William Scott Luce Window Malmesbury Abbey

Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co. (1861–1875) was a furnishings and

decorative arts ] The decorative arts are arts or crafts whose object is the design and manufacture of objects that are both beautiful and functional. It includes most of the arts making objects for the interiors of buildings, and interior design, but not usua ...

manufacturer and retailer founded by the artist and designer

William Morris William Morris (24 March 1834 – 3 October 1896) was a British textile designer, poet, artist, novelist, architectural conservationist, printer, translator and socialist activist associated with the British Arts and Crafts Movement. He w ...

with friends from the

Pre-Raphaelites The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (later known as the Pre-Raphaelites) was a group of English painters, poets, and art critics, founded in 1848 by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Michael Rossetti, Jame ...

. With its successor Morris & Co. (1875–1940) the firm's

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

-inspired aesthetic and respect for hand-craftsmanship and traditional

textile arts Textile arts are arts and crafts that use plant, animal, or synthetic fibers to construct practical or decorative objects. Textiles have been a fundamental part of human life since the beginning of civilization. The methods and materials u ...

had a profound influence on the decoration of churches and houses into the early 20th century. Although its most influential period was during the flourishing of the Arts and Crafts Movement in the 1880s and 1890s, Morris & Co. remained in operation in a limited fashion from

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

until its closure in 1940. The firm's designs are still sold today under licences given to Sanderson & Sons, part of the

Walker Greenbank Walker Greenbank (LON: WGB) is a UK public company designing and manufacturing wallpaper and fabrics, with a history stretching back more than a century. It trades under several brands including Arthur Sanderson & Sons, Morris & Co., Zoffany and H ...

wallpaper and fabrics business (which owns the "Morris & Co." brand,) and to Liberty of London.

Early years

William Morris design for Trellis wallpaper 1862

Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co., "Fine Art Workmen in Painting, Carving, Furniture and the Metals", was jointly created by Morris,

Ford Madox Brown Ford Madox Brown (16 April 1821 – 6 October 1893) was a British painter of moral and historical subjects, notable for his distinctively graphic and often Hogarthian version of the Pre-Raphaelite style. Arguably, his most notable painti ...

Edward Burne-Jones Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, 1st Baronet, (; 28 August, 183317 June, 1898) was a British painter and designer associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood which included Dante Gabriel Rossetti, John Millais, Ford Madox Brown and Holman ...

, Charles Faulkner,

Dante Gabriel Rossetti Gabriel Charles Dante Rossetti (12 May 1828 – 9 April 1882), generally known as Dante Gabriel Rossetti (), was an English poet, illustrator, painter, translator and member of the Rossetti family. He founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhoo ...

, P. P. Marshall, and

Philip Webb Philip Speakman Webb (12 January 1831 – 17 April 1915) was a British architect and designer sometimes called the Father of Arts and Crafts Architecture. His use of vernacular architecture demonstrated his commitment to "the art of commo ...

in 1861 to create and sell medieval-inspired, handcrafted items for the home.''Dictionary of National Biography'', 1901, "William Morris" The prospectus set forth that the firm would undertake carving,

stained glass Stained glass is coloured glass as a material or works created from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant religious buildings. Although tradition ...

, metal-work, paper-hangings,

chintz Chintz () is a woodblock printed, painted, stained or glazed calico textile that originated in Golconda (present day Hyderabad, India) in the 16th century. The cloth is printed with designs featuring flowers and other patterns in different colour ...

es (printed fabrics), and

carpet A carpet is a textile floor covering typically consisting of an upper layer of pile attached to a backing. The pile was traditionally made from wool, but since the 20th century synthetic fibers such as polypropylene, nylon, or polyester ...

s. The first headquarters of the firm were at 8

Red Lion Square Red Lion Square is a small square in Holborn, London. The square was laid out in 1684 by Nicholas Barbon, taking its name from the Red Lion Inn. According to some sources, the bodies of three regicides—Oliver Cromwell, John Bradshaw and Hen ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. The work shown by the firm at the

1862 International Exhibition The International Exhibition of 1862, or Great London Exposition, was a world's fair. It was held from 1 May to 1 November 1862, beside the gardens of the Royal Horticultural Society, South Kensington, London, England, on a site that now houses ...

attracted much notice, and within a few years it was flourishing. In the autumn of 1864, a severe illness obliged Morris to choose between giving up his home at Red House in Kent and giving up his work in London. With great reluctance he gave up Red House, and in 1865 established himself under the same roof with his workshops, which by then had relocated to larger premises in Queen Square,

Bloomsbury Bloomsbury is a district in the West End of London. It is considered a fashionable residential area, and is the location of numerous cultural, intellectual, and educational institutions. Bloomsbury is home of the British Museum, the largest ...

