William Morris patterns: Strawberry Thief, Acanthus and the others

William Morris designed wallpapers and fabrics from 1862 until his death in 1896. The best known are the wallpapers Trellis, Daisy, Fruit, Acanthus and Willow Bough and the fabric Strawberry Thief of 1883. The patterns are based on plants and birds from his gardens, were printed by hand with wood blocks and are still printed under licence under the name Morris & Co.

Facts

The early wallpapers: the garden at Red House

William Morris began designing patterns for his own home, Red House outside London. His first wallpaper, Trellis, was designed in 1862 after the rose trellises in the garden, with birds drawn by the architect Philip Webb, and was issued in 1864. Daisy, with sparsely scattered tufts of meadow flowers, and Fruit, with pomegranates, lemons and peaches, belong to the same early group.

The wallpapers were printed with wood blocks by Jeffrey & Co. in London, one colour at a time. Each colour required a block of its own, and small shifts between the colours are a sign of hand printing. The early patterns are simpler than the later ones, with clear grids and plenty of air.

The 1870s: the tendrils take over

In the 1870s the patterns became denser and more mobile. Jasmine and Larkspur of 1872 are based on tendrils and flowers that undulate diagonally across the surface, and Marigold and Pimpernel of 1875–1876 fill the wall with a dense network of flowers and leaves.

Acanthus of 1875 marks a high point. The large, undulating acanthus leaves in many shades of green required 30 wood blocks and several days of printing per length, and it was one of the firm’s most expensive wallpapers. The leaf was a classical ornament, but Morris gave it an almost sculptural depth.

Merton Abbey and Strawberry Thief

In 1881 Morris moved his dye works and print works to Merton Abbey on the River Wandle to obtain clean water. There he printed fabrics with indigo in a laborious technique: the cloth was dyed blue, the pattern was bleached out and the other colours were then printed with blocks. The largest of the fabrics, Wandle of 1884, was named after the river.

Strawberry Thief of 1883 is the best known. Morris saw the thrushes stealing strawberries in the garden at Kelmscott Manor, and the birds sit mirrored in the repeat against a deep indigo blue. The fabric also appears in the art section, with the example in the Victoria and Albert Museum.

The repeat: how the repetition is concealed

All wallpapers and printed fabrics consist of a repeat, the smallest unit that is repeated. Morris’s art was to make the repetition look natural. In Fruit the branches form a diagonal grid that hides the joins, and in Willow Bough of 1887 the willow twigs wind so freely that the repeat is hard to detect. In Strawberry Thief the motif is instead mirrored, so that the birds meet in twos.

The diagram further down shows three ways of repeating a motif: straight, half-drop and mirrored. Try moving the second length until the pattern meets at the join; that is how each length must be matched when a Morris wallpaper is hung. More patterns can be found under wallpapers and textiles.

Later patterns and who designed what

Morris’s later patterns, such as Bachelor’s Button of 1892, are calmer and more ordered. From the 1880s his colleague John Henry Dearle also designed more and more patterns for the firm, and his daughter May Morris headed the embroidery department and designed patterns of her own. Some patterns that are sold today under Morris’s name were therefore designed by them.

Morris also wove. The Woodpecker tapestry of 1885 is the only tapestry that he designed entirely himself, and he had learned the technique from old manuals. The firm of Morris & Co. closed in 1940, but the patterns are still printed under licence.

How to recognise a Morris

Morris patterns are recognised by plants and birds from English gardens and meadows, drawn flat but laid in several layers, and by a dense composition without empty surfaces. Hand-printed wallpapers have small shifts between the colours and often the maker’s name printed in the margin. Later machine prints are sharper and completely even.

The patterns belonged to a whole movement; the ideas behind them are described in the guide to Arts and Crafts, and the difference from the winding lines of Art Nouveau in the guide to Arts and Crafts and Art Nouveau.

How to recognise it

Exercise

Strawberry Thief was printed at Merton Abbey on an indigo-dyed cloth. How were the light areas produced?