African Marigold printed cotton

Details

Date: designed 1876
Dimensions: 78.7 x 31.7
Object Type: textile
Material: cotton
Technique: block-printed
Catalogue number: BlF256
Designer: Morris, William, 1834, 1896
Retailer: Morris & Co.
Manufacturer: Wardle and Co. (1872 - 1908)

William Morris designed ‘African Marigold’ in 1876, the design was registered 7th October 1876 but probably not produced until a few years later. The pattern features small orange marigolds, with larger stylised lilies and curling ribbons of acanthus leaves. The original design is in the gallery’s collection (see BlA464) as well as 23 original printing blocks. Morris worked with the master-dyer Thomas Wardle in Leek, Staffordshire when first manufacturing this design on silk in 1880-81. However a letter from Morris to Wardle on 8 February 1881 shows that Morris was not pleased with the Wardle’s attempts:

‘I am sorry to say that the last goods African marigold and red marigold sent are worse instead of better: they are infact unsaleable; I should consider myself disgraced by offering them for sale: I laboured hard on making good designs for these and on getting the colour good; they are now so printed & coloured that they are no better han caricatures of my careful work.’

Although Wardle and Morris’s relationship started out well, by the early 1880s Morris’s exacting standards took on a strain on the working relationship. Later in 1881, Morris took over the dying and block-printing process of his fabrics at his own factory, Merton Abbey.

Details

Date: c.1890-1920
Dimensions: 86 x 56 x 35.6
Object Type: textile
Catalogue number: H31
Owner: Morris, May
Credit notes: WMG purchase, 1993

The loom is a high-warp tapestry loom, the frame in oak with metalwork fitments, threaded with a cotton warp and partially completed tapestry based on a Morris-inspired border pattern. The loom is probably identical with the loom referred to in the 1939 Kelmscott Manor sale catalogue as ‘oak weaving loom with unfinished tapestry of ‘The River Thames’ worked by Miss Morris and a box of various wools etc’. The bobbins threaded with coloured wools, samples of various coloured wools wound round old envelopes addressed to May Morris, and two warp combs were also purchased with the loom and are in the Gallery’s collection.
The unfinished tapestry referred to in the Kelmscott Manor sale catalogue was apparently cut off the loom by the vendor’s mother, who used the loom for her own tapestry showing an abstract pattern. It is now threaded with a warp and a partially completed tapestry based on the Morris-inspired border design on the cover of one of the Morris & Co catalogues c.1911, worked by the Handweavers Studio, 29 Haroldstone Road, Walthamstow, 1993.

Details

Date: c.1911
Object Type: archival
Catalogue number: J2165
Publisher: Morris & Co. Decorators Ltd, 449 Oxford Street, London
Credit notes: Gift of Kathleen Wells, 1957

Whilst the Coronation throne, known historically as St Edward’s throne is an ancient wooden chair used by British monarchs for centuries, other thrones are used during the ceremony and often made new for each monarch. The coronation of George V and his wife, Mary as king and queen of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and empress and emperor of India, took place at Westminster Abbey, London, on Thursday 22 June 1911. The king and queen’s enthronation throne (used following the crowning of the King on St. Edwards Chair) and footstall were covered in William Morris’s ‘St. Jamess’ design in a red silk damask and designed by the firm based on the James I throne at Knowle House. Morris & Co. exploited this commission for publicity purposes, issuing this brochure along with images of other royal furniture, such as the thrones used by the king and queen at the Investiture of H.R.H. The Prince of Wales which were designed and made by Morris & Co., as well as thrones made by Morris & Co., for ceremonies at Holyrood Palace, Scotland. Morris & Co. were also commissioned with the embroidered altar hanging used at Westminster Abbey during the oblation ceremony, in which the king and queen make an offering to God. The figures in the hangings were designed by William Lethaby and the pupils of the Royal College of Art.

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, Moris 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
Dimensions: 28 x 33.6
Object Type: textile
Material: velveteen
Catalogue number: F243
Designer: Liberty & Co, Ltd
Manufacturer: Wardle and Co. (1872 - 1908)
Credit notes: Miss Elinor Pugh bequest, 1963

Printed red velveteen of produced by Wardle & Co. The design appears as a black and white block print proof on paper in the Whitworth’s Thomas Wardle and Co ‘Sample Book, Block Records (1880-1884), T.14007.60. A note alongside the proof in the sample book details:

No.30 The block belongs to Thomas Wardle

Original design No. in Catalogue Registered, No.389715 Nov 9th 82 for 2 years

Size of block 11 3/8″ wide 14 3/8″ long

Size of repeat 5¾” wide 4¾” long

The block will repeat on O (in blue pencil)

