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Wallpaper - Trellis

Trellis

  • Object:

    Wallpaper

  • Place of origin:

    London, England (printed)

  • Date:

    11/1862 (designed (pattern))
    01/02/1864 (design registered)
    1864 (manufactured)

  • Artist/Maker:

    William Morris, born 1834 - died 1896 (designer)
    Webb, Philip Speakman, born 1831 - died 1915 (designed the birds, designer)
    Jeffrey (printer)
    Morris & Co. (publisher)

  • Materials and Techniques:

    block-printed in distemper colours, on paper

  • Credit Line:

    Given by Morris & Co.

  • Museum number:

    E.452-1919

  • Gallery location:

    Prints & Drawings Study Room, level C, case DW, shelf 5, box 2

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Object Type
In Britain, paper printed with patterns has been used for decorating walls since the 16th century. By the late 19th century wallpapers were widely used by all classes, in homes and also in public buildings. William Morris designed a number of wallpapers, all with repeating patterns based on natural forms.

Places
Morris was prompted to design his own wallpapers because he could not find any that he liked well enough to use in his own home. He designed 'Trellis' shortly after moving to the Red House. The gardens at the Red House were arranged in a Medieval style, with roses growing over trellises which enclosed the flowerbeds. This wallpaper pattern was inspired by these trellises.

Design & Designing
'Trellis' is typical of Morris's early wallpaper patterns. It combines simple bird and flower forms with a plain coloured background. It is a compromise between the boldly coloured pictorial patterns which were then popular with the general public, and the formalised flat patterns in muted tones which were promoted by the design reform movement. Philip Webb, the architect of the Red House, drew the birds for this wallpaper design.

Physical description

'Trellis' wallpaper pattern, thorned rose bush, with red flowers, growing on a wooden trellis, with birds and flying insects, with a pale blue ground; Block-printed in distemper colours, on paper; Inscribed in ink on the back 'Trellis 9 / 8/8'.
Part of Volume 1, a pattern book containing 25 Morris & Co. patterns from 1862-81 (E.441-529-1919).

Place of Origin

London, England (printed)

Date

11/1862 (designed (pattern))
01/02/1864 (design registered)
1864 (manufactured)

Artist/maker

William Morris, born 1834 - died 1896 (designer)
Webb, Philip Speakman, born 1831 - died 1915 (designed the birds, designer)
Jeffrey (printer)
Morris & Co. (publisher)

Materials and Techniques

block-printed in distemper colours, on paper

Marks and inscriptions

Inscribed in ink on the back Trellis 9 / 8/8

Dimensions

Height: 68 cm unframed, Width: 52.9 cm unframed

Object history note

Given by Morris & Co.
The first paper William Morris designed, but the third to be issued (1864).
The birds were designed by Phillip Webb.

Designed by William Morris (born in London, 1834, died there in 1896) with additions by Philip Webb (born in Oxford, 1831, died in Worth, West Sussex, 1915); printed in London by Jeffrey & Co. for Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co.

Descriptive line

'Trellis' wallpaper pattern, thorned rose bush, with red flowers, growing on a wooden trellis, with birds and flying insects, with a pale blue ground; Block-printed in distemper colours, on paper; Inscribed in ink on the back 'Trellis 9 / 8/8'; The first paper designed by William Morris, but the third to be issued; The birds were designed by Philip Webb; Part of 'Volume 1', a pattern book containing 25 Morris & Co. patterns from 1862-81 (E.441-529-1919); England; Designed 1862; Registered and produced 1864.

Bibliographic References (Citation, Note/Abstract, NAL no)

Oman, Charles C., and Hamilton, Jean. Wallpapers: a history and illustrated catalogue of the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum. London: Sotheby Publications, in association with the Victoria and Albert Museum, 1982.
The relevant text of the entry is as follows:

'1065
Two pattern books, containing patterns (25 and 27, on 168 sheets, including different colourways): each inscribed on the back in ink with title, number and price
1862-96
68.5 x 53.3 cm (size of each volume)
Given by Morris & Co.
E.441-608-1919

These are the original patterns as kept together by William Morris. The numbers after the names of the patterns are taken from Morris & Co.’s log books.

