William Morris’ Wallpapers
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Morris primarily had his wallpapers printed by hand, using carved pear-wood blocks. . Jeffrey & Co. was the printer for many of Morris’ wallpapers, and they continued printing Morris papers until 1940, when Morris’ firm went into liquidation.
Advertisement for Jeffrey & Co. showing printers hand-blocking wallpaper. The heavy wood blocks were counter balanced to allow easy positioning onto the wallpaper
A surface print machine for wallpaper. Though Morris primarily had his wallpapers hand-printed using pear-wood blocks, he occasionally used a surface print machine. Today, almost all Morris-designed wallpapers are printed using these machines, which came into popularity c 1884, and are not widely used today. Surface print machines give an unparalleled texture and finish to historic wallpapers.
The main distinction of Morris’ designs was the flat, stylized nature of his patterns. Other wallpaper and fabric of the Victorian period would have tried to imitate the full-blown roundness of a rose for example, with careful shading and colouring. Morris dispensed with all that, and drew patterns that were more like Japanese wood-block designs, with a certain formality in structure, but with an informal subject matter. Morris’ designs were also carefully worked out to make a visually pleasing repeats when covering a wall.
‘Trellis wallpaper’ designed by William Morris in 1864, with the birds by Phillip Webb. Morris’ daughter May remembered the birds as ‘scary’ when she was small. Available from www.Historic Style.com
“Trellis” wallpaper was one of the first wallpaper designs that Morris produced.
Designed by Morris, and drawn in collaboration with his good friend (and architect) Philip Webb in 1862 (who did the birds – Morris thought himself incapable of drawing birds). “Trellis” was inspired by the rose trellis that ran along the garden at Morris’ own “Red House”, which was designed by Philip Webb, and built in 1859.
Previously, “Trellis” had only been available as a hand blocked design – using 11 hand-carved pearwood blocks – at great expense. Now available printed on Surface Print machines, this design is a triumph of the art of surface printing.
