‘Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.’ So said William Morris, the political theorist, Socialist, environmental campaigner, publisher and designer (who even turned out a poem or two in his lifetime). In 1861, he founded Morris & Co., a design house now best known for their vivid, swirling botanical fabrics and wallpapers, and a business that has a rich history covering the walls of many a country house. And now that history is set to get even richer, thanks to the USA.
Morris & Co., now owned by the Sanderson Design Group, has announced a new series of designs in collaboration with The Huntington in California. The American library has a large archive of Morris material, including a range of never-before-seen designs, which have now been turned into a new collection by the Morris & Co. team. Taking many incomplete original designs by Morris, John Henry Dearle — his successor — and Dearle’s son Duncan, the team transformed their sketches and plans into finished products. It took two years in total, but the results, named ‘The Unfinished Works’, are now due to be released in September. They span wallpapers, fabrics, borders, weaves and embroideries.
Botanical elements feature strongly in the new collection.
William Morris was born in Walthamstow, in east London in 1834.
‘In respect of the unmistakable original craftsmanship, boundaries have been pushed, as we believe William Morris would, to celebrate craft at every turn,’ note Morris & Co, ‘producing designs precisely as Morris and Dearle would have envisaged, using their notes and references, where available, as guidance.’
The result is a collection of new designs — which will be the first for Morris & Co. for a century, and which were created in the brand's Chiswick studio. Jess Clayworth, the lead designer at Morris & Co. has called it ‘a collection like no other’ and said that it ‘follows the design trail’ Morris and the Dearles left behind.
Jess Clayworth, the lead designer at Morris & Co, says the new designs are 'relevant to today'.
The entire project took two years altogether.
‘As artists, we’ve asked ourselves not what we should do, but what we can do to preserve, refine and complete these exquisite pieces of archival art, making them relevant not only to today but also to the future as part of art history,’ she added.
As Morris once quipped, the items available for purchase are at once useful and also beautiful.
The Unfinished Works’ will launch on September 2 on the Morris & Co. website; fabric from £126 per metre, borders from £60 per roll, wallpaper from £122 per roll
-
Hammocks, streams and kooky charm at this 18th century barn in a hopelessly bucolic spot in the Sussex countrysideWhat was once a threshing barn in East Sussex is now a gloriously bucolic home. Annabel Dixon steps inside.
-
What is everyone talking about this week? Is peated whisky living on borrowed time?What is the best use of £60? Buying a bottle of peat.
-
'I’m here to say: We’re driving. We’re buying. And we’re not going anywhere': Meet the new gatekeepers of the motoring worldFrom the racetrack to the boardroom to the private garage, women are taking the inside line into automotive spaces that were once off-limits
-
Out of this world: The watches made from million-year-old space rockThe meteorite fragments used in luxury watches are likely from one of two rare space rocks.
-
‘A stone pounding artist — who exclaims in his sleep, “Think of me standing upon a pinnacle of the Andes — or sketching a Fuegian Glacier!!!”’When fate handed artist Conrad Martens the chance to join HMS Beagle, he captured the Patagonian flatlands, the shores of Tierra del Fuego and the peaks of the Andes with aplomb.
-
Arts & Antiques: Five ways in which we are living in a material worldCarla Passino looks at a new art, fashion and culture festival at Kew Gardens, and the life and work of the artist Rose Hilton.
-
‘City gents in bowler hats beat on our shop windows shouting “immoral!” and “disgusting!”’: The rise (and rise) of the mini skirtWhat the mini skirt lacked in length it more than made up for in meaning.
-
Helene Kröller-Müller: The woman who made van GoghAfter a life-threatening illness spurred Helene Kröller-Müller to make plans for a museum, she bought modern art voraciously, forming an extraordinary collection that shaped the early-20th-century perception of Vincent van Gogh
-
Goodwood Revival 2025: Pictures from the 'F1 of classic car races'Here's everything you might have missed if you didn't get the chance to make it to West Sussex's most elegant event.
-
Rust-free romance: hire a classic, not the headachesWant to drive a classic car, but don't fancy the headaches of ownership? Why not borrow one for a day and explore the most beautiful parts of England while you're at it.
