Wandle printed cotton

Details

Date: c. 1886-87
Dimensions: 152.4 x 190.5 x 66
Object Type: furniture
Catalogue number: G26.1
Retailer: Morris & Co.
Designer: Mackmurdo | Arthur Heygate | 1851 | 1942
Maker: Wilkinson & Sons (Manufacturers and Agents for Furniture and Stuffs)
Credit notes: Presented by Miss Martha Lugg Wooldridge, 1955

The settle was once part of the furnishings of 31, Upper Bedford Place, London, home of the Revd. Stewart Headlam (1847-1924), Christian Socialist and anti-prudery campaigner, whose rooms were extensively decorated in 1886-87 by A. H. Mackmurdo and Selwyn Image. It was exhibited at Messrs. Wilkinsons’ showroom in Bond Street in 1888 along with other pieces of Century Guild furniture and illustrated in ‘The Building News’ (March 30, 1888). It was purchased from Morris & Co. c. 1893 by the donor for her house, Wavertree which she shared with Headlam and which she furnished with Morris & Co. The original curtaining was replaced by the present Morris & Co. ‘Borage’ chintzes during the 1900s.

Details

Date: c.1870-80
Dimensions: 241.3 x 115 x 49.5
Object Type: furniture
Material: oak with gilt and oil paint
Catalogue number: G25
Designer: Webb | Philip | 1831 | 1915
Artist: De Morgan, William (1839 - 1917)
Retailer: Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co.
Credit notes: WMG purchase, 1955

This cabinet was designed by Philip Webb and decorated by William de Morgan for Morris, Marshall, Faulkner and Co. It was originally one of a pair (the other with panels showing St George & the Dragon also by William De Morgan) made for Isabel Olga Lucas, née D’avigdor (1843-1926) widow of the artist Horatio Joseph Lucas. The painted panel on the left has a scene of two figures variously described as (female on the left) Hera/Juno or Muse Erato or Maia with (male boy on right) the young Hermes/Mercury with the first lyre; the painted panel on the right with a scene of two male figures variously described as (on right ) Pan or Silenus instructing Dionysus/Bacchus (on left) to play pipes.
The cabinet was sold back to Morris & Co by Mrs Lucas’s daughter Ruth Lousada who then sold it to Mrs Lucius Gubbins. Old photographs when in the possession of Ruth Lousada, show the cabinet originally had the back covered with a stamped, embossed leather paper, however this seems to have been removed by a subsequent owner who replaced it with 12 ruby lustre animal tiles by William De Morgan; these were still in situ when the cabinet was acquired by the William Morris Gallery in 1955. The tiles were removed in 1957 (now catalogued as C85-96) when the back was filled with new waxed oak panels to match the rest of the piece.

Details

Date: designed c.1884
Dimensions: 132.1 x 117.5
Object Type: textile
Material: printed velveteen
Catalogue number: F40a
Designer: Horne, Herbert Percy, 1864, 1916
Retailer: Century Guild
Manufacturer: Simpson & Godlee
Credit notes: Mackmurdo bequest, 1942

This design is one of the most iconic designs of the Century Guild. Known as ‘Angel with Trumpet’ or ‘Praise of the Soul’, it was designed by Herbert Horne and exhibited at a number of exhibitions for the Century Guild. Not all contemporary critics were impressed, one reviewer of the Manchester Royal Jubilee exhibition in the Journal of Decorative Art (Nov. 1887) described it as ‘at the best a very weak effort’. Nevertheless it is now seen as exemplifying the Guild’s swirling designs that preempted the Art Nouveau era. As well as velveteen it was also produced as a printed cotton (see other examples in the collection). The two differ in one detail; in the cotton the Angel’s halo contains a cross (usually signifying Jesus Christ), in the velveteen it has a dot, suggesting Horne ammended the design and that the velveteen was produced after the cotton.

Details

Date: designed c.1884
Dimensions: 348 x 78.7
Object Type: textile
Material: printed velveteen
Catalogue number: F40
Designer: Horne, Herbert Percy, 1864, 1916
Retailer: Century Guild
Credit notes: Mackmurdo bequest, 1942

This design is one of the most iconic designs of the Century Guild. Known as ‘Angel with Trumpet’ or ‘Praise of the Soul’, it was designed by Herbert Horne and exhibited at a number of exhibitions for the Century Guild. Not all contemporary critics were impressed, one reviewer of the Manchester Royal Jubilee exhibition in the Journal of Decorative Art (Nov. 1887) described it as ‘at the best a very weak effort’. Nevertheless it is now seen as exemplifying the Guild’s swirling designs that preempted the Art Nouveau era. As well as a velveteen it was also produced as a printed cotton (see various examples in the collection). The two differ in one detail; in the cotton the Angel’s halo contains a cross (usually signifying Jesus Christ), in the velveteen it has a dot, suggesting Horne ammended the design and that the velveteen was produced after the cotton.

