Helmet

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.1891-1893
Object Type: photograph
Material: photograph
Technique: photographic cartoon
Catalogue number: BLPhA529
Artist: Burne-Jones | Edward Coley | Sir | 1833 | 1898
Credit notes: Barking Loan

The Failure of Sir Gawain’ is one of the series: ‘The Knights of the Round Table Summoned to the Quest by a Strange Damsel’ of six narrative panels relating to the story of the Holy Grail which was designed by Burne-Jones in 1891-1894 , for a series of tapestries woven by Morris & Co. at Merton Abbey for Stanmore Hall, Middlesex. Photographic enlargements to the same size as the final tapestry were made from Burne-Jones final designs, and these enlarged cartoons were then worked over by the artist in ink, with some sepia and white heightening to bring out contrasts.
The full size cartoons for the series are held in the William Morris Gallery (BLPhA527a-e, BLPh528a-b, BLPh529, BLPh530a-c, BLPh531)
A set of the series of tapestries is now in the collection of Birmingham City Art Gallery (M60’80).

Details

Date: designed before June 1881, printed before 1910
Dimensions: 52 x 95.2
Object Type: textile
Material: cotton
Technique: indigo discharge and block-printed
Catalogue number: F150
Designer: Morris, William, 1834, 1896
Manufacturer: Morris & Co.
Retailer: Morris & Co.
Credit notes: Presented by Mrs Hitch, 1954

It is not known precisely when William Morris designed Rose and Thistle, however the original design in the Victoria and Albert Museum is marked ’26 Queens Square’, so it must have been designed before Morris & Co. moved to Merton Abbey in June 1881. This example was formerly in the collection of Lucy Faulkner Orrinsmith (1839-1910), an artist friend of William Morris and who also worked for his firm.

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

Dimensions: 40.6 x 16.5 x 17.8
Object Type: sculpture
Material: wood
Technique: painted wood
Catalogue number: BrS30
Artist: Unknown
Credit notes: Brangwyn gift, 1940

Details

Date: 1893
Dimensions: 17.8 x 17.8 (with fringe)
Object Type: textile
Material: silk and linen
Technique: machine-woven
Catalogue number: F141l
Designer: Crane, Walter, 1845, 1915
Manufacturer: John Wilson and Sons
Credit notes: WMG purchase, 1954

This is one of a set of silk ‘Desert Doilies’ called ‘Flora’s Retinue’, designed by Walter Crane for the firm John Wilson and Sons, Bond street, London in 1894. Four of the designs (daisy, pink, lily and rose) were illustrated in the Arts and Crafts periodical The Studio: An Illustrated Magazine of Fine and Applied Art 1894: Vol 2, p.28

Details

Date: 1893
Dimensions: 17.8 x 17.8 (with fringe)
Object Type: textile
Material: silk and linen
Technique: machine-woven
Catalogue number: F141k
Designer: Crane, Walter, 1845, 1915
Manufacturer: John Wilson and Sons
Credit notes: WMG purchase, 1954

Details

Date: 1893
Dimensions: 17.8 x 17.8 (with fringe)
Object Type: textile
Material: silk and linen
Technique: machine-woven
Catalogue number: F141j
Designer: Crane, Walter, 1845, 1915
Manufacturer: John Wilson and Sons
Credit notes: WMG purchase, 1954

Details

Date: 1893
Dimensions: 17.8 x 17.8 (with fringe)
Object Type: textile
Material: silk and linen
Technique: machine-woven
Catalogue number: F141i
Designer: Crane, Walter, 1845, 1915
Manufacturer: John Wilson and Sons
Credit notes: WMG purchase, 1954

Details

Date: 1893
Dimensions: 17.8 x 17.8 (with fringe)
Object Type: textile
Material: silk and linen
Technique: machine-woven
Catalogue number: F141h 'Poppy'
Designer: Crane, Walter, 1845, 1915
Manufacturer: John Wilson and Sons
Credit notes: WMG purchase, 1954

Details

Date: 1893
Dimensions: 17.8 x 17.8 (with fringe)
Object Type: textile
Material: silk and linen
Technique: machine-woven
Catalogue number: F141g
Designer: Crane, Walter, 1845, 1915
Manufacturer: John Wilson and Sons
Credit notes: WMG purchase, 1954

Details

Date: 1893
Dimensions: 17.8 x 17.8 (with fringe)
Object Type: textile
Material: silk and linen
Technique: machine-woven
Catalogue number: F141f
Designer: Crane, Walter, 1845, 1915
Manufacturer: John Wilson and Sons
Credit notes: WMG purchase, 1954

Details

Date: 1893
Dimensions: 17.8 x 17.8 (with fringe)
Object Type: textile
Material: silk and linen
Technique: machine-woven
Catalogue number: F141e
Designer: Crane, Walter, 1845, 1915
Manufacturer: John Wilson and Sons
Credit notes: WMG purchase, 1954

