The Drawing Room, Kelmscott House

Details

Date: 1896
Dimensions: 28 x 22.7
Object Type: photograph
Material: photograph
Catalogue number: 107/Z1072
Photographer: Walker | Emery | 1851 | 1933
Credit notes: Presented by Miss Dorothy Walker, 1955

Photograph of the interior of Morris’s home Kelmscott House, Hammersmith by his friend and neighbour Emery Walker. The photograph shows the drawing room with a fireplace and mantelshelves with two rows of Iznik ceramic plates (the plates on the top shelf, far right and far left are now at Kelsmcott Manor) and a metal charger. Either side of the firplace are hangings of Morris & Co. ‘Bird’ woven wool, on the left is a Morris & Co. adjustable back chair and on the right a large settle also made by the firm. To the right of the fireplace is a mother of pearl inlaid table, possible north-African or Ottoman and a Turkish style rug in front of the hearth. A handwritten note of the back of the photograph explains that the firegrate was a wedding gift of Philip Webb to Morris.

Details

Date: 1885
Object Type: book
Material: paper
Catalogue number: K3030
Author: Morris, William (1834 - 1896)
Author: Bax, Ernest Belford (1854 - 1926)
Publisher: Socialist League Office
Credit notes: Purchased from Lord Tom Sawyer by the Friends of the William Morris Gallery, 2015

Written on New Year’s Day 1885 by William Morris and Ernest Belfort Bax, the Manifesto of the Socialist League sets out the aims of the fledgling political group. After splitting from the Social Democratic Federation, Morris along with Bax, Edward Aveling, Eleanor Marx and others founded the Socialist League as a more radical group that sought ‘the realization of complete revolutionary Socialism’.

Ernest Belfort Bax was a barrister and historian described by May Morris, William’s younger daughter, as ‘the learned and distinguished philosopher’. Bax taught Morris economics and Marxism in regular sessions that Morris referred to as ‘compulsory Baxination’.

The Socialist League logo featured on this pamphlet was designed by Walter Crane. Crane also produced illustrations for membership cards, invitations and posters for the group. His monochrome illustrations and engravings came to define socialist and trade union imagery for the next thirty years.

Details

Date: c.1866
Dimensions: 96.5 x 73.7 x 83.8
Object Type: furniture
Material: turned ebonised wood
Catalogue number: G2.1 to 4
Designer: Webb | Philip | 1831 | 1915
Manufacturer: Morris & Co.
Credit notes: Presented by Miss F.J. Lefroy, 1951

The design of the chair was developed by Philip Webb, c.1866, although Warrington Taylor, the Firm’s business manager from 1865, seems to have been responsible for spotting the original prototype which formed the basis of Webb’s design. A note from Warrington Taylor to Webb contains a sketch of a smilar chair, annotated “back and seat made with bars across to put cushions on, moving on a hinge, a chair model of which I saw with an old carpenter at Herstmonceaux, Sussex, by name Ephraim Colman, your truly W. T.” It has always been supposed that the chair referred to above was an original piece of rural Sussex furniture; however a chair of a very similar design is illustrated in an early 19th century catalogue. Whatever the origins, the chair as designed by Webb for Morris went into production in the mid-1860s and became one of the Firm’s most popular items, still appearing in Morris & Co. catalogues as late as the first decade of this century. The chair is made of ebonized wood and upholstred in yellow Utrecht velvet, though less costly printed cotton covers were later available as an alternative.

Details

Object Type: printing block
Material: pearwood
Catalogue number: R593
Retailer: Morris & Co.
Manufacturer: Barrett's of Bethnal Green Road
Credit notes: Gift of John Lewis Partnership, 1980

This printing wood block with used to print Morris & Co.’s designs onto cotton and was made by the firm of Barrett, 249 Bethnal Green Road. William Morris’s original drawing, or those of his other chief designer’s, would be transferred onto a pearwood surface using tracing paper. Morris would check all the blocks for accuracy before the pattern was carved into the surface by Barrett’s carvers. Each block was cut to match a different colour of the design and had to register correctly to ensure the pattern was printed accurately. Small pins were inserted in the edge of the block which when printed left tiny dots of colour. This allowed the printer to line the blocks up in the right place.

