‘Cupid Going Away’, illustration for The Story of Cupid and Psyche

Details

Date: c.1868
Dimensions: 10.9 x 16
Object Type: book
Technique: wood engraving
Catalogue number: K726a
Designer: Burne-Jones | Edward Coley | Sir | 1833 | 1898
Maker: Burden, Elizabeth (13.12.1841 - 22.08.1924)
Credit notes: WMG purchase, 1954

This is one of a series of illustrations to ‘The Story of Cupid and Psyche’ for the projected edition of ‘The Earthly Paradise’ begun in September 1865. The illustrations were engraved on wood by Morris and his friends and associates in the Firm, this particular illustration was engraved by Elizabeth Burden, it was the only one she did for the series. Burne-Jones did illustrations for some of the other tales in ‘The Earthly Paradise’, but the Cupid and Psyche wood engravings were the most completed part of the project which was abandoned in 1868 after trial pages, set in Basle and Caslon types at the Chiswick Press, did not prove satisfactory.

In 1881, a few copies of these sets of illustrations were made, apparently by Morris himself, by friction printing. A second series (numbering about 8 sets according to Sydney Cockerell) was pulled for Morris by Emery Walker at his premises at 16 Cliffords Inn during the Kelmscott Press years; all these were on Kelmscott Press paper. One of these sets, given to Cockerell by Jane Morris c.1898, is bound into a single volume (K775) owned by the William Morris Gallery. Other sets are in the Pierpont Morgan Library (Gift of John M. Crawford) and the Fitzwilliam Museum (J.R. Holliday Bequest 1927).

Drawings related to the Cupid and Psyche illustrations and other tales from ‘The Earthly Paradise’ are in the following collections: A volume of 86 preliminary drawings of various sizes executed in pencil, pen and ink or chalk, is now in Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery (648’27). A series of 47 finished designs in pencil on tracing paper was given by Burne-Jones to Ruskin, who presented them to Oxford University in 1875 (now in the Ashmolean). Another volume of 39 drawings formerly in the collection of F.S. Ellis is in the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York; 36 of these are on tracing paper, the remaining 3 on drawing paper; 21 relate to the Cupid and Psyche story though some are variants of scenes which were never engraved on wood; others are for the Story of Pygmalion and The Hill of Venus.

For another early proof on proof paper see WMG: K726.

Details

Date: c.1866-68
Dimensions: 10.5 x 7.6
Object Type: print
Technique: wood engraving
Catalogue number: K715
Designer: Burne-Jones | Edward Coley | Sir | 1833 | 1898
Maker: Morris, William (1834 - 1896)
Credit notes: WMG purchase, 1954

This is one of a series of illustrations to ‘The Story of Cupid and Psyche’ for the projected edition of ‘The Earthly Paradise’ begun in September 1865. The illustrations were engraved on wood by Morris and his friends and associates in the Firm. Burne-Jones did illustrations for some of the other tales in ‘The Earthly Paradise’, but the Cupid and Psyche wood engravings were the most completed part of the project which was abandoned in 1868 after trial pages, set in Basle and Caslon types at the Chiswick Press, did not prove satisfactory.

Details

Date: c.1862
Dimensions: 12.7 x 12.7
Object Type: ceramic
Material: earthenware
Catalogue number: C175a
Designer: Burne-Jones | Edward Coley | Sir | 1833 | 1898
Artist: Orrinsmith (née Faulkner), Lucy (1839 - 1910)
Credit notes: WMG purchase, 1970

This tile, designed by Edward Burne-Jones and painted by Lucy Faulkner, shows Alceste, a character found in Chaucer’s ‘Legend of Goode Wimmen’. Tiles were a popular and financially important aspect of Morris and Co.’s early output and were often influenced by medieval and Renaissance sources. Despite Morris’s belief that works of art should, as far as possible, be designed and executed by a single craftsperson, the tiles created by Morris & Co. were part of a more complex chain of production: blank tiles were purchased from the Netherlands and were then painted by members of Morris’s workshop (including regularly by sisters Lucy and Kate Faulkner) to designs by Morris, Burne-Jones and others.