. The decoration of churches was from the first an important part of the business. A great wave of church-building and remodelling by the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Brit ...

in the 1840s and 1850s increased the demand for ecclesiastical decoration of all kinds, especially stained glass. But this market shrank in the general depression of the later 1860s, and the firm increasingly turned to secular commissions.Charles Harvey and Jon Press, "The Businessman." in Parry, ''William Morris'', pp. 49–50 On its non-ecclesiastical side, the product line was extended to include, besides painted windows and mural decoration, furniture, metal and glass wares, cloth and paper wall-hangings, embroideries,

jewellery Jewellery ( UK) or jewelry ( U.S.) consists of decorative items worn for personal adornment, such as brooches, rings, necklaces, earrings, pendants, bracelets, and cufflinks. Jewellery may be attached to the body or the clothes. From a w ...

, woven and knotted carpets,

silk Silk is a natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be woven into textiles. The protein fiber of silk is composed mainly of fibroin and is produced by certain insect larvae to form cocoons. The best-known silk is obtained from th ...

damask Damask (; ar, دمشق) is a reversible patterned fabric of silk, wool, linen, cotton, or synthetic fibers, with a pattern formed by weaving. Damasks are woven with one warp yarn and one weft yarn, usually with the pattern in warp-faced satin ...

s, and

tapestries Tapestry is a form of textile art, traditionally woven by hand on a loom. Tapestry is weft-faced weaving, in which all the warp threads are hidden in the completed work, unlike most woven textiles, where both the warp and the weft threads may ...

. Morris was producing repeating patterns for wallpaper as early as 1862, and some six years later he designed his first pattern specifically for fabric printing. As in so many other areas that interested him, Morris chose to work with the ancient technique of hand woodblock printing in preference to the roller printing which had almost completely replaced it for commercial uses.Parry, ''William Morris Textiles'', pp. 36–46.

Reorganization and expansion

In August 1874, Morris determined to restructure the partnership, generating a dispute with Marshall, Rossetti, and Madox Brown over the return on their shares. The company was dissolved and reorganized under Morris's sole ownership as Morris & Co. on 31 March 1875. During these years, Morris took up the practical art of dyeing as a necessary adjunct of his manufacturing business. He spent much of his time at the

Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation Staffs.) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, the West Midlands C ...

dye works of Thomas Wardle, mastering the processes of that art and making experiments in the revival of old or discovery of new methods. One result of these experiments was to reinstate

indigo dye Indigo dye is an organic compound with a distinctive blue color. Historically, indigo was a natural dye extracted from the leaves of some plants of the ''Indigofera'' genus, in particular '' Indigofera tinctoria''; dye-bearing ''Indigofera'' pl ...

ing as a practical industry, and generally to renew the use of those vegetable dyes, like

madder ''Rubia'' is the type genus of the Rubiaceae family of flowering plants, which also contains coffee. It contains around 80 species of perennial scrambling or climbing herbs and subshrubs native to the Old World. The genus and its best-know ...

, which had been driven almost out of use by the anilines. Dyeing of wools, silks, and cottons was the necessary preliminary to what he had much at heart, the production of woven and printed fabrics of the highest excellence; and the period of incessant work at the dye-vat (1875–76) was followed by a period during which he was absorbed in the production of textiles (1877–78), and more especially in the revival of carpet-weaving as a fine art. L L Pocock Pond at Merton Abbey

In June 1881, Morris relocated his dyeworks from Queen Square to an early eighteenth-century silk-throwing works at

Merton Abbey Mills __NOTOC__ Merton Abbey Mills is a former textile factory in the parish of Merton in London, England near the site of the medieval Merton Priory, now the home of a variety of businesses, mostly retailers. The River Wandle flowing north tow ...

