Wreath
Design
ca. 1880 (made)
ca. 1880 (made)
Artist/Maker | |
Place of origin |
Dating from about 1880, this original wallpaper design by Morris & Co. is known as 'Poppy' or 'Wreath'. It shows clearly how William Morris's confidence in creating highly sophisticated pattern repeats had evolved by the late nineteenth century. The design's rich colours, scrolling foliage and effect of three-dimensionality are typical of Morris & Co.'s output from the mid-1870s onwards. Like the famous 'Acanthus' paper (Circ. 297-1955) from which it borrows the motif of stylised scrolling foliage, it is characterised by large-scale, very dense patterns where the relationship between background and foreground is closely interwoven. These later designs required a more complex printing technique and a far greater number of individual printing blocks. This made the papers more costly than Morris's simpler, earlier designs. Less medieval in style than 'Fruit' (E.299-2009), this design borrows more from the scrolling patterns of Jacobean floral embroidery.
The draughtsman responsible for this technically adept drawing may not have been Morris, as his strengths were more conceptual than illustrative. Instead, it is possible that the designer George Wardle (c. 1834-1910) executed this design for production, working from Morris's first version of the design, which is now in the Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide. Wardle was an excellent recorder of pattern and managed the Morris studio throughout the 1870s. This design was intended as a guide for the printer to use when matching the colours. Pencil notes with instructions about the colours have been added to the drawing on the front and on the reverse.
In addition to this design, the V&A holds specimens of the actual 'Wreath' wallpaper produced by Morris and Co. in different colourways. (E.500-1919, E.501-1919, E.535-1919).
The draughtsman responsible for this technically adept drawing may not have been Morris, as his strengths were more conceptual than illustrative. Instead, it is possible that the designer George Wardle (c. 1834-1910) executed this design for production, working from Morris's first version of the design, which is now in the Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide. Wardle was an excellent recorder of pattern and managed the Morris studio throughout the 1870s. This design was intended as a guide for the printer to use when matching the colours. Pencil notes with instructions about the colours have been added to the drawing on the front and on the reverse.
In addition to this design, the V&A holds specimens of the actual 'Wreath' wallpaper produced by Morris and Co. in different colourways. (E.500-1919, E.501-1919, E.535-1919).
Object details
Categories | |
Object type | |
Titles |
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Materials and techniques | Pencil, pen and ink, watercolour, and bodycolour on paper |
Brief description | Design for 'Wreath' wallpaper by William Morris for Morris & Co, about 1880. |
Physical description | Design showing poppies in pink, blue and white against a dense ground of swirling acanthus leaves, in various shades of green, with a wide border of paper around the rectangular design on which are technical annotations, for production. The top left corner of the paper has been cut and removed. |
Dimensions |
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Production type | Design |
Marks and inscriptions |
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Credit line | Purchased with Art Fund support |
Production | Attribution note: Linda Parry stated that 'The specific instructions on the side show it [this design] was meant specifically to be used by Jeffrey & Co. who produced all of the Morris papers. It leaves no margin for error by them.' |
Subjects depicted | |
Summary | Dating from about 1880, this original wallpaper design by Morris & Co. is known as 'Poppy' or 'Wreath'. It shows clearly how William Morris's confidence in creating highly sophisticated pattern repeats had evolved by the late nineteenth century. The design's rich colours, scrolling foliage and effect of three-dimensionality are typical of Morris & Co.'s output from the mid-1870s onwards. Like the famous 'Acanthus' paper (Circ. 297-1955) from which it borrows the motif of stylised scrolling foliage, it is characterised by large-scale, very dense patterns where the relationship between background and foreground is closely interwoven. These later designs required a more complex printing technique and a far greater number of individual printing blocks. This made the papers more costly than Morris's simpler, earlier designs. Less medieval in style than 'Fruit' (E.299-2009), this design borrows more from the scrolling patterns of Jacobean floral embroidery. The draughtsman responsible for this technically adept drawing may not have been Morris, as his strengths were more conceptual than illustrative. Instead, it is possible that the designer George Wardle (c. 1834-1910) executed this design for production, working from Morris's first version of the design, which is now in the Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide. Wardle was an excellent recorder of pattern and managed the Morris studio throughout the 1870s. This design was intended as a guide for the printer to use when matching the colours. Pencil notes with instructions about the colours have been added to the drawing on the front and on the reverse. In addition to this design, the V&A holds specimens of the actual 'Wreath' wallpaper produced by Morris and Co. in different colourways. (E.500-1919, E.501-1919, E.535-1919). |
Associated object | |
Bibliographic reference | Harvey, Charles and Press, Jon. William Morris. Design and Enterprise in Victorian Britain. Manchester Uniersity Press, 1991. p.46 and 78. |
Collection | |
Accession number | E.300-2009 |
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Record created | June 19, 2009 |
Record URL |
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