This depiction of Alceste is one of a series of designs based on ‘Legend of Goode Wimmen’ and is typical of Burne-Jones’s use of combining ceramic tiles in the creation of pictorial decoration.

Details

Date: c.1866-68
Dimensions: 10.5 x 15.6
Object Type: print
Technique: wood engraving
Catalogue number: K713a
Designer: Burne-Jones | Edward Coley | Sir | 1833 | 1898
Maker: Morris, William (1834 - 1896)
Credit notes: WMG purchase, 1956

This is one of a series of illustrations to ‘The Story of Cupid and Psyche’ for the projected edition of ‘The Earthly Paradise’ begun in September 1865. The illustrations were engraved on wood by Morris and his friends and associates in the Firm. Burne-Jones did illustrations for some of the other tales in ‘The Earthly Paradise’, but the Cupid and Psyche wood engravings were the most completed part of the project which was abandoned in 1868 after trial pages, set in Basle and Caslon types at the Chiswick Press, did not prove satisfactory.

For other early proofs see K713 on Michallet paper and K721; for a later proof on Kelmscott Press paper see K775.

Details

Date: 1892
Dimensions: 29.3 x 21.3 x 3.7 (closed)
Object Type: book
Material: paper with half holland binding
Catalogue number: K17a
Printer: Kelmscott Press | 1891 | 1898
Translator: Caxton, William (1415 - 1492)
Illustrator: Burne-Jones | Edward Coley | Sir | 1833 | 1898
Editor: Ellis, Frederick Startridge (1830 - 1901)
Retailer: Quaritch, Bernard (1819 - 1899)
Maker: Hooper, William Harcourt (1834 - 1912)

‘The Golden Legend’ was intended to be the first title issued by the Kelmscott Press, but was delayed because of its length (some 1,300 folio pages) and the fact that the original paper delivery was not sized correctly. The text is by Jacobus de Voragine and is a thirteenth century collection of saints lives, it was one of the first books printed in English by William Caxton who also translated it from Latin. Kelmscott Press editor, FS Ellis’s daughter Phyllis transcribed Caxton’s first edition from Cambridge University Library. The illustrations are Edward Burne-Jones and it is one of three volumes (see also K17a and K17b). 500 copies on paper were printed, none on vellum.

Details

Date: 4.8.1893
Object Type: book
Catalogue number: K9
Publisher: Kelmscott Press | 1891 | 1898
Author: More, Thomas, Sir (1478 - 1535)
Designer: Morris, William (1834 - 1896)
Editor: Ellis, Frederick Startridge (1830 - 1901)
Retailer: Reeves & Turner
Credit notes: Probably presented by Miss Demain Saunders, 1950

Book by Sir Thomas More. Reprinted from the 2nd edition of Ralph Robinson’s translation, with a foreword by William Morris. Edited by F.S. Ellis. Printed on paper with ‘Flower’ watermark in Chaucer type in black and red, with reprinted title in Troy type in Black. Borders and initials designed by Morris. Pages xiv (including Morris’s foreword and reprint of original title) + 282 pages + colophon (the first designed by Morris for Kelmscott Press). Dated 4 August 1893 (issued 8 September 1893). Limp vellum binding with silk ties 8vo.

Details

Date: 13.5.1892
Object Type: book
Catalogue number: K6
Author: Morris, William (1834 - 1896)
Designer: Morris, William (1834 - 1896)
Designer: Burne-Jones | Edward Coley | Sir | 1833 | 1898
Maker: Hooper, William Harcourt (1834 - 1912)
Publisher: Kelmscott Press | 1891 | 1898
Seller: Reeves & Turner
Credit notes: Transer from Walthamstow Reference Library, 1950

‘A Dream of John Ball and A King’s Lesson’ (originally called An Old Story Retold) were published in William Morris’s newspaper The Commonweal between 1886-1887. They first appeared in book form in an edition [WMG: K516] published by Reeves & Turner 1888, with an engraved frontispiece by Burne Jones, with a couplet below “When Adam delved and Eve span / Who then was the gentleman?” in upper and lower case lettering designed by Morris. A finished pen and ink drawing by Burne Jones with lettering below by Morris for this frontispiece is in the Gallery’s collection, see D75.

