Morris & Co.

Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co., "Fine Art Workmen in Painting, Carving, Furniture and the Metals", was jointly created by Morris, Ford Madox Brown, Edward Burne-Jones, Charles Faulkner, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, P. P. Marshall, and Philip Webb in 1861 to create and sell medieval-inspired, handcrafted items for the home. The prospectus set forth that the firm would undertake carving, stained glass, metal-work, paper-hangings, chintzes (printed fabrics), and carpets. The first headquarters of the firm were at 8 Red Lion Square in London. 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, woven and knotted carpets, silk damasks, and tapestries. 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. ==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. 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 weaving in the medieval style and set up a tapestry workshop with his apprentice John Henry Dearle at Queen Square. Dearle executed Morris and Co.'s first figural tapestry from a design by Walter Crane in 1883. 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 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, 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 and the "green dining room" at the South Kensington Museum (now the Victoria and Albert Museum) 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, cornices, 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, his wife's brother-in-law. Standen near East Grinstead, West Sussex, was designed between 1892 and 1894 by Philip Webb for a prosperous London solicitor, James Beale, his wife Margaret, and their family. It is decorated with Morris carpets, fabrics and wallpapers. In the 21st century, the State Hermitage Museum (St. Petersburg, Russia) curators made a sensational discovery: in 1895, Morris & Co supplied the "Garden Tulip" wallpaper to Emperor Nicholas II for his private rooms in the Imperial Winter Palace. This was one of William Morris's last court commissions before his death. The authors of the first article in 2004, Maria Khaltunen and Rifat Gafifullin, established this fact based on archival materials. But in 2016-2017, Nicholas Onegin continued and significantly expanded the research: together with Walker Greenbank PLC's staff, they visited William Morris's archives and factory, where they found authentic printing blocks from the 1880s used to create the wallpaper for Nicholas II. Thanks to this research, the exact article number of the wallpaper and its color scheme were determined. The results of this unique study were published by Nicholas Onegin in scientific articles in various journals (in Russian and English languages) and on television programs featuring Dr. Onegin . In 2025, at the "Morris Mania" exhibition in William Morris Gallery in London, the Winter Palace wallpaper story (based on Nicholas Onegin's articles) gained even wider publicity . 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. 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, Kent; and stained glass windows at Adcote. ==Last stages==

(), from a booklet commemorating the 50th anniversary of the firm, 1911. As Morris pursued other interests, notably socialism and the Kelmscott Press, 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, 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,. Even today many Dearle designs, and others created by designers working at the firm, May Morris and Kathleen Kersey among them, 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, 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. ==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 Dante Gabriel Rossetti (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 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 Edward Burne-Jones in All Saints, Preston Bagot Printed textiles and wallpapers Morris & Co. repeating patterns were occasionally offered as both block-printed wallpapers and fabric 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 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 John Henry Dearle, 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, silk embroidery on linen, 1890s Tapestry == See also ==