Bay Leaf wallpaper

Details

Date: designed c.1868-71
Dimensions: 1099.8 x 55.9
Object Type: wallpaper
Technique: block-printed
Catalogue number: B70
Possibly designer: Morris, William, 1834, 1896
Possibly designer: Bodley, George Frederick (1827 - 1907)
Manufacturer: Jeffrey & Co.
Credit notes: Presented by Francis Leach, Esq., 1956

‘Venetian’ is one of two Morris & Co. wallpaper designs attributed to the Gothic-Revival architect George Frederick Bodley, the other is ‘Queen Anne’. Bodley became acquainted with William Morris in the late 1850s, by the 1860s he was commissioned by his firm to create designs for stained glass and ecclesiastical decoration. The wallpaper is a traditional repeating pattern of flowers and leaves and is based on a historic wallpaper design. Unlike Morris’s wallpaper designs the pattern is on just one plane, with a plain background.

The pattern repeat size is 26.7 x 57.2 cm. Amongst one of the earliest wallpapers produced by Morris, Marshal, Faulkner & Co. the first examples were printed with one colour on a white background, in later years the firm produced the pattern in an ever-increasing number of colourways, including this version in two shades of pink. This example was donated to the Gallery by the family of Frederick Richard Leach, a Cambridge based master decorator and stained glass designer who worked for Morris & Co. and George Frederick Bodley.

Details

Date: designed 1874, printed before 1940
Dimensions: 988.1 x 55.9
Object Type: wallpaper
Technique: block-printed
Catalogue number: B69
Designer: Morris, William, 1834, 1896
Manufacturer: Jeffrey & Co.
Credit notes: Presented by Francis Leach, Esq., 1956

‘Willow’ was designed by William Morris in 1874. The pattern is 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, as in this example (Morris & Co. colourway no.60) and later colours on a white background. This example was donated to the Gallery by the family of Frederick Richard Leach, a Cambridge based master decorator and stained glass designer who worked for Morris & Co.

Details

Date: designed 1880
Dimensions: 137.2 x 53.7
Object Type: wallpaper
Technique: block-printed
Catalogue number: B67
Designer: Morris, William, 1834, 1896
Manufacturer: Jeffrey & Co.
Credit notes: Presented by J. Selwyn Dunn, Esq., 1956

Designed together with St James silk damask for the decoration of the Throne Room and Wellington Room in St James’s Palace. Public commission was first secured for 1866-67 for the decoration of the Armoury and Tapestry rooms. Extended in 1881-82 to the entire decoration of all the State rooms by Morris & Co. 68 blocks and 2 change blocks were needed to print the design.

Repeat size: 119.4 x 111.8 cm. For original designs, see objects A40 and A40a. This length shows only part of the pattern repeat.

Details

Date: designed 1886, printed before 1940
Dimensions: 90.8 x 52.7
Object Type: wallpaper
Technique: block-printed
Catalogue number: B58
Designer: Morris, William, 1834, 1896
Manufacturer: Jeffrey & Co.
Retailer: Morris & Co.
Credit notes: Presented by Mrs Edward Unwin, 1956

William Morris designed Lily and Pomegranate wallpaper in 1886, the original design is also in the Gallery’s collection, see A30. The pattern combines a central tulip plant, with adjacent lilies, pomegranate fruit and marigold flowers set against a dotted background.

This version was formerly owned by the architect Sir Raymond Unwin, who knew Morris.

Details

Date: designed 1893, printed before 1940
Dimensions: 91.4 x 55.9
Object Type: wallpaper
Technique: block-printed
Catalogue number: B57
Manufacturer: Jeffrey & Co.
Designer: Dearle, John Henry (1859 - 1932)
Retailer: Morris & Co.
Credit notes: Presented by Mrs Edward Unwin, 1956

‘Spring Thicket’, designed by John Henry Dearle for Morris & Co. in 1893, follows the same conventions as William Morris’s wallpaper ‘Lily and Pomegranate’, designed in 1886. Both patterns follow a symmetrical net repeat, with a large central clump of tulips against a background of foliage. In this wallpaper Dearle uses white flowering hawthorn to unite the overall pattern. The repeat is 76.2 x 53.3cm. The colouway number 331 is writte in pencil on the right edge.