Burne Jones re-drew the illustration for the frontispiece to the Kelmscott Press edition of Morris’s work, and it was engraved on wood by W.H. Hooper. The lettering, this time in capitals only, was designed by Morris also the framing border. 300 copies were printed on paper at £1 10 and 11 copies on vellum at 10 guineas. This copy on paper was presented by Morris to his friend Aglaia Coronio (1834-1906); embroiderer, bookbinder, art collector and patron of the arts.

The whole design was used again on a leaflet printed at the Kelmscott Press in March 1894 for the Ancoats Brotherhood (see copy in the collection). The design was also printed under the title ‘Labour’ in the Daily Chronicle 11 February 1895.

Details

Date: 1890
Object Type: glass
Material: stained, painted, leaded glass
Catalogue number: C196.1
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). An inscription on the lower portion reads: “to the glory of god and in gratitude for special mercies d.d. maria shau 1874” 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: 1899
Dimensions: 25 x 37
Object Type: watercolour
Catalogue number: BrW27
Artist: Fletcher, Hanslip, 1875, 1955
Credit notes: Brangwyn gift, 1936

This is one of a series of sketches of Kelmscott Manor by the artist Hanslip Fletcher, during a visit to Kelmscott on 7th August 1899. Morris had died three years earlier in 1896, and the house was occupied by Jane Morris, who later bought it in 1913. The watercolour shows the Tapestry Room, with Morris’s desk in the centre and various chairs, including a Morris & Co. rush seated chair in the background.

Fletcher was an etcher, illustrator and painter specialising in architectural studies of London and elsewhere. He was born and lived in London and was a member of the Art Workers’ Guild.

Details

Date: first issued 1868-70, printed 1968
Dimensions: 119.7 x 55.9
Object Type: wallpaper
Catalogue number: B102
Attributed designer: Gilbert Scott, George, Sir (1811 - 1878)
Manufacturer: Arthur Sanderson and Sons Ltd
Credit notes: Presented by Arthur Sanderson & Sons Ltd, 1968

This design was originally thought to have been based on Indian designs for painted/embroidered furnishings, or adapted from an earlier 18th century wallpaper by William Morris. However it is now attributed to George Gilbert Scott Jnr because of a reference in a letter (Victoria and Albert Museum, London: National Art Library) from the Firm’s business manager Warrington Taylor to Philip Webb in 1869, making reference to ‘Scott’s “Indian”‘. In 1874 Scott was one of the founders of Watts & Co who issued wallpapers in a similar style. The pattern repeat is 63.5 x 50.8 cm.

This version was printed in 1968, using original Morris & Co. blocks by the firm Arthur Sanderson & Sons Ltd., who acquired the blocks from Morris & Co. when they closed in 1940. The Sanderson colourway number ‘138770 Indian’ is on the reverse with the price of 38 shillings.

Details

Date: c. 1862-63
Dimensions: 15.2 x 15.2 each tile
Object Type: ceramic
Material: hand-painted overglaze earthenware
Catalogue number: C257
Designer: Burne-Jones | Edward Coley | Sir | 1833 | 1898
Manufacturer: Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co.
Credit notes: Purchased with assistance from the MLA/V&A Purchase Grant Fund, The Art Fund and Friends of the William Morris Gallery, 2006

Early in 1862, Edward Burne-Jones recorded in his account book (Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge) a series of designs for painted tiles with subjects from Greek mythology. The Judgement of Paris depicts the episode from the Greek legend when Paris, Prince of Troy has to chose the most beautiful of the three godessess and presents an apple to Venus, thus setting in train the Trojan War. The Latin inscription translates as ‘The Judgment of Paris on great Mount Ida’.

