.1874-76 (see D187). The exquisite embroidery was executed by the wife and daughter of Sir Isaac Lowthian Bell, Margaret Bell and Florence Johnson, respectively.

Details

Date: c. 1886
Dimensions: 201 x 259 x 86.4
Object Type: furniture
Material: satinwood, mahogany, brass and oil
Technique: repousse
Catalogue number: G14.5
Designer: Mackmurdo | Arthur Heygate | 1851 | 1942
Artist: Horne, Herbert Percy, 1864, 1916
Retailer: Century Guild
Manufacturer: Goodall & Co, King Street, Manchester
Credit notes: Mackmurdo bequest, 1942

It is possible that this cabinet was intended for Pownall Hall, but for for some reason not used there and remained in Mackmurdo’s possession. The cabinet is one of the Century Guild’s most ambitious pieces of furniture and was part of its display at the Manchester Royal Jubilee Exhibition in 1887. It was reviewed in ‘The Journal of Decorative Art (November, 1887) where ‘the simplicity and largeness of design’ was praised.

It is made of satinwood and carved mahogany with brass fittings and painted with vine tendrils, leaves and bunches of grapes. The inscription on cupboard doors is from Shelley’s ‘Prometheus Unbound’ : ‘nor heed nor see/what things they be/ but of these create he can/ forms more real than living man’. The upper section having a flat projecting cornice , supported at either end by single free-standing square pilaster with decorative carved capital, and three recessed cupboards – the two outer ones with hinged double doors, the centre one with a single door. The cupboard doors are fitted with brass keyhole plates with decorative repousse work. The interior of the cupboards lined with mahogany and furnished with mahogany shelves (detachable). The lower section contains a large central drawer, with two handles of similar repousse work, flanked at either side by a smaller cupboard, each with similar keyhole plates and tear-drop handles, the bottom coved and resting on a deep step base.

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