William Morris Gallery - Collections

Collections

The gallery's collections illustrate Morris' life, work and influence. They include printed, woven and embroidered fabrics, rugs, carpets, wallpapers, furniture, stained glass and painted tiles designed by Morris himself and by Edward Burne-Jones, Philip Webb, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Ford Madox Brown, and others who together founded the firm of Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Company in 1861.

Outstanding exhibits include: Morris' medieval-style helmet and sword, made as 'props' for the Pre-Raphaelite murals at the Oxford Union; the original design for the Trellis wallpaper (the earliest of Morris' many wallpapers); the Woodpecker tapestry woven at Morris' Merton Abbey workshops; the Beauty and the Beast and Labours of the Months tile panels; and The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer printed at Morris' Kelmscott Press. Other exhibits — such as the satchel in which Morris carried his Socialist pamphlets, or the coffee cup he used on his weekly visits to the Burne-Joneses — provide a more personal glimpse of his busy life.

The gallery also holds a substantial collection of furniture, textiles, ceramics and glass by Morris' followers in the Arts and Crafts movement, which flourished from the 1880s to the 1920s. Among those represented are Arthur Heygate Mackmurdo and the Century Guild, William De Morgan, May Morris, Ernest Gimson, Sidney Barnsley, George Jack, C. F. A. Voysey, Harry Powell, Selwyn Image, Henry Holiday, and Christopher Whall.

The collections of applied art are complemented by the Brangwyn Gift, comprising paintings, drawings and prints by Morris' former student Sir Frank Brangwyn as well as works by the Pre-Raphaelites and other Victorian and later artists.