At Merton Abbey the cloth was stretched over a blanket underlay on one of the long tables in the printing shop. The printer would press the printing block into a dye-pad and then lay it into position on the fabric. The block was then tapped with a mall (a led weighted mallet) to ensure an even impression on the cloth. The printer then lifted the block, applied more colour and repeated the process down the whole length of the fabric. By this time the first colour had dried, allowing the application of second colour.

Details

Date: early 1860s
Dimensions: 185.5 x 127.5
Object Type: textile
Material: wool on linen
Technique: hand-embroidered
Catalogue number: F390i
Designer: Morris, William (1834 - 1896)
Credit notes: Purchased with assistance of the MGC/V&A Purchase Grant Fund and the Friends of the William Morris Gallery, 1997

This embroidered hanging was designed by William Morris and probably hung in his first home, Red House in Bexleyheath. It was most likely stitched by a small team that may have included Morris’s wife Jane and her sister Elizabeth Burden. In the early days of their marriage Morris and Jane often worked on embroideries together. They enjoyed unpicking old pieces of embroidery that they admired to learn the different stitching techniques. Morris’s enthusiasm for medieval art is clear in his early embroidery designs, such as this one. The tree, banner and bird motif was inspired by an illustration in a fifteenth-century manuscript that he had been studying in the British Museum. The French inscription, ‘Qui Bien Aime Tard Oublie’, translates as ‘who loves best forgets slowly’ and is taken from Geoffrey Chaucer’s poem ‘Parliament of Fowls’. In simple terms it means ‘one never forgets true love’.

The embroidery was one of a set of identical hangings installed at Penkill Castle in Ayrshire, Scotland by the late 1860s. The castle belonged to Alice Boyd, mistress of the painter William Bell Scott, who was closely connected to Dante Gabriel Rossetti and the Pre-Raphaelite circle. In a letter to Boyd in 1868, Rossetti referrers to the embroideries as “the Topsaic tapestries” a reference to Morris’s nickname ‘Topsy’. The hangings were likely an early product produced by Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co after it was founded in 1861. A very similar pattern can be seen on the hanging in the background of William Morris’s only easel painting, ‘La Belle Iseult’, painted in 1858.

Details

Date: c.1895-7
Dimensions: 25 x 17.5
Object Type: drawing
Catalogue number: D192
Artist: Burne-Jones | Edward Coley | Sir | 1833 | 1898
Credit notes: WMG purchase, 1954

This pencil drawing by Edward Burne-Jones was a preliminary drawing for an illustration in William Morris’s Kelmscott Press edition of Sigurd the Volsung published in January 1898. The Kelmscott Press edition of Sigurd was first proposed in November 1891. At the time Burne-Jones was already working on the illustrations for the Kelmcott Press edition of The Complete Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, but agreed to provide 25 illustrations to the Sigurd. He found the subject much less congenial than working on Chaucer and his illustrations progressed slowly. Morris’s death in October 1896 put an end to the idea of a fully illustrated folio and in the final edition as printed, only two illustrations were used, ‘The Dwelling of Volsung’ (frontispiece) and ‘Gudrun Setting Fire to the Palace of Atli’. Another drawing, similar to this one, is in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.

Details

Date: 1874-1876
Dimensions: 96.5 x 126.4
Object Type: textile
Technique: hand-embroidered
Catalogue number: F140e
Designer: Morris, William (1834 - 1896)
Designer: Burne-Jones | Edward Coley | Sir | 1833 | 1898
Maker: Bell, Margaret (1820 - 1886)
Maker: Johnson, Florence
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 (see D187). The exquisite embroidery was executed by the wife and daughter of Sir Isaac Lowthian Bell, Margaret Bell and Florence Johnson, respectively.