Details

Date: c. 1882
Dimensions: 91.4 x 81.3
Object Type: textile
Material: cotton
Technique: rollerprinted
Catalogue number: F37
Designer: Mackmurdo | Arthur Heygate | 1851 | 1942
Retailer: Century Guild
Maker: Simpson & Godlee
Credit notes: Mackmurdo bequest, 1942

This is one of the Century Guild’s most successful designs, it features scrolling and interwoven brambles with clusters of blackberries, enclosing pairs of squirrels holding nuts. The Century Guild monogram is incorporated in the design. Whilst some of AH Mackmurdo’s designs for textiles were too large and busy, this design features clear outlines, a harmonious repeat and is an approriate scale for a furnishing fabric. The design was also produced in yellow and as a velvet.

Details

Date: c. 1870
Dimensions: 81.3 x 43.2 x 38.1
Object Type: furniture
Material: wood, rushed seat, Utrecht velvet
Catalogue number: G24a
Designer: Burges, William (1827 - 1881)
Credit notes: Presented by Mrs L. Hitch, 1954

This chair (one of a pair) appear in the volume of photographs “The House of William Burges ARA “(1885) compiled by Burges’ brother-in-law, R.P. Pullan, now in the Victoria & Albert Museum, London (V. & A. 51 E 54) plate 19 and a sketch for merman and mermaid chair backs on sheets, 27 and 30 in the V&A Burges’ ‘Furniture Album’ (93. E8) originally with rush seating. The chairs were used at Tower House, the home Burges designed for himself in Melbury Road, Kensington, London. Similar chairs are recorded as being based on bedside chairs in Burges’ rooms at 15 Buckingham Street, Strand, London. Such painted furniture by Burges is considered to have influenced some of the Morris firm’s early work.

Details

Date: c. 1870
Dimensions: 81.3 x 43.2 x 38.1
Object Type: furniture
Material: wood, rushed seat, Utrecht velvet
Catalogue number: G24
Designer: Burges, William (1827 - 1881)
Credit notes: Presented by Mrs L. Hitch, 1954

The chairs appear in the volume of photographs “The House of William Burges ARA “(1885) compiled by Burges’ brother-in-law, R.P. Pullan, now in the Victoria & Albert Museum, London (V. & A. 51 E 54) plate 19 and a sketch for merman and mermaid chair backs on sheets, 27 and 30 in the V&A Burges’ ‘Furniture Album’ (93. E8) originally with rush seating. The chairs were used at Tower House, the home Burges designed for himself in Melbury Road, Kensington, London. Similar chairs are recorded as being based on bedside chairs in Burges’ rooms at 15 Buckingham Street, Strand, London. Such painted furniture by Burges is considered to have influenced some of the Morris firm’s early work.

Details

Dimensions: 3.3 x 8.3 x 8.3
Object Type: ceramic
Material: stoneware
Catalogue number: C39
Designer and maker: R W Martin, London and Southall
Credit notes: Mackmurdo bequest, 1942

Robert Wallace Martin was one of four brothers who ran the Martin Brothers pottery in Fulham (1873-7) and Southall (1877-1915). He was part of a movement of Arts and Crafts potters who, inspired by the simplicity and rustic appearance of medieval European and Japanese stoneware (a hard, dense kind of pottery), created salt-glazed stoneware, a strong, non-porous pottery with a distinctive ‘orange-peel’ texture. Martin’s output is characterised by groteque animals, vessels with faces, and rustic sculptural forms.

Details

Date: c.1902
Dimensions: 97.8 x 98.4
Object Type: textile
Material: printed cotton
Technique: block-printed
Catalogue number: F23
Designer: Morris, William, 1834, 1896
Manufacturer: Morris & Co.
Credit notes: WMG purchase, 1940

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: design registered 17 June 1882
Dimensions: 64.8 x 95.9
Object Type: textile
Material: printed cotton
Technique: block-printed
Catalogue number: F22
Designer: Morris, William, 1834, 1896
Manufacturer: Morris & Co.
Credit notes: WMG purchase, 1940

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 red colourway and blue, using the indigo-discharge method.

Details

Date: design registered 23 November 1883
Dimensions: 64.8 x 99.1
Object Type: textile
Material: printed cotton
Technique: indigo discharge and block-printed
Catalogue number: F20
Designer: Morris, William, 1834, 1896
Manufacturer: Morris & Co.
Credit notes: WMG purchase, 1940

‘Eyebright’ was designed by William Morris in 1883. The pattern was achieved using the indigo-discharge process, whereby the cotton was dyed in indigo blue and the pattern then extracted and over printed. The small ‘net’ repeat is formed of white eyebright flowers and buttercups. The pattern was also available in blue, white and yellow weld, a natural dye derived from a flower. The pattern was initially intended to be used as a lining for Morris & Co.’s heavy wool curtains (two widths matched the width of a curtains) but was used as a furnishing fabric in its own right. May Morris claimed that Eyebright, and another pattern Borage ‘were small patterns intended for dress’, revealing Morris’s intention to expand the business beyond interior fabrics. A dress of Eyebright made around 1900 is in the The Art Gallery of Australia’s collection (996A38). This example was purchased directly from Morris & Co. in 1940 after the company closed.

