Study of Figures

Details

Date: designed 1892, printed before 1940
Object Type: wallpaper
Technique: block-printed in distemper
Catalogue number: B48
Designer: Dearle, John Henry (1859 - 1932)
Manufacturer: Jeffrey & Co.
Retailer: Morris & Co.
Credit notes: Presented by The Kelmscott Fellowship, 1953

John Henry Dearle designed this wallpaper for Morris & Co. in 1892. The pattern is formed of white blackthorn (or sloe) blossom and violets, with meadow flowers: red snake’s head fritillaries and yellow daisies. The bright colours stand out against the very dark green background. Unlike many of the firm’s wallpapers, this wallpaper was only available in one colourway. The right edge of the paper is stamped with the firm’s name ‘MORRIS & Co’.

Details

Date: c.1910
Dimensions: 15 x 12
Object Type: watercolour
Material: watercolour on paper
Catalogue number: W223
Artist: Cockerell, Olive (1869 - 1910)
Sitter: Carruthers Tozer, Amy (1896 - 1938)
Credit notes: Presented by Raymond Watkinson, 2002

Olive Cockerell was an artist and illustrator, primarily for fairy stories. She was the sister of the curator Sydney Cockerell and the naturalist Theodore Cockerell. She was also a friend of the Morris family and remained connected to them through her brother Sydney who was William Morris’s private secretary towards the end of his life. This portrait by her shows Amy Jane Tozer, née Carruthers. Amy Jane was a friend of May and Jane Morris and daughter of William Caruthers, a friend of William Morris and who accompanied Morris on his cruise to Spitsbergen Island in 1896.

Details

Date: designed 1874, reg. 22 July 1875, printed c.1880-9
Dimensions: 90.2 x 38.1
Object Type: wallpaper
Material: paper
Technique: block-printed in distemper
Catalogue number: B47
Designer: Morris, William, 1834, 1896
Manufacturer: Jeffrey & Co.
Retailer: Morris & Co.
Credit notes: Transferred from Temple Newsam House, 1952

William Morris designed this wallpaper of scrolling acanthus leaves in 1874 and registered the design for Morris & Co. on 22 July 1875. The size of the repeat is 66cm x 53.3cm and required 30 woodblocks to complete one repeat, making it one of the firm’s more expensive wallpapers, retailing for 16s a roll. The original design is in Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery (1941P413) and the working drawing in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (CIRC.297-1955).

This fragment came from a former bedroom in Temple Newsam House, nr. Leeds, when it was being redecorated in April 1952. A larger example is in Temple Newsam’s collection (2013.0001.0168). It was probably hung by Emily Meynell Ingram in the 1880s and 90s, perhaps c.1894 when the Duke and Duchess of York stayed at Temple Newsam.

Details

Date: designed 1888-89
Dimensions: 59.7 x 55.9
Object Type: wallpaper
Technique: block-printed in distemper
Catalogue number: B4b
Designer: Morris, William, 1834, 1896
Manufacturer: Arthur Sanderson and Sons Ltd
Credit notes: Presented by Arthur Sanderson & Sons Ltd, 1950

William Morris designed Borage Ceiling wallpaper between 1888-1889. As the name suggests, the paper was intended to decorate interior ceilings and forms a square repeat of 50.8 x 50.8 cm.

This version was printed in 1950, using original Morris & Co. blocks by the firm Arthur Sanderson & Sons Ltd., who acquired the blocks from Morris & Co. when they closed in 1940. It is stamped down the right edge: ‘BORAGE CEILING PAPER’ and ‘MORRIS & Co’.

Details

Date: designed 1874, printed before 1940
Dimensions: 106.7 x 57.2
Object Type: wallpaper
Technique: block-printed
Catalogue number: B44
Designer: Morris, William, 1834, 1896
Manufacturer: Jeffrey & Co.
Credit notes: WMG purchase, 1940

‘Willow’ was designed by William Morris in 1874. The pattern is a simple stylised representation of willow branches on a plain background. In 1887, Morris adpated the design to create ‘Willow Bough’ wallpaper, a more naturalistic version of this earlier pattern. ‘Willow’ was produced in a number of colourways, firstly using tonal shades on coloured backgrounds and later introducing colours on a white background, as in this example (Morris & Co. colourway no.379).

Details

Date: designed 1868-70, printed before 1940
Dimensions: 57.8 x 66
Object Type: wallpaper
Technique: block-printed
Catalogue number: B43
Attributed designer: Gilbert Scott, George, Sir (1811 - 1878)
Manufacturer: Jeffrey & Co.
Retailer: Morris & Co.
Credit notes: WMG purchase, 1940

This wallpaper was designed by George Gilbert Scott Jnr, son of the great Victorian architect Sir George Gilbert Scott. The design was originally thought to have been by William Morris and based on Indian designs for painted/embroidered furnishings, or adapted from an earlier 18th century wallpaper by Morris. However a reference in a letter (Victoria and Albert Museum, London: National Art Library) from the Morris & Co’s business manager, Warrington Taylor to Philip Webb in 1869, makes reference to ‘Scott’s “Indian”‘.

In 1874 Scott became one of the founders of Watts & Co. for the sale of textiles, furniture, wallpaper and other decorative goods. Some of the wallpapers issued by the Firm are in a similar style to ‘Indian’.

The pattern repeat of this example is 63.5 x 50.8 cm and was printed by Islington based Jeffrey & Co. for Morris & Co. It is labelled with the pattern number ‘Indian 14’ and was acquired from Morris & Co. in 1940 upon the firm’s closure.

