Borage printed cotton

Details

Date: designed 1883
Dimensions: 106 x 99.7
Object Type: textile
Material: printed cotton
Technique: block-printed
Catalogue number: F306
Designer: Morris, William, 1834, 1896
Credit notes: Presented by Whitworth Art Gallery, 1969

This fragment of ‘Borage’ in green on natural ground, designed by William Morris, was given to the Whitoworth Gallery, Manchester by the firm Wardle and Co. and later transferred to the William Morris Gallery. Thomas Wardle was a master dyer who worked with Morris to perfect the dyes used for his textiles, his firm also manufactured Morris & Co. textiles before Morris moved his production in-house to Merton Abbey in 1881. This pattern was designed in 1883 and thefore post-dates Wardle & Co’s period of production for Morris & Co.

Details

Date: designed 1883
Dimensions: 22.9 x 19
Object Type: textile
Material: printed cotton
Technique: block-printed
Catalogue number: F305
Designer: Morris, William, 1834, 1896
Manufacturer: Morris & Co.
Credit notes: Presented by Whitworth Art Gallery, 1969

This fragment of ‘Borage’, designed by William Morris, was given to the Whitoworth Gallery, Manchester by the firm Wardle and Co. and later transferred to the William Morris Gallery. Thomas Wardle was a master dyer who worked with Morris to perfect the dyes used for his textiles, his firm also manufactured Morris & Co. textiles before Morris moved his production in-house to Merton Abbey in 1881. This pattern was designed in 1883 and thefore post-dates Wardle & Co’s period of production for Morris & Co.

Details

Date: designed 1883
Dimensions: 22.9 x 88.3
Object Type: textile
Material: cotton
Technique: block-printed
Catalogue number: F303
Manufacturer: Morris & Co.
Designer: Morris, William, 1834, 1896
Credit notes: Presented by Whitworth Art Gallery, 1969

This fragment of ‘Borage’, designed by William Morris, was given to the Whitworth Gallery, Manchester by the firm Wardle and Co. and later transferred to the William Morris Gallery. Thomas Wardle was a master dyer who worked with Morris to perfect the dyes used for his textiles, his firm also manufactured Morris & Co. textiles before Morris moved his production in-house to Merton Abbey in 1881. This pattern was designed in 1883 and thefore post-dates Wardle & Co’s period of production for Morris & Co. This example is overprinted with a number, possibly the pattern number 720/8605 and a date 19-6-24.

Details

Date: designed 1883
Dimensions: 21 x 62.2
Object Type: textile
Material: cotton
Technique: block-printed
Catalogue number: F302
Designer: Morris, William, 1834, 1896
Manufacturer: Morris & Co.
Credit notes: Presented by Whitworth Art Gallery, 1969

This fragment of ‘Borage’, designed by William Morris, was one of a number of examples given to the Whitworth Gallery, Manchester by the firm Wardle and Co. and later transferred to the William Morris Gallery in 1969. Thomas Wardle was a master dyer who worked with Morris to perfect the dyes used for his textiles, his firm also manufactured Morris & Co. textiles before Morris moved his production in-house to Merton Abbey in 1881. This pattern was designed in 1883 and thefore post-dates Wardle & Co’s period of production for Morris & Co.

Details

Date: design reg 5 October 1875, manufactured c.1875-81
Dimensions: 49.5 x 37.5
Object Type: textile
Material: cotton
Technique: block-printed
Catalogue number: F296
Attributed designer: Faulkner, Kate
Manufacturer: Wardle and Co. (1872 - 1908)
Retailer: Morris & Co.
Credit notes: Presented by Whitworth Art Gallery, 1969

This fragment of ‘Carnation’ printed cotton was in the collection of Thomas Wardle, a master dyer who manufactured Morris & Co. textiles before William Morris moved production in-house to his factory Merton Abbey, Surrey. The pattern was designed by Kate Faulkner. The partial stamp of Morris & Co., 26 Queens Square, Bloomsbury is visible on the selvedge.

Details

Date: 1960s
Object Type: textile
Material: cotton
Technique: block-printed
Catalogue number: F271d
Designer: Morris, William, 1834, 1896
Credit notes: Miss Frances J Lefroy bequest, 1965

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: 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:

‘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 han 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 dying and block-printing process of his fabrics at his own factory, Merton Abbey.

Details

Date: Design registered 1876
Dimensions: 85.1 x 95.5
Object Type: textile
Material: cotton
Technique: block-printed
Catalogue number: F223
Designer: Morris, William, 1834, 1896
Manufacturer: Morris & Co.
Credit notes: Presented by Mrs Charles Bramley, 1962

Designed by William Morris in 1876, his daughter May Morris described Honeysuckle as ‘the most truely “Morrisian” in character of all his-pattern making in later life”. The pattern combines four of his favourite flowers for pattern making- crown imperial, tulip, honeysuckle and fritillary, which overlay a dense background of yew.

Details

Date: design registered 27 February 1896
Dimensions: 187.3 x 72.4
Object Type: textile
Material: cotton
Technique: block-printed
Catalogue number: F221
Designer: Dearle, John Henry (1859 - 1932)
Manufacturer: Morris & Co.
Credit notes: Presented by Mrs Charles Bramley, 1962

‘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: 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: Miss Mary Ann 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: c.1907
Dimensions: 2.32 x 1.70
Object Type: textile
Material: printed cotton
Technique: block-printed
Catalogue number: F438
Designer: Wardle, Thomas, Sir (1831 - 1909)
Manufacturer: Wardle and Co. (1872 - 1908)
Credit notes: Purchased by the Friends of the William Morris Gallery, March 2015

This Renaissance design is one of six featured in the Studio Yearbook of 1907 and called Dusseldorf. The article mentioned that: ‘Dusseldorf is an elaborate design of early 16th century, constructed in pale wavy bands, broken by prominent rosettes’. Thomas Wardle had links with the museum and art school in Krefeld or Crefeld, north-west of Dusseldorf and centre of the silk weaving industry in Germany. He knew the Museum Director, Herr Schultz who was attached to the Royal Weaving School at Crefeld. The museum had a magnificent Royal Textile Collection. In 1893 Wardle invited Schultz to talk at the Royal Society, London on historic textile designs. Wardle was influenced by descriptions of historic trextiles which were shown in the talk but had probably seen this design in the museum. By the time this fabric was printed in around 1907, Thomas Wardle had died and his son was running the business. He clearly thought the design was commercial.
“The most striking element of this piece is its sense of movement and vibration. The colours wrapping around the vines and the wave shapes of the three vertical channels bring to mind water and an ongoing fluidity. The central lilypad shapes create a focus as well as a sense of organic life. The lack of empty space in this very detailed design gives the impression that the pattern is teaming with living organisms.” Raizel Frankl-Slater, WMG Young Producer

Details

Date: reg 17 June 1882, printed before 1910
Dimensions: 106.7 x 53.4
Object Type: textile
Material: cotton
Technique: block-printed
Catalogue number: F152b
Designer: Morris, William, 1834, 1896
Manufacturer: Morris & Co.
Retailer: Morris & Co.
Credit notes: Presented by Mrs Hitch, 1954

William Morris issued this design as a wallpaper and printed cotton at approximately at the same time, but the narrow upright rectangular repeat suggests it was first intended as a textile design. This example was made into a cusion cover and formerly in the collection of Lucy Faulkner Orrinsmith (1839-1910), an artist friend of William Morris and who also worked for his firm.

Technique: block-printed

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