Details

Date: design registered 27 February 1896
Dimensions: 80 x 77.4
Object Type: textile
Material: printed cotton
Technique: block-printed
Catalogue number: F15
Designer: Dearle, John Henry (1859 - 1932)
Manufacturer: Morris & Co.
Credit notes: WMG purchase, 1940

‘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: 1875
Dimensions: 24.1 x 12.7
Object Type: ceramic
Material: stoneware
Catalogue number: C36
Designer and maker: R W Martin, London and Southall
Credit notes: Mackmurdo bequest, 1942

Details

Date: 1887
Dimensions: 21.5 x 22.8
Object Type: ceramic
Material: stoneware
Catalogue number: C35
Designer and maker: R W Martin, London and Southall
Credit notes: Mackmurdo bequest, 1942

Details

Date: 1886
Dimensions: 21.5 x 14.4
Object Type: ceramic
Material: stoneware
Catalogue number: C34
Designer and maker: R W Martin, London and Southall
Credit notes: Mackmurdo bequest, 1942

Details

Date: 1887
Dimensions: 18.5 x 15.2
Object Type: ceramic
Material: stoneware
Catalogue number: C33
Designer and maker: R W Martin, London and Southall
Credit notes: Mackmurdo bequest, 1942

Details

Date: 1893
Dimensions: 33 x 12.7
Object Type: ceramic
Material: stoneware
Catalogue number: C32
Designer and maker: R W Martin, London and Southall
Credit notes: Mackmurdo bequest, 1942

Details

Date: 1887
Dimensions: 22.8 x 19
Object Type: ceramic
Material: stoneware
Catalogue number: C31
Designer and maker: R W Martin, London and Southall
Credit notes: Mackmurdo bequest, 1942

Details

Date: 1886
Dimensions: 38.1 x 21.5
Object Type: ceramic
Material: stoneware
Catalogue number: C29a
Designer and maker: R W Martin, London and Southall
Credit notes: Mackmurdo bequest, 1942

Details

Date: 1886
Dimensions: 36.5 x 12.7
Object Type: ceramic
Material: stoneware
Catalogue number: C28a
Designer and maker: R W Martin, London and Southall
Credit notes: Mackmurdo bequest, 1942

Details

Date: 1886
Dimensions: 38.1 x 21.5
Object Type: ceramic
Material: stoneware
Catalogue number: C29
Designer and maker: R W Martin, London and Southall
Credit notes: Mackmurdo bequest, 1942

Details

Date: c. 1886
Dimensions: 201 x 259 x 86.4
Object Type: furniture
Material: satinwood, mahogany, brass and oil
Technique: repousse
Catalogue number: G14.1
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

This large satinwood and carved mahogony cabinet features painted design and lettering by Herbert Horne. 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.
The cabinet is similar in style to a large satinwood settle with drapery hangings and upholstered seat cushion in ‘The Angel with the Trumpet’ cretonne, formerly at Pownall Hall, near Wilmslow, Cheshire, home of Henry Boddington who commissioned furniture etc. for the house from The Century Guild in the 1880s; this settle is now in the V&A Museum. 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.

Details

Date: c. 1886
Dimensions: 62 x 157.5
Object Type: furniture
Material: wood and glass
Catalogue number: G12
Designer: Mackmurdo | Arthur Heygate | 1851 | 1942
Credit notes: Mackmurdo bequest, 1942

This ornate mirror comprises of five reflective glass panes, each flanked by two narrow angled panes. It is made from gilded wood and features a projecting cornice decorated with gilt balls. It may be the mirror seen by Harry Sirr, Mackmurdo’s architectural assistant from 1892 to 1897, at ‘Whiteladies’, a building that became a cultural hub for the Century Guild. When recalling a visit, he described ‘a long low mantel mirror with reflecting facets in richly gilded framework.’

Details

Date: c. 1884
Dimensions: 165.1 x 55.8 x 35.5
Object Type: furniture
Material: satinwood and brass
Catalogue number: G11b
Designer: Mackmurdo | Arthur Heygate | 1851 | 1942
Artist: Image, Selwyn, 1849, 1930
Retailer: Century Guild
Credit notes: Mackmurdo bequest, 1942

This cabinet (one of a pair) was designed by AH Mackmurdo for the Century Guild, with painted decoration by Selwyn Image. The cabinets were formally joined by a central structure, now missing. They were probably exhibited in the Century Guilds Music Room at exhibitions in London (1884), Liverpool (1886) and Manchester (1887). The inscriptions are from a poem by Richard Lovelace “To a Lady that desired me I would beare my part with her in Song”. The inscription on this cabinet is “My minde can in faire order chime whilst my true heart still beats the time” and preceeds G11a.

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