Details

Date: 1893
Dimensions: 17.8 x 17.8 (with fringe)
Object Type: textile
Material: silk and linen
Technique: machine-woven
Catalogue number: F141d
Designer: Crane, Walter, 1845, 1915
Manufacturer: John Wilson and Sons
Credit notes: WMG purchase, 1954

Details

Date: 1893
Dimensions: 17.8 x 17.8 (with fringe)
Object Type: textile
Material: silk and linen
Technique: machine-woven
Catalogue number: F141a
Designer: Crane, Walter, 1845, 1915
Manufacturer: John Wilson and Sons
Credit notes: WMG purchase, 1954

This is one of a set of silk ‘Desert Doilies’ called ‘Flora’s Retinue’, designed by Walter Crane for the firm John Wilson and Sons, Bond street, London in 1894. Four of the designs (daisy, pink, lily and rose) were illustated in the Arts and Crafts periodical The Studio: An Illustrated Magazine of Fine and Applied Art 1894: Vol 2, p.28

Details

Date: 1874-1876
Dimensions: 86.3 x 628.7
Object Type: textile
Material: silks and gold thread on linen
Technique: hand-embroidered
Catalogue number: F140a
Designer: Morris, William, 1834, 1896
Designer: Burne-Jones | Edward Coley | Sir | 1833 | 1898
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. The exquisite embroidery was executed by the wife and daughter of Sir Isaac Lowthian Bell, Margaret Bell and Florence Johnson, respectively.

Details

Date: 29/12/1894
Dimensions: 218 x 182
Object Type: archival
Material: pen on paper
Technique: hand-written
Catalogue number: J362
Author: Morris, William, 1834, 1896
Recipient: Thirkell (née Mackail), Angela, Mrs (1890 - 1961)
Credit notes: Presented by Angela Thirkell, 1950

Letter from William Morris to four year old Angela Mackail (granddaughter of Edward Burne-Jones), thanking her for her Christmas gift of a new pen.

Kelmscott House,

Upper Mall,

Hammersmith

Dec: 29^th 1894

My dear Angela

Thank you very much for sending me the pretty pen; I have already written a good deal with it & shall write more.

When are you coming to see me?

Yours affectionately

William Morris

Details

Date: c. 1912
Dimensions: 28.4 x 22.6
Object Type: archival
Material: paper
Technique: lithograph
Catalogue number: J2146
Credit notes: Presented by Mr Griffiths, 1968

Details

Date: 1883
Dimensions: 101 x 68.5
Object Type: design
Material: pencil and ink on paper
Catalogue number: BLA461
Designer: Morris, William, 1834, 1896

This design was handrawn by William Morris in 1883. The design is of pencil and watercolour on paper. His design is of meandering stems with acanthus leaves and flower heads against a background of smaller leaves and vines. As with many of his patterns, William Morris named this design after a tributary of the River Thames. This design is for silk damask but Kennet was also available as a printed cotton, the design for which is in the collection of Birmingham City Museum and Art Gallery.

Details

Dimensions: 15.2 x 15.2
Object Type: ceramic
Technique: hand-painted
Catalogue number: C217.5
Maker: Morris & Co.
Credit notes: Presented by Michael Whiteway, 1996

Tiles and table glass were a popular and financially important aspect of Morris and Co.’s early output. Despite Morris’s belief that works of art should, as far as possible, be designed and executed by a single craftsperson, ceramics was one of the few areas in which he did not have personal artisanal expertise. Instead, he purchased blank tiles from the Netherlands. According to Jennifer Hawkins Opie: “…white, undecorated tiles ordered from Dutch manufacturers arrived at the Morris works in London ready glazed and fired. These were then decorated by the painters of stained glass already employed by Morris. Of necessity, this was done in enamel colours and this ‘on-glaze’ decoration was fired (a second firing for the tin glaze), initially alongside the enamel-decorated stained glass in the firm’s own kilns in the basement of Red Lion Square.”
This ‘Bay and Willow’ pattern is typical of Morris’s interest in natural, botanical forms. In many cases, individual tiles could be combined to create larger pictorial and decorative schemes.

Details

Dimensions: 15.2 x 15.2
Object Type: ceramic
Technique: hand-painted
Catalogue number: C217.4
Maker: Morris & Co.
Credit notes: Presented by Michael Whiteway, 1996

Details

Dimensions: 15.2 x 15.2
Object Type: ceramic
Technique: hand-painted
Catalogue number: C217.3
Maker: Morris & Co.
Credit notes: Presented by Michael Whiteway, 1996

Details

Dimensions: 15.2 x 15.2
Object Type: ceramic
Technique: hand-painted
Catalogue number: C217.2
Manufacturer: Morris & Co. Art-Workers Ltd., 17 George Street, Hanover Square, London
Credit notes: Presented by Michael Whiteway, 1996

Details

Date: c.1909 - 1910
Dimensions: 97.2 x 43.8 x 45.7
Object Type: furniture
Material: oak and rush seat
Catalogue number: G68a
Credit notes: Presented by Miss Rhoda Wells, 1980.

