Designs notes.(Brief Article)

William Morris was among the galaxy of Renaissance men who revolutionized design in England during the nineteenth century. These men--Pugin, Dresser, and Godwin to name a few--wrote at length and lectured widely on subjects ranging from politics and social reform to interior design, literature, and history. In short, they plumbed the depths of the historical past in order to create something entirely new.

The chapter headings in the catalogue of the Morris exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London in 1996 provide a synopsis of his myriad endeavors. Included are essays devoted to Morris the designer, writer, businessman, political activist, and conservationist. Then there are chapters that treat each aspect of his tangible legacy in the world of design: painting, church decoration and stained glass, domestic decoration, furniture, tiles and tableware, wallpaper, textiles, calligraphy, and printed books.

Morris noted with considerable understatement that "all the minor arts were in a state of complete degradation....in 1861 with the conceited courage of a young man I set myself to reforming all that and started a sort of firm for producing decorative articles." This was Morris, Marshall, Faulkner and Company (later renamed Morris and Company), which became an immediate success. The first offerings were glass tablewares, but in 1862 the firm introduced wallpapers that relied on flat patterns in highly saturated colors and motifs drawn almost entirely from the natural world. The wood-blocks necessary to print the wallpapers were cut by Barrett's, a family concern that has long specialized in this craft. The use of woodblocks and hand-printing was a revival of old methods, for by this point machine printing was in widespread use. The papers themselves were ...