A hand-knotted Hammersmith carpet

DESIGNED BY WILLIAM MORRIS FOR ROUNTON GRANGE, YORKSHIRE, WOVEN AT MERTON ABBEY, CIRCA 1881-2

Details
A hand-knotted Hammersmith carpet
Designed by William Morris for Rounton Grange, Yorkshire, woven at Merton Abbey, circa 1881-2
Scrolled acanthus leaves and flowers in shades of beige, green and blue against a deep blue ground, red ground border with formalised floral design, original fringes
267 1/8 by 162 5/8in. (678.1 by 441cm.)
Literature
Linda Parry, William Morris Textiles, London, 1983, p.137/8
Linda Parry, (ed.), William Morris, Victoria and Albert Museum exhibition catalogue, 1996, p. 282
Exhibited
William Morris, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 1996, Cat. No. M.107

Lot Essay

Rounton Grange, Northallerton, Yorkshire was designed by Philip Webb in 1872 for Sir Isaac Lowthian and Lady Bell. Apart from the present carpet, the interior of Rounton Grange also included a frieze designed by Morris and Burne Jones which was placed in the dining room. Linda Parry (op.cit.), on the basis of recollections by May Morris, suggests that the carpet was also originally in this room. A later (1896) photograph of the drawing room at Rounton Grange, (reproduced above) shows the carpet now placed in that interior.
The present carpet was one of the first commissions to be woven on the large Merton Abbey looms after the re-location of the Morris & Co. works from Hammersmith in 1881.
We would like to acknowledge the extensive research of Linda Parry which has assisted in the preparation of this catalogue entry.

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