In the catalogue of the Voysey exhibition held at Brighton, Wolverhampton and Glasgow in 1978-9, Elizabeth Aslin wrote that while he was 'primarily an architect, Voysey was the most prolific and probably the most distinguished of all English pattern designers..(He) was a significant influence on design both in England and on the Continent when a young man in the 1880s, and his name was still well enough known in the changed climate of the 1920s for Essex & Co., the wallpaper manufacturers, to advertise that they had available "many papers by C. F. A. Voysey, the Genius of Pattern. These supply the Something Distinctive for which you are looking."' Carpets were an important medium for him, and he approached them in much the same spirit that he brought to wallpapers, textiles and tiles, evolving conventional patterns based on natural forms and conceived in terms of flat, clear colours which marked a deliberate reaction to the sombre 'art' colours in vogue during his youth. As he said in a lecture given at Manchester in 1895, 'let us do our utmost to raise the colour sense from morbid sickly despondency to bright and hopeful cheeriness, crudity if you will rather than mud and mourning.' Significantly, the primary influence on this pattern design was not William Morris but A. H. Macmurdo, who founded the Century Guild with Selwyn Image in 1882. His carpets were made from the mid-1890s by a variety of firms, including Heal's of London, Tomkinson and Adam of Kidderminster, and the Austrian firm of Ginzkey of Mattersdorf, Bohemia. The present example was produced by Alexander Morton of Darvel and Carlisle, who were also responsible for many of his textiles. The pattern, 'Donnemara', occurs in different permutations, coming in both 'open' and 'closed' versions and a variety of colours. Our example is a fine one, the pattern adhering to the 'closed' formula and the colours remaining remarkably crisp and unfaded. A characteristic detail, common to much of Voysey's pattern design, is the light borders surrounding the forms. This device seems to have originated in wallpaper printed techniques of the 1880s. The carpet has an interesting history. It was purchased at Liberty's about 1910 by Sir Robert Johnson, Chairman of the famous Cammel Laird shipyard at Birkenhead. He lived nearby at The Garth, Waterford Road, Oxton, and many celebrities stayed there when launching his ships, including royalty. 'King George and his father before him dined on this carpet', Lady Johnson announced when she sold the carpet upon leaving The Garth in 1960.