Tuesday, August 5, 2008

William Morris and Carpet Reform


Illustration: William Morris. Bullerswood, 1889.

William Morris and his company are probably primarily known for their textiles and wallpapers. However, some of the most stunning design work to come out of Morris & Co has to be from some of the large, luxurious carpets that were produced mostly during Morris lifetime.

Many of the designs were influenced by traditional carpeting designs from around the world. There are constant flower and wildlife images that are recognisably linked with the native Persian carpet industry for example, of which Morris was a particularly keen and avid fan.

Morris was also committed, as were many leading designers of the mid-nineteenth century, into producing design work that was basically graphic in nature, as opposed to that of the three-dimensional qualities that were commonplace amongst the more fashionable designs of the period, two examples of which are shown below.


Illustration: Carpet design, 1840s.

These extremely popular carpet designs were produced for both effect and status. Carpet manufacturers had seen a large increase in their market with the expansion of the nineteenth century middle class. This class had only recently started to expand in numbers and many were still unfamiliar as to role that their heightened position in society had given them. Many were keen to portray their new wealth and status by procuring instant possessions; unfortunately, the more ostentatious and glaring these possessions were, the better they were often deemed to be.

Illustration: William Morris, 1857.

Morris was convinced that a flat, graphic quality to the design, particularly with regard to textiles, was more fitting to the flat nature of the medium. He saw no real gain in employing mock three-dimensional trickery in order to produce a realistic image, where none was needed. He felt that much of the contemporary decorative qualities in carpet and rug design served no purpose other than to jar the ambiance of a planned interior, and felt that much could be learnt from traditional surface pattern techniques, particularly those used within the Islamic world.

Although Morris carpet designs were very often complex, the colour palette and compositional work produced by him and his company, was never heightened to the detriment of an interior. As far as Morris was concerned, the carpet was supposed to compliment the furnishings not dominate them.

Morris, along with many others in nineteenth century Britain, felt that the newest and latest members of the by now burgeoning middle class, needed to be educated towards a better management of their interiors. It was assumed that taste was something that could be taught. The constant publication throughout the century, often by self-proclaimed connoisseurs of taste, of books and articles dealing with the achievement of taste and refinement, and their undoubted and obvious popularity, showed that large sections of the general public had an appetite for these lessons and were more than willing to be taught.

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