Details

Date: designed 1862, registered 1 February 1864
Dimensions: 104.1 x 55.9
Object Type: wallpaper
Technique: block-printed
Catalogue number: B42a
Designer: Morris, William, 1834, 1896
Manufacturer: Jeffrey & Co.
Credit notes: Presented by Mrs Edward Unwin, 1956

William Morris designed Daisy in 1862, but did not register the design until 1 February 1864. The pattern is a simple design of unconnected clumps of yellow daisies, red columbine and red and white meadow flowers against a background suggestive of blades of grass. The simplicity and cosy naturalism of the flower clump would prove endlessly adaptable for Morris, who used them as decoration for tiles, stained glass (including in his first home Red House) and book illustrations.

Details

Date: designed c.1882
Dimensions: 56.5 x 136.5
Object Type: wallpaper
Technique: block-printed
Catalogue number: B28c
Designer: Horne, Herbert Percy, 1864, 1916
Manufacturer: Jeffrey & Co.
Retailer: Century Guild
Credit notes: Mackmurdo bequest, 1942

This wallpaper frieze was designed by The Century Guild to match ‘Bay Leaf’ wallpaper. The design shows a repeated design of three kneeling figures in classical robes, playing musical instruments against a frieze of bay leaves on branches interwoven along the bottom. The Century Guild monogram is incorporated in the design (on a bay leaf). With the exception of Walter Crane, few designers in the 1880s included figures in their wallpapers. Horne’s Bay Leaf Frieze is therefore a remarkable novel creation. The frieze was prominently displayed in the Century Guild’s stand at the 1885 Inventions Exhibition at South Kensignton and also the 1886 Liverpool International Exhibition.
The repeat size is 53.3 x 106.7 cm.

Details

Date: designed c.1882
Dimensions: 56.5 x 365.8
Object Type: wallpaper
Technique: block-printed
Catalogue number: B28b
Designer: Horne, Herbert Percy, 1864, 1916
Manufacturer: Jeffrey & Co.
Retailer: Century Guild
Credit notes: Mackmurdo bequest, 1942

Details

Date: designed c.1882
Dimensions: 56.5 x 467.4
Object Type: wallpaper
Technique: block-printed
Catalogue number: B28a
Designer: Horne, Herbert Percy, 1864, 1916
Manufacturer: Jeffrey & Co.
Retailer: Century Guild
Credit notes: Mackmurdo bequest, 1942

Details

Date: designed c.1882
Dimensions: 56.5 x 444.5
Object Type: wallpaper
Technique: block-printed
Catalogue number: B28
Designer: Horne, Herbert Percy, 1864, 1916
Manufacturer: Jeffrey & Co.
Retailer: Century Guild
Credit notes: Mackmurdo bequest, 1942

This wallpaper frieze was designed by The Century Guild to match ‘Bay Leaf’ wallpaper. The design shows a repeated design of three kneeling figures in classical robes, playing musical instruments against a frieze of bay leaves on branches interwoven along the bottom. The Century Guild monogram is incorporated in the design (on a bay leaf). With the exception of Walter Crane, few designers in the 1880s included figures in their wallpapers. Horne’s Bay Leaf Frieze is therefore a remarkable novel creation. The frieze is accompanied by a wallpaper featuring a repeating pattern of bay leaves (see various examples in the Gallery collection). The frieze was prominently displayed in the Century Guild’s stand at the 1885 Inventions Exhibition at South Kensington and also the 1886 Liverpool International Exhibition.

The repeat size is 53.3 x 106.7 cm.

Details

Date: c.1887
Dimensions: 28 x 83.8 x 33
Object Type: metalwork
Material: brass
Catalogue number: L26
Designer: Horne, Herbert Percy, 1864, 1916
Maker: Esling | George
Manufacturer: Century Guild
Credit notes: Purchased with a grant-in-aid from the Victoria & Albert Museum, 1976

This brass fender was designed by Herbert Horne for the Century Guild. It is made of brass with a pierced fretwork design of waving flowers and leaves. An identical fender was exhibited on the Century Guild stand at the Royal Jubilee Exhibition, Manchester, 1887 (illustrated in the Journal for Decorative Art, November 1887, p.173).

Details

Date: 1890s
Dimensions: 17.1 x 7
Object Type: metalwork
Material: brass
Catalogue number: L1a
Designer: Mackmurdo | Arthur Heygate | 1851 | 1942
Credit notes: Mackmurdo bequest, 1942

This small brass candlestick is one of a pair (with L1) that feature turned baluster stems on circular bases. They are possibly the candlesticks that Mackmurdo’s architectural assistant from 1892 to 1897 Harry Sirr described in his reminiscences of Mackmurdo, written to Mackmurdo’s niece, Miss Elinor Pugh in 13 May 1942. In the record he recounts, ‘I was attracted by metal work of his design which he told me had been done by his own workmen. Some brass candlesticks struck me by their beauty, of round baluster form, not unlike Italian Renaissance work, with his own individuality.’

Details

Date: 1890s
Dimensions: 17.1 x 7
Object Type: metalwork
Material: brass
Catalogue number: L1
Designer: Mackmurdo | Arthur Heygate | 1851 | 1942
Credit notes: Mackmurdo bequest, 1942

This small brass candlestick is one of a pair (with L1a) that feature turned baluster stems on circular bases. They are possibly the candlesticks that Mackmurdo’s architectural assistant from 1892 to 1897 Harry Sirr described in his reminiscences of Mackmurdo, written to Mackmurdo’s niece, Miss Elinor Pugh in 13 May 1942. In the record he recounts, ‘I was attracted by metal work of his design which he told me had been done by his own workmen. Some brass candlesticks struck me by their beauty, of round baluster form, not unlike Italian Renaissance work, with his own individuality.’

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