The Aphrodite Embroidery (detail) c.1860 worked on by Jane Morris

Daisy

In the Morris bedroom is this reproduction of the famous blue serge bed-curtain embroidered by Janey. I have always loved this pattern (daisy) - Red House

and also used for the 
backdrop to Morris Marshall Falkner and Co.’s 
display of furniture and stained glass at the 1862
International Exhibition.

May Morris table cover

http://www.meg-andrews.com/item-details/May-Morris-Tablecover/6685

An Embroidered Altar Frontal, executed by Miss May Morris, designed by Mr. Philip Webb

An Embroidered Altar Frontal, executed by Miss May Morris, designed by Mr. Philip Webb.—The work is carried out with floss silk in bright colours and gold thread, both background and pattern being embroidered. The five crosses, that are placed at regular intervals between the vine leaves, are couched in gold passing upon a silvery silk ground.

Tablecloth

http://www.meg-andrews.com/item-details/May-Morris/5843

Aphrodite

 It is thought that they intended to create 12 embroideries of famous women to decorate the dining room, but just seven were completed. Only six of these were known - three at Castle Howard and three at Morris's summer home Kelmscott Manor - until July 7 when a seventh turned up in the 709-lot sale at Shapes (15% buyer's premium) of Edinburgh.

The 3ft 101/2in by 15in (1.2m x 39cm) unfinished and unframed wool embroidered panel was attributed to Bessie Burden and depicted Aphrodite wearing only a halo and a floral waistband, her hair cascading down almost to her feet.

Shapes consulted The William Morris Society who were able to provide the information on the panel from pre-Raphaelite biographer Jan Marsh and Arts and Crafts textiles specialist Linda Parry. It emerged that the figure of Aphrodite was known only from a painting at Kelmscott.

When the Morris family moved out of Red House in 1865 the panels were dispersed among Jan Morris, Bessie Burden, Kate Faulkner and Georgiana Burne-Jones. 

Embroidered picture

Canvas, embroidered with silk

designed by Philip Webb ?
1885-90
Bequeathed by May Morris

This is an example of a small, square design for cushion covers and fire screens. It was available from the Morris & Co. shop as a finished embroidery or kit to complete at home. Such designs were an inexpensive means of acquiring William Morris's work, and many examples have survived.

May Morris embroidered this picture.

Event - Linda Parry: William Morris Textiles

http://www.vam.ac.uk/whatson/event/2669/linda-parry-william-morris-textiles-3996/

Tudor Rose cushion cover

This cushion cover in a pattern called ‘Tudor Rose’ was designed by May Morris, youngest daughter of artist and reformer William Morris (1834-1896). Embroidery became a particularly important vehicle in William Morris’s attempts to raise the quality of decorative arts after industrialization had led to poor design, shoddy construction and a production-line mentality. Embroidery engaged both the mind and the hand of the sewer and in the process achieved Morris’s dream of a true partnership of designer and craftsperson working harmoniously with equal skill and creativity. The piece was executed with vegetable-dyed silk yarns by Dame Alice Mary Godman of South Lodge, Lower Beeding, Horsham, Sussex.

http://risdmuseum.org/art_design/objects/902

Bessie Burden book cover

Bound in England, probably in the late 19th century for the publisher F.S. Ellis, this cover of beige silk cloth with mesh of gold thread is oversewn with flowers and leaves in imitation of the cover designed for the standard copy by the author, Dante Gabriel Rossetti.

The book's title is embroidered on the spine in pink and cream thread. The top edges of the pages are gilt, and the other edges are untrimmed; by this time, untrimmed edges were a sign of a special printing, rather than an unfinished binding.

A pencilled note by Alexander Turnbull inside the volume attributes the binding to Miss E. Burden, and this is probably the embroiderer, Elizabeth (Bessie) Burden (1842-1924) who was chief technical instructor at the Royal School of Art Needlework, London, from 1880.

Purchased by Alexander Turnbull sometime between 1915 and 1918.

Upper cover of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Ballads and sonnets (London: Ellis and White, 1881). REng ROSS Ball 1881.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nationallibrarynz_commons/5352560661/

Embroidery panel designed by May Morris, Morris & Co., 1890s

fter finishing college, May went back home and started working for Morris & Co., her father's firm. She was head of the Embroidery section, with a team of embroiderers. Cheltenham Art Gallery & Museum recently acquired this panel, probably intended to be a firescreen, which was designed by May. She designed pieces like this, and designed and embroidered the large, elaborate special commissions as she was one of the most skilled embroiderers working for the Firm.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/artsandcraftsmuseumcheltenham/6776973908/

May bag

It was impossible for May to forget who her father was, I think it is impossible for us as well. May will always been seen in his light – but so can most of the Arts and Crafts designers! Let May come out from his shadow and be celebrated in her own right, as the remarkable woman – though flawed – that she knew herself to be.

This bag was made in 1932 and was displayed at the Exhibition of Cotswold Craftsmanship, Montpellier Pump Room, Cheltenham in 1951.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/artsandcraftsmuseumcheltenham/6920266773/in/set-72157629062805086/

May bedspread

his embroidered white silk bedspread made by May in 1930 when she was 68 was displayed at the Exhibition of Cotswold Craftsmanship, Montpellier Pump Room, Cheltenham in 1951. She never lost her deft touch with the needle, or her passion for craft.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/artsandcraftsmuseumcheltenham/6920266911/in/set-72157629062805086/

May Morris embroidered bag

'Poppies' embroidery design by May Morris, produced by Morris & Co in the 1890s

Screen designed and embroidered by May Morris

Honeysuckle embroidery

This hanging is a rare example of a collaboration between three members of the Morris family: William, who designed the honeysuckle pattern, and his wife Jane and daughter Jenny, who embroidered the fabric.

I Knew Jenny did some embroidery as therapy for her epileptic fits but never seen anything that survived before.

http://www.artfund.org/what-we-do/art-weve-helped-buy/artwork/12421/honeysuckle-embroidery-william-morris

WM Gallery

May Morris. Battye embroidered tapestry (detail), 1900

http://www.wmgallery.org.uk/collection/themes/highlights/object/battye-embroidered-wall-hanging-f101-c-1900

The embroidered tapestry shown in this article is a segment of one produced by May Morris in 1900 and was commissioned by the Battye family, hence the name and coat of arms. It is a much more conventionally themed medieval piece, but is not a mere copy of William Morris. The composition, style, and tone seem to have a slightly lighter touch than we are used to with Morris tapestry and embroidery work. May seems to have ordered her design work to concentrate on the overall decorative effect rather than that of the exacting details of nature that was so much part of her father's style. This is particularly noticeable when looking at the leaves and fruit in the forefront of the composition and the movement of the trees, which almost seem to be walking, rather than swaying. Although the piece is superficially medieval in tone, it has none of the gravity of the Arts & Crafts movement of the 1880s and 1890s, but instead pays more attention to the playfulness of much of the decorative work that was to appear later in the twentieth century. 

http://thetextileblog.blogspot.com/2010/01/may-morris-and-embroidered-tapestry.html

Blue serge ‘Daisy’ hanging by Jane Morris in the Garden Hall at Kelmscott

May Morris - Maids of Honour (c.1900)