William Morris and his artworks, especially his textiles, have gone in and out of fashion several times since he began producing them in the mid-1800s. Right now the textiles are out of fashion but I don’t care. I love his work, and I am crazy about the books issued by his Kelmscott Press.
Morris grew up here, in Epping Forest. His work is full of references to nature.
The well-to-do family lived here during Morris's youth. It was then called Water House, and is now The William Morris Gallery.
This is Morris's textile mill, at Merton Abbey. He refused to knock down the old buildings he found there, but rather converted them to his use.
'Honeycomb' textile, made by Morris as a textile and a carpet. 1876.
'Strawberry Thief', one of his most famous patterns. 1883.
Early stage of the 'Dove and Rose' pattern. 1879.
'Willow Bough'. Shown here as wallpaper. Also made as a textile. Available in other colours, blues, yellows, neutrals.
Kelmscott Manor, where Morris, his family, and friends, spent many summers. It is now open to the public. He was active in the preservation of old buildings, and played an important role in the development of modern environmentalism.
Beginnings of the Kelmscott Press, in a room at Kelmscott Manor, although the actual press was in London. It employed techniques of book-binding by hand, revived from the earliest days of book-making.
The Kelmscott Press was established in 1891. This is its colophon, what is now called a logo, from the Greek 'logos', 'word'.
The Kelmscott Chaucer, 1896. A copy in fine condition is now worth over $100,000. Given that it was one of the press's premier publications, with minute attention paid to (almost) every aspect of its production, it's odd that its original cloth binding was so flimsy that most were rebound in later years.
Frontispiece of 'News from Nowhere', a Kelmscott publication. 1893.
Three Kelmscott fonts.
Red House, another of his homes.
William Morris. 1870 portraint by Goerge Frederic Watts.
Morris’s interests were vast, and he followed them all energetically until his death in 1896, at age 62. Apart from the arts, he was involved in socialism, and was a member of the Socialist League until it became to anarchistic for his taste.
Perhaps his most famous quotation is this one, exhorting you to “have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful”.