, after determining that the water of the

River Wandle The River Wandle is a right-bank tributary of the River Thames in south London, England. With a total length of about , the river passes through the London boroughs of Croydon, Sutton, Merton and Wandsworth, where it reaches the Thames. A sho ...

was suitable for dyeing. The complex, on , included several buildings and a dyeworks, and the various buildings were soon adapted for stained-glass, textile printing, and fabric- and carpet-weaving. In 1879, Morris had taught himself

tapestry Tapestry is a form of textile art, traditionally woven by hand on a loom. Tapestry is weft-faced weaving, in which all the warp threads are hidden in the completed work, unlike most woven textiles, where both the warp and the weft threads ma ...

weaving in the medieval style and set up a tapestry workshop with his apprentice

John Henry Dearle John Henry Dearle (22 August 1859 – 15 January 1932) was a British textile and stained-glass designer trained by the artist and craftsman William Morris who was much influenced by the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. Dearle designed many of th ...

at Queen Square.Parry, Linda: ''William Morris Textiles'', New York, Viking Press, pp. 103–104 Dearle executed Morris and Co.'s first figural tapestry from a design by

Walter Crane Walter Crane (15 August 184514 March 1915) was an English artist and book illustrator. He is considered to be the most influential, and among the most prolific, children's book creators of his generation and, along with Randolph Caldecott and Ka ...

in 1883.Waggoner, ''The Beauty of Life'', p. 86. Dearle was soon responsible for the training of all tapestry apprentices in the expanded workshop at Merton Abbey, and partnered with Morris on designing details such as fabric patterns and floral backgrounds for tapestries based on figure drawings or cartoons by Burne-Jones (some of them repurposed from stained glass cartoons). and animal figures by Philip Webb. Suites of tapestries were made as part of whole-house decorating schemes, and tapestries of Burne-Jones angels and scenes from the

Arthurian legends The Matter of Britain is the body of medieval literature and legendary material associated with Great Britain and Brittany and the legendary kings and heroes associated with it, particularly King Arthur. It was one of the three great Wes ...

were a staple of Morris & Co. into the twentieth century.

Important commissions

The firm's first commissionsstained glass and decorative schemes for

St Michael's Church, Brighton St. Michael's Church (in full, St. Michael and All Angels Church) is an Anglican church in Brighton, England, dating from the mid-Victorian era. Located on Victoria Road in the Montpelier area, to the east of Montpelier Road, it is one of the ...

, All Saints Church, Selsley, and Jesus Chapel, Cambridgecame from the architect G F Bodley in the early 1860s. Following this, two significant secular commissions helped to establish the firm's reputation in the late 1860s: a royal project at

St. James's Palace St James's Palace is the most senior royal palace in London, the capital of the United Kingdom. The palace gives its name to the Court of St James's, which is the monarch's royal court, and is located in the City of Westminster in London. Al ...

and the "green dining room" at the South Kensington Museum (now the Victoria and Albert) of 1867. The green dining room (preserved as the Morris Room at the V&A) featured stained glass windows and panel figures by Burne-Jones, panels with branches of fruit and flowers by Morris, and olive branches and a frieze by Philip Webb. The St. James's commission comprised decorative schemes for the Armoury and the Tapestry Room, and included panels of stylized floral patterns painted on ceilings,

cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, around the top edge of a ...

s, dadoes, windows, and doors. In 1871, Morris & Co. were responsible for the windows at All Saints church in the village of Wilden near to Stourport-on-Severn. They were designed by Burne-Jones for

Alfred Baldwin Alfred Baldwin may refer to: * Alfred Baldwin (politician) (1841–1908), English businessman and Conservative MP, father of Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin * Alfred C. Baldwin III (1936–2020), "shadow man" in the 1972 Watergate break-in *Alfr ...

, his wife's brother-in-law.

Standen Standen is an Arts and Crafts house located to the south of East Grinstead, West Sussex, England. The house and its surrounding gardens belong to the National Trust and are open to the public. It is a Grade I listed building. House Between 18 ...

near

East Grinstead East Grinstead is a town in West Sussex, England, near the East Sussex, Surrey, and Kent borders, south of London, northeast of Brighton, and northeast of the county town of Chichester. Situated in the extreme northeast of the county, the civ ...

West Sussex West Sussex is a county in South East England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the shire districts of Adur, Arun, Chichester, Horsham, and Mid Sussex, and the boroughs of Crawley and Worthing. Covering an ...

, was designed between 1892 and 1894 by Philip Webb for a prosperous

solicitor, James Beale, his wife Margaret, and their family. It is decorated with Morris carpets, fabrics and wallpapers. Stanmore Hall was the last major decorating commission executed by Morris & Co. before Morris's death in 1896. It was also the most extensive commission undertaken by the firm, and included a series of tapestries based on the story of the Holy Grail for the dining room, to which Morris devoted his energies, the rest of the work being executed under the direction of Dearle.Linda Parry, "Domestic Decoration." In Parry, ''William Morris'', pp. 146–147 Other Morris & Co. commissions include the ceiling within the dining room of Charleville Forest Castle, Ireland; interiors of Bullers Wood House, now Bullers Wood School in

Chislehurst Chislehurst () is a suburban district of south-east London, England, in the London Borough of Bromley. It lies east of Bromley, south-west of Sidcup and north-west of Orpington, south-east of Charing Cross. Before the creation of Greater L ...