Details

Date: 1874-1876
Dimensions: 92.1 x 123.2
Object Type: textile
Technique: hand-embroidered
Catalogue number: F140b
Designer: Morris, William (1834 - 1896)
Designer: Burne-Jones | Edward Coley | Sir | 1833 | 1898
Maker: Bell, Margaret (1820 - 1886)
Maker: Johnson, Florence
Credit notes: Presented by Sir Hugh Bell, Bart., 1953

Details

Object Type: printing block
Material: pearwood
Catalogue number: R477
Retailer: Morris & Co.
Manufacturer: Barrett's of Bethnal Green Road
Credit notes: Gift of John Lewis Partnership, 1980

Details

Date: c.1880s - 1890s
Dimensions: 22.8 x 15.4
Object Type: textile
Material: silks and gold thread on linen
Technique: hand-embroidered
Catalogue number: F337
Designer: Morris | May | 1862 | 1938
Maker: Morris, Jenny (1861 - 1935)
Credit notes: Purchased 1986

This bag was designed and made by William Morris’s two daughters, May and Jenny. It was designed by May to contain a ‘Psalter’ (a book of psalms), from William Morris’s extensive collection of medieval manuscripts. The bag is made of indigo linen and embroidered by Jenny in silk with the word “Psalterium” in Gothic script. Stitches include back stitch, stem stitch, long & short stitch, loop stitch, satin stitch, couching and buttonhole stitch round edges with words filled in with chain stitch, pomegranate is padded laid work, surface couched in gold thread.

Details

Date: c.1890s
Dimensions: 127 x 163.8
Object Type: textile
Technique: hand-embroidered
Catalogue number: F205
Designer and maker: Morris | May | 1862 | 1938
Credit notes: Presented by Mary Annie Sloane, 1962

Wrap or cloak made from fine navy blue woven wool cloth with broad band of Chinese embroidery around neck and down one side along front opening and around cuffs and sleeves with pink chrysanthemums and butterflies. Coloured silk and metal thread worked in satin, stem, long and short, French knots and running stitches. The wrap is thought to have been made by May Morris and the embroidery is likely to be 19th century and of Chinese origin. It was acquired by May’s friend the artist Mary Sloane at the Kelmscott Manor Auction in 1938, Lot 124, for £2.6s.

Details

Object Type: printing block
Material: pearwood
Catalogue number: R596
Retailer: Morris & Co.
Manufacturer: Barrett's of Bethnal Green Road
Credit notes: Gift of John Lewis Partnership, 1980

Details

Date: designed c.1876
Dimensions: 58.5 x 59.1
Object Type: design
Material: pen and ink on paper
Catalogue number: A1061
Designer: Morris, William (1834 - 1896)
Credit notes: Presented by Arthur Todd, 2002

William Morris based the design on two Italian seventeenth-century lacis-work panels acquired by the South Kensington Museum in 1875. The paper is watermarked 1876. Lacis is a handmade net onto which a design is darned. An example worked up by May as an embroidery is in the William Morris Gallery’s collection (F154). Another version of the Flowerpot design is in the William Morris Society (watercolour and pencil on paper).

‘Flowerpot’ was available to buy in kit form from Morris & Co.; as a tracing pattern to be embroidered at home, partly started, or as finished version worked by the Firm’s embroidery department. According to the Firm’s ‘Embroidery Day Book 1894-1896’ (V&A), a tracing of ‘Flowerpot’ cost 5 shillings, whilst a started version on cotton or linen cost 14 shillings. The square shape meant it was adapted into cushions and mounted into firescreens. Other worked examples are in collections of V&A, National Museums Liverpool, Birmingham Museum and the Embroiderers’ Guild.

Details

Date: 1892
Dimensions: 21.5 x 15 x 2.5 (closed)
Object Type: book
Catalogue number: K445
Manufacturer: Kelmscott Press | 1891 | 1898
Author: Mackail, John William , Professor (1859 - 1945)
Credit notes: Transfer from Walthamstow Reference Library, 1953

8vo, stiff vellum with brown silk ties in green paper slipcase, golden type in black and red ink, ex-libris T. Hugh Cobb on front pastedown, W. Morris woodcut title and initials, uncut, some leaves unopened.

Written anew for children by J.W. Mackail. 200 paper copies, none on vellum. J.W. Mackail was Edward Burne-Jones’ son-in-law and later Morris’ biographer. He was also a socialist, Virgil scholar, professor of poetry at Oxford and president of the British Academy.

