'Duleek', A hand-knotted carpet

DESIGNED BY C.F.A. VOYSEY AND WOVEN BY ALEXANDER MORTON & CO., CIRCA 1903

細節

'Duleek', A hand-knotted carpet
Designed by C.F.A. Voysey and woven by Alexander Morton & Co., circa 1903
The moss green ground patterned with a river running through a stylised wooded landscape, deer and swans below, birds in flight above, with a border of stylised tulips, in shades of pale blue, pale greens and ivory
160½ by 131½in. (406 by 334cm.)

來源

The Estate of the late John Trafford, Esq., Hill Court, Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire, thence by descent.

拍品專文

Voysey was a prolific designer of wallpapers, textiles, tiles and other decorative media for domestic use, and carpets were no exception. On the advice of his friend, A.H. Mackmurdo, he created designs whilst waiting for architectural commissions and the influence for his naturalistic flowing designs probably owes more to Mackmurdo, founder of the Century Guild, than to William Morris. Voysey's main aim was to introduce lightness and colour into what he perceived as morbid and dreary interiors. He fought hard to campaign against the sombre 'art' colours in vogue during his youth and what he called '....the unreasonable, unhealthy, and insane opposition to the conventional application of animal life to decoration....'. By the mid-1890s Voysey's work was dominated by flowing patterns incorporating pastel-coloured flora and fauna and the present 'Duleek' with its stags, swans, doves and trees in silhouette is perhaps among his most characteristic and original designs.
The 'Duleek' was manufactured in Alexander Morton's Donegal range, and retailed at Liberty's, where it was included in their 'Irish Carpet Exhibition', held at the Grafton Gallery, in Bond Street, London, in 1903.

Cf: The Studio, London, 1899, pp. 46 and 47
Malcolm Haslam and David Black, Arts & Crafts Carpets, London, 1991, pp. 124 and 125 (illustrated)