Painted in the Red Lion Square workshops of Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co.- of which Burne-Jones was a founder-partner with Wiliam Morris, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Ford Madox Brown et al.- the tiles are an early and delightful example of the Pre-Raphaelite taste for depicting classical scenes in medieval guise. Paris is shown in cross-gartered leggings and huntsman’s cap, while the three godesses are distinctly late-Gothic in their bodily proportions. Identified by their named scrolls, the four figures stand in an enclosed, stylish landscape in the manner of a medieval tapestry or manuscript illumination.

Handpainted tiles were an important product of the Morris firm from its establishment in 1861 until the mid-1870s. Some were used as overmantels but others, as in this case, were intended to be framed and diplayed as pictures in their own right.

The only other known version of the tile panel is at Kelmscott Manor and differs in several details, notably that the scene is painted on 5-inch square tiles bordered with 12 blue tiles painted with an inscription by William Morris in black. It has been suggested that the Kelmscott Manor panel was to be shown at the International Exhibition at South Kensington later that year but was withdrawn from Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co’s exhibit when the ‘decorative value of verses’ was criticized by William Burges, one of the judges. If so, it is possible that this version, omitting Morris’s verses and with an integral simple inscription, was the version shown by the Firm at the Exhibition.

Details

Date: 1905
Dimensions: 8.6 x 13.7
Object Type: photograph
Material: photograph
Catalogue number: P680
Sitter: Morris, Jenny (1861 - 1935)
Sitter: Culmer (neé Peerless), Ada ( - 1939)
Sitter: Morris | May | 1862 | 1938
Sitter: Morris (née Burden) | Jane | 1839 | 1914
Credit notes: Presented by Mrs Charles Bramley, 1962

This postcard shows a photograph of the female members of the Morris family in the garden at Kelmscott Manor. Jane Morris is lying in a hammock, with her youngest daughter May Morris seated beside her on the ground and Jenny Morris her eldest daughter seated on a chair right. Ada Culmer (neé Peerless), Jenny’s carer is seated on the ground far left. Marie Spartali Stillman is sat on a chair on the left, dressed in black with another unidentified woman sat beside her.

Details

Date: designed c. 1860
Dimensions: 84.5 x 48.3 x 40.7
Object Type: furniture
Material: turned, ebonised wood with rush seat
Catalogue number: G55
Manufacturer: Morris & Co.
Retailer: Morris & Co.
Owner: Jack, Jessie, Miss (1894 - 1972)
Credit notes: WMG purchase

Rush-seated armchair in turned, ebonised wood frame and rush seat. This chair has been widely attributed to the designer Philip Webb in the early 1860s. It was manufactured by Morris, Marshall, Faulkner and Co. and continuously produced by Morris & Co. until the twentieth century. The full range include armless chairs and a three-seater settle. The name ‘Sussex’ chair can be attributed to Morris’s biographer J.W. Mackail who commented that the chair was adapted from a country chair found in Sussex. Black or red Sussex chairs were used in Morris’s first family home Red House and this example was acquired from Jessie Jack, who’s parents George and Annie Jack, both worked for Morris & Co. Another version of this armchair without the spindles in the back was also produced by the Firm, see G27a&b.

Details

Date: c.1911
Object Type: archival
Catalogue number: J2186
Publisher: Morris & Co. Decorators Ltd, 449 Oxford Street, London
Credit notes: Presented by Mrs 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.1911
Object Type: archival
Catalogue number: J2165
Publisher: Morris & Co. Decorators Ltd, 449 Oxford Street, London
Credit notes: Gift of Kathleen Wells, 1957

Details

Date: c.1876
Object Type: photograph
Catalogue number: PP1/Z521
Sitter: Morris, William (1834 - 1896)

Photograph of William Morris wearing an artist smock and soft felt hat, c.1876. Morris had an unconventional dress sense. At university he went through a phase of only wearing purple trousers. In later years his shirts and jackets were made exclusively from indigo blue cloth. His willingness to wear a working smock in this portrait reveals a great deal about his attitude to manual labour. Unlike many reformers, Morris was a hands-on craftsman. Practical workwear such as this was as much a profession of his affinity with working people as it was a practical choice, protecting his normal clothes from the dye vats and printing ink in his factory at Merton Abbey.