Details

Date: c.1857
Dimensions: 134.6
Object Type: textile
Material: cotton
Technique: woven
Catalogue number: H12
Attributed designer: Morris, William (1834 - 1896)
Owner: Morris, William (1834 - 1896)
Owner: Morris (née Burden) | Jane | 1839 | 1914
Credit notes: Presented by Central School of Arts and Crafts (London County Council), 1954.

This woven white cotton sideless gown is part of a group of costume items that also includes a dress and cloak, both also in the collection. They were all reputed to have been designed by William Morris for use as costume props to be worn by models, notably his wife Jane, at the time of the decoration of the Oxford Union murals in 1857. The gown has been linked to a 1858 study by Morris for ‘La Belle Iseult’, his only easel painting which is now in the Tate collection.

Details

Date: c.1862
Dimensions: 9 x 36
Object Type: design
Material: ink and watercolour
Catalogue number: BlA445
Designer: Morris & Co.

Four quarry designs arranged vertically and framed with a black border each depicting a single stylized plant. Top: Five bluebells springing from single stem with rounded ground leaves. Middle top: Three four-petaled flowers with spear-like leaves springing from central point on ground with leaves. Middle bottom: Five four-petaled flowers on long stalks springing from tuft of grass with two grass fronds behind. Bottom: three circular flowers with pointed cleaves springing from central ground point with leaves. On back is written “QP73” with H (circled) Haddingston 1894, A (circled) Ambleside 1894 and ME. Little Hollingsbury 1908.

Details

Date: reg 15 April 1875, printed 1917-1940
Dimensions: 184.8 x 97.2
Object Type: textile
Material: cotton
Technique: block-printed
Catalogue number: F211
Designer: Morris, William (1834 - 1896)
Manufacturer: Morris & Co.
Credit notes: Mary Annie Sloane bequest, 1962

Tulip was designed by William Morris in 1875 and manufactured by Wardle & Co. in Leek, Staffordshire. The design features horizontal rows of variagated tulips and acanthus leaves. The Gallery holds the original design and wood blocks used to print the cotton. Morris advised would-be designers to create forms of flowers and leaves ‘that are obvioulsy fit for printing with a block; to mask the construction of our pattern enough from counting the repeats‘ (Some Hints on Pattern Designing, 1880)

Details

Date: 1870s - 1880s
Dimensions: 32 x 54
Object Type: textile
Technique: hand-embroidered
Catalogue number: F145a
Designer: Orrinsmith (née Faulkner), Lucy (1839 - 1910)
Maker: Orrinsmith (née Faulkner), Lucy (1839 - 1910)
Credit notes: Presented by Mrs Hitch, 1954

Night drewss case embroidered by Lucy Falkner. Natural cotton twill embroidered with background of apricot wool on top half, yellow wool on bottom half; the top half decorated with flowers in buff-pink wools and silks with central wool pom-poms or rosettes enclosed in running scroll of leaves, the bottom half decorated with horizontal band of sheaf of lilies with overall pattern of clumps of leaves in background; the edge of the top decorated with plaited woolen braid and tassels.

Lining of pink silk printed with white flowers.

Details

Object Type: drawing
Material: pencil, ink and watercolour on paper
Catalogue number: W147n
Artist: Pugh, Elinor M., Miss, 1962
Credit notes: Elinor Pugh bequest, 1963

Elinor Pugh illustrated a number of books, mostly for children, including a picture book of scenes from London. This one, titled “At the Zoo” shows a pair of elegantly dressed children aboard a magnificent camel. Like many of her illustrations, this simple ink drawing nevertheless gives every subject a distinct character: the watchful zookeeper in his London Zoee uniform; the small child nervously holding the reins of his decidedly superior-looking steed. Pugh made several copies of these illustrations before completing a more finished version for publication, allowing her to perfect the composition.

Details

Date: c.1907
Object Type: drawing
Material: pen and ink on paper
Catalogue number: K881a
Artist: Pugh, Elinor M., Miss, 1962
Credit notes: Miss Elinor Pugh bequest, 1963

This charming illustration is one of a series of pen and ink illustrations that accompanied “100 Poésies Enfantines” or “100 Poems for Children” by Daniel Jones, a notable early phonetician. The book contained poems, maxims and proverbs written in French phonetics, a way of spelling developed in the 19th Century designed to help young children to learn speech sounds. Pugh’s signature pen and ink is here simplified to a linear style. The mouse’s smart jacket is reminiscent of an Edwardian soldier’s uniform, a nod to her interest in costume design.