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

; and stained glass windows at

Adcote Adcote School is a non-selective independent day and boarding school for girls, located in the village of Little Ness, northwest of Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England. The school was founded in 1907, and is set in a Grade I listed country hous ...

Last stages

Morris and Company Textile Printing Merton Abbey

As Morris pursued other interests, notably

socialism Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes th ...

and the

Kelmscott Press The Kelmscott Press, founded by William Morris and Emery Walker, published fifty-three books in sixty-six volumes between 1891 and 1898. Each book was designed and ornamented by Morris and printed by hand in limited editions of around 300. Many ...

, day-to-day work at the firm was delegated. Morris's daughter May became the director of the embroidery department in 1885, when she was in her early twenties. Dearle, who had begun designing repeating patterns for wallpapers and textiles in the late 1880s,Parry, Linda: ''William Morris Textiles'', pp. 30–31 was head designer for the firm by 1890, handling interior design commissions and supervising the tapestry, weaving, and fabric-printing departments at Merton Abbey. Dearle's contributions to textile design were long overshadowed by Morris. Dearle exhibited his designs under the Morris name rather than his own in the Arts and Crafts Exhibitions and the major Morris retrospective of 1899,Parry, Linda: ''Textiles of the Arts & Crafts Movement'', Thames and Hudson, revised edition 2005, p. 122Parry, Linda: ''William Morris and the Arts and Crafts Movement: A Sourcebook'', New York, Portland House, 1989, pp. 9–10 and even today many Dearle designs are popularly offered as "William Morris" patterns. On Morris's death in 1896, Dearle became the art director of the firm, which changed its name again, to Morris & Co. Decorators Ltd., in 1905. The company was still making good-quality stained glass into the 1920s: Holy Trinity Church,

Elsecar Elsecar (, ) is a village in the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley in South Yorkshire, England. It is near the villages of Jump and Wentworth and south of the town of Hoyland, south of Barnsley and north-east of Sheffield. Elsecar falls wit ...

, has several Morris & Co. windows dated 1922. Dearle managed the company's textile works at Merton Abbey until his own death in 1932. The firm was finally dissolved in the early months of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

Offerings

Stained glass

William Morris King Arthur and Sir Lancelot.png, ''King Arthur and Sir Lancelot'', from the Tristram and Isoude stained glass panels, designed by William Morris (1862) Dante Gabriel Rossetti The Fight between Tristram and Sir Marhaus stained glass.png, ''The Fight between Tristram and Sir Marhaus'' from the Tristam and Isoude series, designed

(1862) Boston Trinity Church 04.jpg, Edward Burne-Jones and William Morris' Nativity windows (1882) USA Massachusetts Boston Trinity Nativity-window.jpg, Edward Burne-Jones and William Morris' ''The Worship of the

Magi Magi (; singular magus ; from Latin '' magus'', cf. fa, مغ ) were priests in Zoroastrianism and the earlier religions of the western Iranians. The earliest known use of the word ''magi'' is in the trilingual inscription written by Darius t ...

'' window (1882) USA Massachusetts Boston Trinity-Nativity-detail-2.jpg, Edward Burne-Jones and William Morris' ''The Worship of the Shepherds'' window (1882) USA Massachusetts Boston Trinity Nativity-detail-1.jpg, Detail from Edward Burne-Jones and William Morris' ''The Worship of the Shepherds'' window (1882) All Saints church, Preston Bagot - Mary and Martha stained glass windows 2016.jpg, ''Mary and Martha'' by

in All Saints, Preston Bagot

Printed textiles and wallpapers

Morris & Co. repeating patterns were occasionally offered as both block-printed

wallpaper Wallpaper is a material used in interior decoration to decorate the interior walls of domestic and public buildings. It is usually sold in rolls and is applied onto a wall using wallpaper paste. Wallpapers can come plain as "lining paper" (so ...

s and

fabric Textile is an umbrella term that includes various fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, filaments, threads, different fabric types, etc. At first, the word "textiles" only referred to woven fabrics. However, weaving is not ...