Details

Date: 1884
Dimensions: 44.1 x 30.5
Object Type: textile
Material: velveteen
Catalogue number: F242
Manufacturer: Wardle and Co. (1872 - 1908)
Credit notes: Miss Elinor Pugh bequest, 1963

‘Papara’ is a printed red velveteen of pomegranates, carnations and palmettes produced by Wardle & Co. A two-colour (dark blue outline with a indigo filling) block print proof on paper is in the Whitworth’s Thomas Wardle and Co ‘Sample Book, Block Records – Page 6’ (1909-1930), T.14008.6. A note alongside the proof in the sample book details that it was based upon plate 118 from Fischbach’s ‘Ornamente der Gewebe’ which shows an illustration in black and white, described as a 17th woven silk, probably from Lyons or Tours “in the museum in Nuremberg”. The full transcript of Wardle’s sample book reads:

109

No.109.Two Blocks. To fit Velvet. 26″ width

Size 13 inches square

Original design No.118 Fishbach. (sic) Registered 12146, 30 August 1884

Size of repeat 13 inc x 13 inc

No.13’s.

According to the Whitworth, the code 13,s indicates the pattern was produced on commision to an external company.

Details

Date: After 1883
Dimensions: 127 x 185.4
Object Type: textile
Material: cotton
Technique: block-printed
Catalogue number: H27
Owner: Morris | May | 1862 | 1938
Attributed artist: Morris | May | 1862 | 1938
Credit notes: Presented by Mrs Barbara Campbell Thompson, 1967

Hand-stitched long smock with long sleeves, gathered at neckline, sections let into each side which are gathered under the arm, made from Morris & Co. “Borage” chintz, printed in yellow. Probably worn by May Morris. The smock was in the posession of Dr and Mrs Campbell Thompson. Dr Reginald Campbell Thompson was formerly Professor of Assyriology at Oxford University and was May Morris’s executor.

Details

Date: 1892
Dimensions: 28 x 40.6
Object Type: textile
Material: cotton velvet
Catalogue number: F241
Retailer: Liberty & Co, Ltd
Manufacturer: Wardle and Co. (1872 - 1908)
Credit notes: Miss Elinor Pugh bequest, 1963

Printed red velveteen of strawberries produced by Wardle & Co. The design appears as as a black and white block print proof on paper in the Whitworth’s Thomas Wardle and Co ‘Sample Book, Block Records (1880-1884), T.14007.28. A note alongside the proof in the sample book details:

No.14 P.C. 14 rows

The block belongs to Thomas Wardle

Original design No. 468 in Catalogue Registered No.389710 Nov. 9th 82 for 2 years

Size of block 10″ wide 15″ long

Size of repeat 2½” wide 2½” long

The block will repeat onO (in blue pencil)No.1 prints outline of the whole pattern.

Details

Date: designed 1878
Dimensions: 87 x137.2
Object Type: textile
Material: woven wool
Technique: hand-loom jacquard woven
Catalogue number: F26ciii
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

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

Details

Date: late nineteenth century
Object Type: textile
Catalogue number: H25a
Owner: Mackmurdo | Arthur Heygate | 1851 | 1942
Credit notes: Miss E. Pugh bequest, 1963

This indigo blue smock was owned and worn by the artist Arthur Heygate Mackmurdo. The smock is worn with use and patched in places. 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: 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
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: 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: A208.1
Designer: Burne-Jones | Edward Coley | Sir | 1833 | 1898
Credit notes: WMG purchase, 1953

The first 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 Launcelot, depicted in this cartoon (because of his adultery with Guinevere), Sir Gawaiane, (because he fails to live up to courtly ideals) and Sir Galahad (because of his worldliness).

The cartoons were presented to Lady Leighton-Warren by the artist.

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

Details

Dimensions: 21 x 19
Object Type: textile
Material: wool on canvas
Technique: hand-embroidered
Catalogue number: F229
Designer and maker: Pugh, Elinor M., Miss, 1962
Credit notes: Miss Elinor Pugh Bequest, 1963

“The juxtaposition of the inner bands of vivid colours, and the outer bands of dull tones creates an immersive pattern that draws the viewer in to the centre of the object. The inner section appears illuminated and the central motif resembles both a window and a candle. The gaudy colours make it difficult to place this object within an established art historical framework. It is outside the canon.”
Lucinda Purkis and Raizel Frankl-Slater, WMG Young Producers