Details

Date: designed 1887, printed c.1940-50
Dimensions: 88.3 x 55.9
Object Type: wallpaper
Catalogue number: B22b
Designer: Morris, William (1834 - 1896)
Manufacturer: Arthur Sanderson and Sons Ltd
Credit notes: Presented by Arthur Sanderson & Sons Ltd, 1950

‘Willow Bough’ is one of William Morris’s most enduring wallpaper designs, in continuous production since 1887. The pattern consists of willow branches that form a diagonal branch pattern over the plain background. As he eloquently expressed in his lecture ‘Hints on Pattern Designing’, a successful design should combine a degree of abstraction with a gentle reminder of the outdoors rather than a few ‘sham-real boughs and flowers, casting sham-real shadows on your walls, with little hint of anything beyond the Covent Garden in them?’. In 1874, Morris had designed a similar wallpaper called ‘Willow’, a more simple stylised representation of willow branches, ‘Willow Bough’ is a more naturalistic version of this earlier pattern with curling leaves in tones of green.

This example was printed by Arthur Sanderson & Sons who purchased Morris & Co’s designs and printing blocks when the firm closed in 1940.

Details

Date: designed 1876, manufactured before 1940
Dimensions: 66 x 97.8
Object Type: textile
Material: printed cotton
Technique: block-printed
Catalogue number: F5
Designer: Morris, William (1834 - 1896)
Manufacturer: Morris & Co.
Credit notes: WMG purchase, 1940

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 marigolds, with larger stylised lilies and curling ribbons of willow and 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 than 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 dyeing and block-printing process of his fabrics at his own factory, Merton Abbey.

This example was acquired by the Gallery from Morris & Co. in 1940 when the business closed.

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:

Details

Date: 1931
Dimensions: 28.7 x 19.5
Object Type: design
Material: pencil, ink and watercolour on paper
Catalogue number: A664
Artist: Whall, Veronica (1887 - 1967)
Credit notes: Gift of Christopher Whall, 1973

This design for a two light window was designed by Veronica Whall in 1931 for All Saints Church, Valescure, France. It depicts St. Raphael the Archangel in the left-hand light and St. Ann in the right hand light. The Anglican church of Saint John the Evangelist, located close to the central and coastal area of St. Raphaël on the Côte d’Azur, in southeast France, was built to address the growing needs of the English-speaking population. The building was consecrated in 1907 by the Bishop of Gibraltar

Details

Date: c.1923-30
Object Type: design
Material: charcoal and grey wash on paper
Catalogue number: A847
Artist: Whall, Veronica (1887 - 1967)
Credit notes: Gift of Christopher J. Whall, 1973

Stained‑glass cartoon by Veronica Whall, depicting women and children, created for a three light window in St John’s Church, Keswick, Cumbria. The overall design shows Jesus surrounded by families. The design was commissioned as a memorial window dedicated to John Marshall (d. 1923), a grandson of Henry Cowper Marshall. John Marshall, of Derwent Island, and his younger brothers were instrumental in the early establishment of the National Trust.

Details

Date: c.1910
Dimensions: 18 x 13.5
Object Type: watercolour
Material: pencil and watercolour on paper
Catalogue number: W213a
Artist: Whall, Veronica (1887 - 1967)
Publisher: Stonebridge Press
Credit notes: Presented by C. J. Whall, 1973

Veronica Whall’s illustration for her 1912 edition of Peterkin in the Wood. Whall both wrote and illustrated the book, which was printed on handmade paper by her brother, Hew Whall. They published it through their joint imprint, the Stonebridge Press. The Story of Peterkin in the Wood follows two human children who join the fairy Peterkin for a day of adventures in an enchanted forest.