Parry, Linda: ''William Morris and the Arts and Crafts Movement: A Sourcebook'', New York, Portland House, 1989 during Morris's lifetime; many of the patterns still available are offered in both forms by their current manufacturers. File:Morris Jasmine Wallpaper 1872.png, ''Jasmine'' wallpaper, designed by Morris 1872 File:Morris Acanthus Wallpaper 1875.jpg, ''Acanthus'' wallpaper, designed by Morris 1875 File:Morris Honeysuckle Fabric 1876.png, ''Honeysuckle'' fabric, designed by Morris 1876 File:Morris Grafton wallpaper c 1883.jpg, ''Grafton'' wallpaper, Morris, 1883 File:Morris Evenlode textile drawing.jpg, Design for ''Evenlode'' textile, Morris, 1883 File:Morris Evenlode printed textile.jpg, ''Evenlode''

indigo Indigo is a deep color close to the color wheel blue (a primary color in the RGB color space), as well as to some variants of ultramarine, based on the ancient dye of the same name. The word "indigo" comes from the Latin word ''indicum'', ...

discharge and block-printed textile, Morris, 1883 File:Morris Willow Bough 1887.jpg, Willow Bough wallpaper, Morris, 1887, repurposed for fabric c. 1895 File:Artichoke wallpaper Morris and Co J H Dearle.jpg, ''Artichoke'' wallpaper, designed by

, 1897

Woven textiles

File:Morris and Co Anemone 1876.jpg, ''Anemone'' jacquard-woven silk and wool or silk damask, Morris, 1876 File:Morris Peacock and Dragon Fabric 1878 v2.jpg, ''Peacock and Dragon'' woven woollen fabric, Morris, 1878 File:Morris Granada velvet.jpg, ''Granada'' woven silk velvet brocaded with gilt thread and blue areas block-printed, Morris, 1884 File:Morris Ispahan textile c 1888.jpg, ''Ispahan'' woven woollen fabric, Morris, 1888

Embroidery

File:Art Needlework Morris Design Detail.jpg, Detail of ''Flowerpot'' embroidery, 1890 File:Embroidered Panel Morris and Company.jpg, Portion of ''Artichoke'' embroidered panel, 1890 File:Embroidered Screen J H Dearle.jpg, Embroidered screen, designed Dearle, between 1885-1910 File:Morris_%26_COMPANY,_London_-_Acanthus_porti%C3%A8re_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg, Acanthus

portière A portière is a hanging curtain placed over a door or over the doorless entrance to a room. Its name is derived from the word for door in french: porte. History From Asia, it came to Europe at a remote date. It is known to have been in use i ...

, silk embroidery on linen, 1890s

Tapestry

Notes

References

*Fairclough, Oliver, and Emmeline Leary, ''Textiles by William Morris and Morris & Co. 1861-1940'', Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery, 1981, * Mackail, J. W., ''The Life of William Morris'' in two volumes, London, New York and Bombay: Longmans, Green and Co., 1899 *
Google Books edition of Volume I
an
Volume II (1911 reprint)
retrieved 16 August 2008 *Mackail, J. W., "William Morris," in ''The Dictionary of National Biography''. Supp. vol. 3 (London: Smith, Elder and Co., 1901), pp. 197–203, reproduced a

*Parry, Linda, "Textiles", in ''The Earthly Paradise: Arts and Crafts by Wiliam Morris and his Circle in Canadian Collections'', edited by Katharine A. Lochnan, Douglas E. Schoenherr, and Carole Silver, Key Porter Books, 1993, *Parry, Linda, ed.: ''William Morris'', Abrams, 1996, *Parry, Linda: ''William Morris and the Arts and Crafts Movement: A Sourcebook'', New York, Portland House, 1989 *Parry, Linda: ''William Morris Textiles'', New York, Viking Press, 1983, *Parry, Linda: ''Textiles of the Arts & Crafts Movement'', Thames and Hudson, revised edition 2005, *Waggoner, Diane: ''The Beauty of Life: William Morris & the Art of Design'', Thames and Hudson, 2003,

External links

* * *
Morris & Co. collection at the

Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum is a design museum housed within the Andrew Carnegie Mansion in Manhattan, New York City, along the Upper East Side's Museum Mile. It is one of 19 museums that fall under the wing of the Smithsonian In ...

*
Edward Burne-Jones, Victorian artist-dreamer
', full text exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art {{DEFAULTSORT:Morris and Co. 1861 establishments in England 1940 disestablishments in England British stained glass artists and manufacturers British weavers Defunct companies based in London Defunct glassmaking companies Design companies established in 1861 Design companies disestablished in 1940 Glassmaking companies of England History of glass Manufacturing companies of England Textile arts organizations Tapestry-making operations Wallpaper manufacturers