Volume 1 (1862-81)

...

'Trellis', November 1862, produced 1864 (E.450-453 CT 4206 (see col pl, p 363). The first paper Morris designed, but the third to be issued. The birds were designed by Phillip Webb. AV, pl 4 (colour); SE, pl 109 (colour); FC, no 3. Another portion is Circ.247-1964.'

NB: Within this book there is a handwritten comment that it would be ‘unlikely’that these patterns would have been kept together specifically by William Morris.

'AV' refers to; Vallance, Aymer. The Art of William Morris. A Record. 1897.
'SE' refers to; Sugden, A. V., and Edmondson, J. L. A History of English Wallpaper. 1509-1914. London, 1926.

'FC' refers to; Clark, Fiona. William Morris Wallpapers and Chintzes. New York. 1973.
Parry, Linda, ed. William Morris London : Philip Wilson in association with the Victoria and Albert Museum, 1996. Published to coincide with an exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum, 9 May-1 Sept. 1996, p.206.
The full text of the entry is as follows:

'L.1 Trellis wallpaper
a Original design William Morris, birds drawn by Philip Webb, November 1862
Pencil and watercolour, 66.0 x 61.0 cm
William Morris Gallery
(London Borough of Waltham Forest) (BLA472)

b Wallpaper sample, Trellis, 9
Designed by William Morris, birds by Philip Webb, registered 1 February 1864
Printed by Jeffrey & Co. for Morris Marshall, Faulkner & Co.
Block-printed in distemper colours, 68.6 x 50.0 cm
V&A (E.452-1919)
Given by Morris & Co.

The precise date of this, Morris’s first wallpaper design, is given by Mackail (p.156). The layout is complete but additional detailing would have been necessary for etching or block cutting. As in the other early patterns, there is some depth in the drawing but no integration between the motifs and the ground.

Flower trellises also appear elsewhere in the work of Morris and his associates, for example in 1862 stained glass for St Helen’s, Darley Dale (cat. No. H.6) and All Saints, Selsley, and in Burne-Jones’s 1863 sketch design for an embroidery for Ruskin illustrating Chaucer’s Legend of Goode Wimmen. Mackail (p.143) described the ‘wattled rose-trellises inclosing richly-flowered square garden plots’ at Red House. This is a typical medieval garden plan, illustrated in numerous manuscripts.

The delay between design and registration was a result of the firm’s attempt to print using oil colours and etched zinc plates. After the failure of this previously untried method, production was handed over to Jeffrey & Co., a reputable wallpaper manufacturer, who used the standard woodblock process and distemper colours.

Morris remained fond of the early, simple patterns and hung a blue-ground version of Trellis in his bedroom at Kelmscott-House.'

‘Mackail’ refers to: Mackail, J. W. The Life of William Morris. London, 1899

‘cat. No. H.6’ refers to a: ‘Cartoon for stained glass from the series The Song of Solomon for St Helen’s Darley Dale, Derbyshire’. Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery (176’00).

Labels and date

British Galleries:
Philip Webb supplied the bird designs for this, the first wallpaper that William Morris ever designed. The pattern was inspired by the garden at Red House, Bexleyheath, near London, Morris's first home. Wallpaper was one of the earliest forms of decoration supplied by the firm. Their own early attempts to print their designs failed and from this time all Morris papers were produced by Jeffrey & Co.. [27/03/2003]

Production Note

The 'Trellis' design was the first paper William Morris designed, but the third to be issued. Produced 1864. The birds were designed by Phillip Webb.

Materials

Paper; Distemper

Techniques

Block printing; Colour woodblock print

Categories

Wall coverings

Collection code

PDP

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Qr_O78220
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