Details

Dimensions: 30.1 x 85.8 x 2.7
Object Type: photograph
Material: platinum print
Catalogue number: P829.2
Photographer: Hollyer | Frederick | 1838 | 1933
Manufacturer: Morris & Co.
Credit notes: Gift of F J Lefroy, 1962

These photographs show the final two sections of The Holy Grail tapestries woven by Morris & Co. between 1891 and 1894. The tapestries were commissioned by William Knox D’Arcy for his dining room at Stanmore Hall, now in the Borough of Harrow in North-East London. Like many Morris & Co. tapestries, the design was a group effort with the figures designed by Edward Burne-Jones, the heraldic elements by William Morris and the background and floral details by John Henry Dearle.

Morris & Co. went on to produce two more versions of the tapestries with minor differences, these photographs of the original tapestries may have been displayed in the Morris & Co. showroom to advertise their tapestries. The photographs could also have been used by the Morris & Co. weavers to create the later versions of the tapestries. The photographs are part of a set of three, and at least one other set exists and is in the collection of the William Morris Society.

This set of photographs was given to the Gallery in 1962 by Miss Frances Lefroy who also donated many of fabrics and furnishings from her parent’s house, which was decorated by Morris & Co.

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: 1865
Dimensions: 48.9 x 30.8
Object Type: design
Catalogue number: A7
Artist: Morris, William (1834 - 1896)
Credit notes: WMG Purchase, 1940

This was designed by Morris for the right-hand light of a pair of small windows in the chancel south side of St. Olave’s, Gatcombe in the Isle of Wight. The panel has quarries above and below, and an inscription: ‘And he was received up into heaven’. The companion light on the left shows the Maries at the Sepulchre with the inscription: ‘Very early in the morning the first day in the week’; the design for this is the same as that by Morris for St Michael’s Brighton, 1861.

The design was not used again elsewhere.

Details

Date: 1892
Dimensions: 37.7 x 125.7
Object Type: textile
Material: silk
Technique: hand-embroidered
Catalogue number: F320
Designer: Jack, George Washington Henry (1855 - 1931)
Maker: Jack, Annie Christian (1861 - 1942)
Credit notes: Presented by Miss J Jack and Miss M Jack, 1972

This embroidery, stitched by Annie Christian Jack and designed by her husband George Jack, has a folk-art quality. The design shows the main characters from William Shakespeare’s ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’. The dancing figure of Oberon (left) bears an uncanny resemblance to William Morris. Titiana and Puck are to the right. Below is the inscription “Lulled in these flowers with dances and delight”.

The panel was designed as a piano frontal and is worked in split stitch, stem stitch, herringbone, long and short stitches, cross-bar with small diagonal stitches infilled with satin stitch, single chain stitch; metal beads used for Titania’s crown and blanket Stitch.

A very similar embroidery appears also as a bolster cover at Wightwick Manor, National Trust.

Details

Date: 1872
Object Type: design
Material: watercolour, bodycolour and pencil on paper
Catalogue number: A259
Artist: Burne-Jones | Edward Coley | Sir | 1833 | 1898

This watercolour composition by Edward Burne-Jones is one of four designs for stained glass windows executed by Morris & Co. in 1872. They were made for the 18th century chapel at Castle Howard, North Yorkshire, and depict the Christian story of the birth of Jesus: ‘The Annunciation’, ‘The Nativity’, ‘Adoration of the Magi’, and ‘The Flight into Egypt’. The Morrises were good friends with the then Earl and Countess of Carlisle, George and Rosalind Howard, and would often exchange letters and pay visits. The Howards extensively modernised the interiors of their stately home with Morris & Co. designs during the late 19th century, notably redecorating the chapel and perhaps controversially covering a wall of Pellegrini frescoes with ‘Bird and Anemone’ wallpaper . Much of this was later removed, but the Arts and Crafts additions to the chapel, including these windows, remain to be seen today, a testament to their friendship.