Details

Date: 1928
Dimensions: 27.8 x 20.3
Object Type: design
Material: pencil, ink and watercolour on paper
Catalogue number: A676
Designer: Whall, Veronica (1887 - 1967)
Credit notes: Gift of Christopher J. Whall, 1973

Design for the East window of St. James’ church, Bossington, Hampshire, by Veronica Whall. In the centre light a sailing ship and lighthouse, with plain glazing above and below and in side lights.

Inscription: (along left edge, pencil) 1/2 (illegible) 1 1/2 (crossed out) White. ; (l.r. pen and ink) Approved by the Winchester & / Portsmouth Advisory Committee / 19. July 1928 J.Cooke-Yarborough / Hon. Sec ; (verso, u.c. pencil) E. Window Bossington ; (label on verso c. pen and ink) 5 sq ft @ £10 -£50 / 25 ” ” ” £2. – £50 / £100

Details

Date: c. 1935
Dimensions: 27.8 x 16.5
Object Type: design
Material: pencil, ink and watercolour on paper
Catalogue number: A669
Designer: Whall, Veronica (1887 - 1967)
Manufacturer: Whall & Whall
Credit notes: Gift of Christopher J. Whall, 1973

Design for stained glass window by Veronica Whaall, depicting St. Christopher, with decorative inside lights and cherubim above.

Inscription: (on verso, u.r. pencil) VMW
Red stamp on verso l.c. WHALL & WHALL LTD. COPYRIGHT

Details

Date: 1907
Object Type: glass
Material: stained, painted, leaded glass
Catalogue number: C226
Designer: Esplin, Mabel, 1874, 1921
Manufacturer: Esplin, Mabel, 1874, 1921
Credit notes: Gift of Geofrrey A.K. Robinson, 1998

Mabel Esplin studied stained glass under the tutelage of Christopher Whall (1849-1924), the leading practitioner and teacher of the craft in the turn-of-the-century Arts & Crafts Movement. Esplin attended Whall’s classes at the London County Council’s Central School of Arts & Crafts and probably also worked in his studio-workshop at 1, Ravenscourt Park, Hammersmith. Selwyn Image also taught her at Central. On completing her studies, she set up her own studio in Hampstead, though the firing and glazing of her painted glass was always carried out at Lowndes & Drury’s ‘Glass House’ at Fulham. This panel was made while Esplin was still a student and was illustrated in The Art Journal, 1907 in a feature on student work. In its use of slab glass in intense, jewel-like colours and its relatively loose style of glass-painting, it is typical of the Arts & Crafts idiom developed by Whall and his school.

Esplin was a member of the Women’s Guild of Arts and a supporter of women’s suffrage. She and Mary Lowndes designed emblems for the International Women’s Suffrage Alliance.

In 1911 she received an important commission to design and make all of the windows for the new Anglican cathedral at Khartoum in Sudan, but in 1916, she suffered a serious mental illness which prematurely ended her career and led to her early death. The commission was completed by her former assistant, Joan Fulleylove.

Details

Date: late 1890s - early 1900s
Object Type: textile
Catalogue number: F142
Owner: Housman, Clemence (23 November 1861 - 6 December 1955)
Credit notes: WMG purchase, 1954

This dress originally belonged to the woodcut artist and suffragette Clemence Hausman (1861-1955). The dress is of the Aesthetic style, in green velvet (now faded) with gathered bodice, bell shaped sleeves and neckline and sleeves embroidered in scarab design in silk thread. Hausman was sister of the painter, illustrator and author Laurence Hausman and together they co-founded the Suffrage Atelier, producing propoganda for the women’s suffrage movement. The dress was given by Clemence Hausman to the amateur dramatic society the Street Players, which was founded by Laurence Hausman. The dress was later purchased by the Gallery from the The Street Players in 1954.

The dress is made of green-grey velvet with gathered bodice caught in at waist with green and gold cord with 3 tassels at either end; bell-shaped sleeves; neckline and sleeves embroidered in art nouveau style motifs in satin stitch in violet, blue and green silks. Deep oval neckline in-filled with white silk chiffon; undersleeves, gathered at the wrist, also of similar white chiffon. The bodice is lined with green silk fabric. There are 7 metal stays. The central back opening is fastened with metallic hooks and eyes.

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