Details

Dimensions: 86.4 x 76.2
Object Type: design
Material: paper
Catalogue number: A305
Designer: Morris, William, 1834, 1896
Credit notes: WMG purchase, 1960

Morris’s connection with Christianity was as much aesthetic and historic as spiritual. Originally planning to join the clergy, his contribution to religious life instead came through preserving historic churches and supplying interior decoration such as stained glass windows and textiles. This design, delicately rendered in pencil and watercolour, forms part of the repeat pattern of an embroidered frontal, a cloth used to decorate the altar during services. The grape and vine is a popular motif in ecclesiastical textiles, a reference to the wine that signifies the blood of Christ in the Christian service. This embroidered frontal was advertised in the Morris & Co. catalogue as “a festival altar frontal, 9 ft. wide (capable of being extended) worked in Morris floss silks and gold on ivory satin” and sold for £125.

Details

Date: Design registered 1876
Dimensions: 85.1 x 95.5
Object Type: textile
Material: cotton
Technique: block-printed
Catalogue number: F223
Designer: Morris, William, 1834, 1896
Manufacturer: Morris & Co.
Credit notes: Presented by Mrs Charles Bramley, 1962

Designed by William Morris in 1876, his daughter May Morris described Honeysuckle as ‘the most truely “Morrisian” in character of all his-pattern making in later life”. The pattern combines four of his favourite flowers for pattern making- crown imperial, tulip, honeysuckle and fritillary, which overlay a dense background of yew.

Details

Date: 1865
Dimensions: 79 x 21.7
Object Type: design
Catalogue number: A27
Designer: Morris, William, 1834, 1896
Credit notes: WMG purchase, 1940

This design was made by William Morris for the decoration of the chancel roof at All Saints’ church, Middleton Cheney, Northants., in 1865. The design is extensively annotated by Morris with instructions to the painter, a ‘Mr Cottam of Banbury’, probably George Cottam who was a painter, decorator and gilder working from 28 High Street, Banbury between 1835 and 1869. Middleton Cheney church was ‘restored’ by the office of Sir George Gilbert Scott in 1864-65; Morris, Marshall & Faulkner & Co. made the east window (1864) and designed the painted roof of the chancel and nave – partly based on medieval decoration

Details

Date: design registered 27 February 1896
Dimensions: 187.3 x 72.4
Object Type: textile
Material: cotton
Technique: block-printed
Catalogue number: F221
Designer: Dearle, John Henry (1859 - 1932)
Manufacturer: Morris & Co.
Credit notes: Presented by Mrs Charles Bramley, 1962

‘Compton’ was previously thought to have been William Morris’s last design for a wallpaper (and adapted as a pattern for fabric). This was confirmed by May Morris in her ‘Collected Works of William Morris’. However, following Linda Parry’s research it is thought to have in fact been designed by Morris & Co.’s Chief Designer Henry Dearle. Morris and Co. redesigned the the residence of Laurence W. Hodson, Compton Hall near Wolverhampton in 1895-6, although Morris had a hand in some of the designs (this is confirmed in surviving letters), there is no evidence that he was sole designer for any of the house designs. Rather, he and Dearle worked together, sending designs back and forth and correcting each other’s work. The evidence to suggest this is in fact Dearle’s design, is further strengthened by its similarity to his other work, particularly ‘Leicester’ wallpaper.

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
Designer: Webb | Philip | 1831 | 1915
Maker: Catterson-Smith, Robert (1853 - 1938)
Credit notes: Presented by Mr 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.

The case was made 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. The case was almost certainly designed by Philip Webb and similar motifs of roses appear on a teapot designed by Webb in 1902, now in the Victoria & Albert Museum, and on a pair of brass candlesticks now in the church at Kelmscott.

Two very similar cases exist, one in the collection of the Society of Antiquaries at Kelmscott Manor, donated by Mrs 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.

Details

Dimensions: 1253.5 x 94.6
Object Type: textile
Material: cotton
Technique: indigo discharge
Catalogue number: F220
Designer: Morris, William, 1834, 1896
Manufacturer: Morris & Co.
Credit notes: Mary Annie Sloane bequest, 1962

Bird and Anemone was designed by William Morris in 1881 and the design registered on 17th June 1882. The monochrome pattern is one of only three designs issued by Morris as both a wallpaper and a printed cotton. Although they were produced at approximately the same time, the narrow upright rectangular repeat suggests it was however probably first intended as a textile design. The pattern was one of the first textiles to be printed at Morris’s factory Merton Abbey, and he produced it in this colourway using the indigo-discharge method and a red colourway.

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