Here, we see ‘Adoration of the Magi’, the visitation of the three kings to the newborn Christ child. This traditional biblical scene features hallmarks typical of Morris & Co. design, including figures dressed in richly coloured medieval attire and intricate leaf patterns in the trees, reminiscent of Morris’s ‘Willow’ wallpaper, also produced in the 1870s. The bold, linear style is somewhat different to the lush, delicately painted masterpieces Burne-Jones became known for, and relates directly to the final product. We can see the artist beginning to imagine how the glass will fit together, which elements will be leaded and which details will be hand painted. This image would then have been worked up into a full-size cartoon before being transferred to glass. A window using this same design was reproduced by Morris & Co. in the early 20th century, and can be seen in the Epiphany Chapel at Winchester Cathedral, Hampshire.

Details

Date: 1872
Dimensions: 105.5 x 100
Object Type: design
Material: watercolour, bodycolour and pencil on paper
Catalogue number: A258
Artist: Burne-Jones | Edward Coley | Sir | 1833 | 1898
Credit notes: WMG purchase, 1954

Here, we see ‘The Nativity’ or scene of the birth of Christ, with Mary and Joseph gathered around the child, watched over by a host of angels. The bold, linear style is somewhat different to the lush, delicately painted masterpieces Burne-Jones became known for, and relates directly to the final product. We can see the artist beginning to imagine how the glass will fit together, which elements will be leaded and which details will be hand painted. This image would then have been worked up into a full-size cartoon before being transferred to glass. A window using this same design was reproduced by Morris & Co. in the early 20th century, and can be seen in the Epiphany Chapel at Winchester Cathedral, Hampshire.

Details

Date: 1872
Object Type: design
Material: watercolour, bodycolour and pencil on paper
Catalogue number: A257

Here, we see ‘Annunciation’, depicting the three kings presenting gifts before a seated Virgin Mary who is holding Jesus on her lap. The bold, linear style is somewhat different to the lush, delicately painted masterpieces Burne-Jones became known for, and relates directly to the final product. We can see the artist beginning to imagine how the glass will fit together, which elements will be leaded and which details will be hand painted. This image would then have been worked up into a full-size cartoon before being transferred to glass.

Details

Date: c. 1870
Dimensions: 15.2 x 15.2
Object Type: ceramic
Catalogue number: C266
Designer: Morris, William (1834 - 1896)
Credit notes: Purchased with assistance from Friends of the William Morris Gallery, 2009

This design is credited to William Morris, but the tile was made for both Morris & Co. and William De Morgan’s firm. Morris and De Morgan met in 1863 and there was a large degree of overlap in their design, production and sale processes. The Firm sold products of its own design and also those by De Morgan; by the 1880s De Morgan was the main supplier to the Morris shop. Both De Morgan and Dutch manufacturers also made tiles after designs by Morris. The ‘Artichoke’ design was a popular choice and the pale blue colourway was still made well into the 20th century. Morris had this design installed in the fireplace at his Cotswold home Kelmscott Manor.

Details

Dimensions: 15.2 x 15.2
Object Type: ceramic
Catalogue number: C270
Designer: Morris, William (1834 - 1896)
Designer: De Morgan, William (1839 - 1917)
Credit notes: Purchased with assistance from Friends of the William Morris Gallery, 2010

William Morris and William De Morgan met in 1863 and there was a large degree of overlap in their design, production and sale processes. The Firm sold products of its own design and also those by De Morgan; by the 1880s De Morgan was the main supplier to the Morris shop. Despite Morris’s belief in the integrity of all stages of the design process, this pattern was created by De Morgan on an unmarked white ‘blank’, imported from the Netherlands. The sunflower’s central pistil shows De Morgan’s interest in geometry, with the repeating diamond shapes creating a sense of curvature and depth. Variations on this design were also produced in dark red and blue.

