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Lot Essay
Similar design illustrated:
O. Fairclough and E. Leary, Textiles by William Morris and Morris & Co., 1861-1940, London, 1981, pp. 27 and 79 (refers to the Kelmscott Manor pair), pl. E21;
Pre-Raphaelites: Victorian Avant-Garde, exh. cat., Tate Britain, London, 2012, pp. 203-204.
The curtains are near identical in design to a set of bed hangings designed by May Morris in 1891-2 for her father's bed at Kelmscott Manor, the Morris family's country home in Oxfordshire (now Gloucestershire). The original bed hangings, which include curtains and valances and are inscribed with a poem especially composed by William Morris and were embroidered over four years under May's supervision by Morris & Co. Embroiderers included Lily Yates, sister of the Irish poet W. B. Yates, and Ellen Wright who was to run one of the first embroidery classes at the newly opened Central School of Arts and Crafts under the headship of William R. Lethaby (1857-1931). The Kelmscott Manor hangings were completed shortly before William Morris's death in October 1896.
Worked in crewel wools on natural linen in stem stitch with satin, chain, running and knitting stitches and French knots. The ground is of narrow widths hand-spun and woven linen with the edges butted and seamed prior to embroidery.
No other versions of these designs are known apart from these two hangings, which have recently come to light. There are slight differences between the two sets. The ground of the Kelmscott versions are of machine-woven linen suggesting that the use of hand-spun linen was specified in the later commissioned. Furthermore the colours of the latter are softer, veering towards pastel shades suggesting not only a later date but additional evidence of input from the client. Finally, some details in the design of flower heads have been changed indicating some freedom in interpretation. It is very likely that the curtains were a collaboration between May Morris the designer and her friend Theodosia Middlemore, the client, a keen and experienced embroiderer in her own right.
In 1881 Thomas Middlemore (1842-1923) took over the family firm of leather horse saddle makers (later bicycle seats). This provided him and his wife Theodosia (1861-1943) herself from a wealthy family, with a very comfortable living. They became enthusiastic clients of Morris & Co. and in 1893 they commissioned a number of significant furnishings for their Birmingham home including an inlaid chest designed by George Jack and a silk embroidered hanging designed by May Morris which is signed by Theodosia suggesting she also embroidered the panel (both are now in the Victoria and Albert Museum). In 1898 they employed the noted Arts and Crafts architect William R. Lethaby (1857-1931) to build them a house at Melsetter on the isle of Hoy in the Orkneys and a number of commissions for furnishings from Morris & Co. followed. As well as four later tapestry panels ordered in 1900, (now in Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery), it is probable that these curtains also date from this time although it is difficult to establish whether they were official commissions from the Company or were ordered directly from May Morris who, by this time, was working as a free-lance designer and embroiderer having given up the management of the embroidery section of Morris & Co. on the death of her father in 1896. May Morris and Theodosia Middlemore were friends and it is known that May visited Melsetter House in 1902. It is also believed that it was while on holiday there that she first studied wool spinning, an important aspect of the Orkney islands' folk tradition. She greatly admired the house and in her two volume book William Morris, Artist, Writer, Socialist (published in Oxford, 1936) she described Melsetter as an important late example of "a building standing like a fairy-castle in the loneliness of the far North, and filled with all the glow and richness of Morris invention, every room thought out with absolute fitness and beauty by the genius of the Lady-of-the-house".
Linda Parry, January 2013.
O. Fairclough and E. Leary, Textiles by William Morris and Morris & Co., 1861-1940, London, 1981, pp. 27 and 79 (refers to the Kelmscott Manor pair), pl. E21;
Pre-Raphaelites: Victorian Avant-Garde, exh. cat., Tate Britain, London, 2012, pp. 203-204.
The curtains are near identical in design to a set of bed hangings designed by May Morris in 1891-2 for her father's bed at Kelmscott Manor, the Morris family's country home in Oxfordshire (now Gloucestershire). The original bed hangings, which include curtains and valances and are inscribed with a poem especially composed by William Morris and were embroidered over four years under May's supervision by Morris & Co. Embroiderers included Lily Yates, sister of the Irish poet W. B. Yates, and Ellen Wright who was to run one of the first embroidery classes at the newly opened Central School of Arts and Crafts under the headship of William R. Lethaby (1857-1931). The Kelmscott Manor hangings were completed shortly before William Morris's death in October 1896.
Worked in crewel wools on natural linen in stem stitch with satin, chain, running and knitting stitches and French knots. The ground is of narrow widths hand-spun and woven linen with the edges butted and seamed prior to embroidery.
No other versions of these designs are known apart from these two hangings, which have recently come to light. There are slight differences between the two sets. The ground of the Kelmscott versions are of machine-woven linen suggesting that the use of hand-spun linen was specified in the later commissioned. Furthermore the colours of the latter are softer, veering towards pastel shades suggesting not only a later date but additional evidence of input from the client. Finally, some details in the design of flower heads have been changed indicating some freedom in interpretation. It is very likely that the curtains were a collaboration between May Morris the designer and her friend Theodosia Middlemore, the client, a keen and experienced embroiderer in her own right.
In 1881 Thomas Middlemore (1842-1923) took over the family firm of leather horse saddle makers (later bicycle seats). This provided him and his wife Theodosia (1861-1943) herself from a wealthy family, with a very comfortable living. They became enthusiastic clients of Morris & Co. and in 1893 they commissioned a number of significant furnishings for their Birmingham home including an inlaid chest designed by George Jack and a silk embroidered hanging designed by May Morris which is signed by Theodosia suggesting she also embroidered the panel (both are now in the Victoria and Albert Museum). In 1898 they employed the noted Arts and Crafts architect William R. Lethaby (1857-1931) to build them a house at Melsetter on the isle of Hoy in the Orkneys and a number of commissions for furnishings from Morris & Co. followed. As well as four later tapestry panels ordered in 1900, (now in Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery), it is probable that these curtains also date from this time although it is difficult to establish whether they were official commissions from the Company or were ordered directly from May Morris who, by this time, was working as a free-lance designer and embroiderer having given up the management of the embroidery section of Morris & Co. on the death of her father in 1896. May Morris and Theodosia Middlemore were friends and it is known that May visited Melsetter House in 1902. It is also believed that it was while on holiday there that she first studied wool spinning, an important aspect of the Orkney islands' folk tradition. She greatly admired the house and in her two volume book William Morris, Artist, Writer, Socialist (published in Oxford, 1936) she described Melsetter as an important late example of "a building standing like a fairy-castle in the loneliness of the far North, and filled with all the glow and richness of Morris invention, every room thought out with absolute fitness and beauty by the genius of the Lady-of-the-house".
Linda Parry, January 2013.