The perks of being wallpaper: A collection of never-before-seen William Morris designs are to go on sale
The first new Morris & Co. designs in a century were developed using archive materials discovered inside a Californian library.
‘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