Details

Date: Designed 1879, manufactured early 20th century
Dimensions: 40 x 43.5
Object Type: textile
Technique: power-loom jacquard woven
Catalogue number: F157
Designer: Morris, William (1834 - 1896)
Retailer: Morris & Co.
Credit notes: WMG purchase, 1955

William Morris designed Flower Garden in 1879. He described it in a letter to a Georgiana Burne-Jones on 4 March 1879: ‘I am…in a whirlwind of dyeing and weaving, and…rather excited by a new piece…which looks beautiful, like a flower garden’. Morris claims to have chosen the colours to ‘suggest the beauties of inlaid metal’. They were almost certainly influenced by a display of items from Damascus he had studied in the dealer Vincent J. Robinson’s shop in London in March 1878 (see letter from WM to May Morris). The irregular shape of this fragment suggests it was used to upholster an armchair or sofa, it was purchased by the Gallery in 1940 from the Estate of Mrs Lucius Gubbins, one of Morris & Co.’s most well known customers.

Details

Dimensions: 29.6 x 86.4 x 2.4
Object Type: photograph
Material: platinum print
Catalogue number: P829.1
Photographer: Hollyer | Frederick | 1838 | 1933
Manufacturer: Morris & Co.
Credit notes: Gift of Miss F J Lefroy. 1962

These photographs show the first two sections of The Holy Grail tapestries woven by Morris & Co. between 1891 and 1894. The tapestries were commissioned by William Knox D’Arcy for his dining room at Stanmore Hall, now in the Borough of Harrow in North-East London. Like many Morris & Co. tapestries, the design was a group effort with the figures designed by Edward Burne-Jones, the heraldic elements by William Morris and the background and floral details by John Henry Dearle.

This set of photographs was given to the Gallery in 1962 by Miss Frances Lefroy who also donated many of fabrics and furnishings from her parent’s house, which was decorated by Morris & Co.

Details

Dimensions: 20 height x 10 diameter
Object Type: metalwork
Material: copper
Technique: repousse
Catalogue number: L25
Manufacturer: Keswick School of Industrial Art, Cumbria (1884 - 1984)
Maker: Clark
Credit notes: Presented by Lady Aurea Howard, 1972

Tall jug with slightly turned foot, tapering towards neck which is decorated with a raised border of interlacing leaves, the hinged lid having a thumb lever; the handle of which had rush binding, fragments of which remain. The Keswick School of Industrial Art (KSIA) was founded in 1884 by Canon Hardwicke Rawnsley and his wife Edith to offer evening classes in repousse metalwork.

Details

Date: c.1882
Dimensions: 96.5 x 48.3 x 49.5
Object Type: furniture
Material: mahogany, leather and brass
Catalogue number: G36a
Designer: Mackmurdo | Arthur Heygate | 1851 | 1942
Retailer: Century Guild
Manufacturer: Collinson and Lock
Credit notes: WMG purchase, 1966

The sinuous fretwork in the back of this chair caused a sensation when it was exhibited in 1885. It is now seen as an early precursor of Art Nouveau. Only five of these chairs are known to exist; two in the collection of the William Morris Gallery, one in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, one in the Virginia Museum of Fine Art, Richmond, and the fifth copy is shared between the Huntington Library / Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Details

Date: c. 1870s
Dimensions: 83.8 42 x 35.6
Object Type: furniture
Catalogue number: G30a
Manufacturer: Morris & Co.
Credit notes: Presented by Miss A. Rigby, 1961

The Sussex chair was designed by Philip Webb for Morris & Co., c.1860s. The ebonised turned wood and rush seating was adapted from a traditional vernacular pattern and made in large quantities by Morris & Co. from the 1860s onwards.

Details

Date: designed 1860-62, manufactured c.1860-70s
Object Type: ceramic
Material: earthenware tiles painted in enamels
Catalogue number: C287
Manufacturer: Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co.
Credit notes: Gift of Robert Higgins, 2026

These tiles are an early tile design by Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co, first developed c.1860-62 for a fireplace for a private house, The Hill, Surrey. The tiles are 6 inches with leaves and berries tile painted in soft blue on a white ground with yellow accent. The Leaves and Berry design was commercially available after this commission and this version was possibly manufactured c.1862-1870s. Another set from a house in Cambridge are in the V&A (C.72 to 79-2005)

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