Details

Date: designed 1896, printed before 1940
Dimensions: 106 x 56.2
Object Type: wallpaper
Technique: block-printed
Catalogue number: B55
Manufacturer: Jeffrey & Co.
Designer: Dearle, John Henry (1859 - 1932)
Retailer: Morris & Co. Decorators Ltd, 449 Oxford Street, London
Credit notes: Presented by Mrs Edward Unwin, 1956

‘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 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. The original design is also in the Gallery’s collection, see A214. It was registered as a wallpaper and printed cotton on 27 February 1896.

Details

Date: designed 1891, printed before 1940
Dimensions: 91.4 x 55.9
Object Type: wallpaper
Technique: block-printed
Catalogue number: B54
Manufacturer: Jeffrey & Co.
Retailer: Morris & Co.
Designer: Dearle, John Henry (1859 - 1932)
Credit notes: Presented by Mrs Edward Unwin, 1956

John Henry Dearle first designed this as a pattern for chintz in 1877. It was also available as a printed velveteen and madras muslin, using the name ‘Cherwell’. Morris & Co. started producing it as a wallpaper from 1890 onwards. The pattern combines acanthus leaves and flowers, including pinks, thistles and chrysanthemums on a dotted background.

The repeat size is 76.8 x 53.3 cm. Printed on right edge: ‘MORRIS & Co’. In pencil on right: ‘Double Bough 305 9/9’.

Details

Date: designed 1875, manufactured before 1940
Dimensions: 1117.6 x 57.2
Object Type: wallpaper
Technique: block-printed
Catalogue number: B51
Designer: Morris, William, 1834, 1896
Manufacturer: Jeffrey & Co.
Retailer: Morris & Co.
Credit notes: WMG purchase, 1955

Marigold was designed by William Morris and registered in 1875 as a wallpaper, but it possibly dates from c.1873, since it appears in the records of Morris & Co.’s wallpaper manufacturers Jeffrey & Co. between Jasmine (1872) and Lily (1874) wallpapers. The pattern incorporates larger marigold flowers amongst sprays of willow like leaves, on a sub-pattern of smaller foliage and flowers. The monochrome pattern was produced in a wide variety of colourways. This version in two shades of pale pink was acquired from the retailer Maple & Co. Furniture from their old supply of wallpaper stock.

Morris also registered the design as a chintz later in 1875. Despite modern reproductions of Morris’s patterns being used for both wallpaper and textiles, Marigold is one of only three designs Morris specifically intended to be produced as both a textile and a wallpaper.

Details

Date: designed c.1878, printed before 1940
Dimensions: 1099.8 x 55.9
Object Type: wallpaper
Technique: block-printed
Catalogue number: B50
Designer: Morris, William, 1834, 1896
Manufacturer: Jeffrey & Co.
Credit notes: WMG purchase, 1955

William Morris registered the design for ‘Sunflower’ on 7 January 1879. The wallpaper incorporates a central sunflower head, with tulips, small flowers and a grape vine. The monochrome colourway and the vine gives the design a classical aesthetic. The firm produced it in a variety of colourways, mainly in yellow or green hues, and was one of their cheapest wallpapers making it best seller. Morris & Co. also produced the design in in oil colour on an embossed, foiled and lacquered gold background, which sold for 6 times the price. The repeat is 47 x 53.3 cm. The original design is in the collection of the William Morris Society (C4). This roll in green was acquired from the retailer Maple & Co. Furniture in 1855 from their old stock of wallpaper.

In Morris’s lecture ‘Making the Best of It’ (1880), he sets out his ideas on the most attractive flowers for the garden, of sunflowers he says “though a latecomer to our gardens, is by no means to be despised, since it will grow anywhere, and is both interesting and beautiful, with its sharply chiselled yellow florets relieved by the quaintly patterned sad-coloured centre clogged with honey and beset with bees and butterflies.”

Technique: block-printed

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