One of a set of four chairs (see G67, G69, G70). An example is illustrated in Morris & Co.’s 1910/11 catalogue ‘Specimens of Upholstered Furniture’, no. 192 which was available in green or brown stain, priced at 14/- (=70 pence) with matching armchair no. 191, priced at 23/- (=£1.30p). The design is adapted from a traditional country type and is close to some of the furniture made by Ernest Gimson (see G56). The chairs were apparently re-rushed around 1970 by the Workshops for the Blind.

Details

Date: c.1909 - 1910
Dimensions: 97.2 x 43.8 x 45.7
Object Type: furniture
Material: oak and rush seat
Catalogue number: G67
Manufacturer: Morris & Co.
Retailer: Morris & Co.
Credit notes: Presented by Miss Rhoda Wells, 1980.

One of a set of four chairs (see G68, G69, G70). An example is illustrated in Morris & Co.’s 1910/11 catalogue ‘Specimens of Upholstered Furniture’, no. 192 which was available in green or brown stain, priced at 14/- (=70 pence) with matching armchair no. 191, priced at 23/- (=£1.30p). The design is adapted from a traditional country type and is close to some of the furniture made by Ernest Gimson (see G56). The chairs were apparently re-rushed around 1970 by the Workshops for the Blind.

Details

Date: 1889
Dimensions: 16.9 x 10.5 (closed)
Object Type: book
Catalogue number: K2891
Author: Blunt, Wilfred Scawen (1840 - 1922)
Designer: Morris (née Burden) | Jane | 1839 | 1914
Publisher: Kegan Paul, Trench & Co
Credit notes: Presented by Frank C Sharp, 2014

Wilfrid Scawen Blunt’s In Vinculis is a poetic response to his imprisonment for his role in an anti-eviction meeting in Galway, Ireland. The book cover was designed by Jane Morris and features a scrolling design of shamrocks, a symbol of Ireland. Blunt and Morris were lovers in the late 1880s.

Details

Date: 1890-1892
Dimensions: 78.5 x 228.6 x 74.2
Object Type: furniture
Material: mahogany
Catalogue number: G64
Retailer: Kenton & Company (1891 - 1892)
Designer: Barnsley, Sidney Howard (1865 - 1926)
Credit notes: Presented by Mrs Anne Moro, 1978

This table (described in the records variously as an ‘architect’s table’, ‘refectory table’, ‘desk’) was made by Kenton & Co. around 1890-92. The firm, inspired by Morris & Co., was founded in 1890 by Ernest Gimson, Sidney Barnsley, W R Lethaby, Reginald Blomfield and others with the aim of designing and making furniture on Arts & Crafts principles. Lack of capital forced the company to disband in 1892, each partner taking a share of the remaining stock of furniture.
It would seem the table was acquired by the Barnsleys; according to Edward Barnsley, Sidney’s son (letter in WMG files, 3 December, 1979) “the mahogany table used to be in my uncle Ernest’s (Barnsley) sitting room library at Sapperton…. my memory is that I always thought it a very sensible, paracticial attractive piece. There was another one made on very similar lines but with drawers at the ends. Might have had two each end. With some inlay I think on edge of top, and on the drawer fronts, I think…” After the deaths of both Ernest and Sidney Barnsley in 1926, the table was acquired by architect, W R Lethaby.,The table appears in a photograph – one of a series taken at the Kenton & Co. exhibition at Barnard’s Inn, 1891 – on which are a series of mirrors designed by Reginal Blomfield. The table was lent by the donor to the Senior Common Room of the Central School of Art & Design for some years before donated to WMG.

Details

Date: c. 1890
Dimensions: 91.4 x 66.0 x 60.9
Object Type: furniture
Material: mahogany
Catalogue number: G61
Designer: Jack, George Washington Henry (1855 - 1931)
Retailer: Morris & Co.
Credit notes: Purchased with assistance from the V&A Purchase Grant Fund

George Jack probably designed this armchair for Morris & Co. around 1890. The wavy vertical rails under the arms are similar to a sideboard shown by Morris & Co. at the Manchester Jubilee Exhibition in 1887. When purchased the chair was patched with faded ‘Evenlode’ chintz, and reupholstered in ‘Lodden’ chintz in 1979, however it originally appears to have been upholstered in ‘Strawberry Thief’ chintz. Pieces of original fabrics and braid were retain. The armchair was originally purchased by owned by the parents of Francis Jane Lefroy whose house was furnished mainly by Morris & Co. in the 1890s.

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