CIRCA 1876

In 1876, the English architect, George Devey (1820-1886), commissioned from William Morris (1834-1896) this bold design for bathroom tiles for Membland Hall in Devon, the home of the merchant banker, Edward Charles Baring, 1st Baron Revelstoke (1828-1897). It was part of a larger scheme of decoration by Morris & Co. for Baring's home as it underwent remodelling by the architect. The design is the only floral pattern for a tile panel on this scale by Morris and its ambitious size (each panel is made up of sixty-six individual tiles), and the need to produce a matching set, meant that Morris turned to his friend, the innovative ceramicist and designer, William de Morgan (1839-1917), to produce the tiles. The set represents an ambitious and successful collaboration between these two creative geniuses.

There were six tile panels with this design produced for Membland Hall. William Morris's original design for the panel is held in the William Morris Gallery, Walthamstow (museum no. A31) and is inscribed along the upper right edge, 'Tiles for bathroom, Membland'. A second panel from the set is preserved at the William Morris Gallery (museum no. C176) and another is in the collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum, London (museum no. C.36-1972); another was sold at Sotheby's, London, 19 December 1989, lot 81 and is now in the Musée d'Orsay, Paris (museum no. OAO 1210). Two panels of this design are in the collections of Ann and Gordon Getty, and the Museum of Applied Arts in Cologne acquired an 'Acanthus' panel in 1978 (E04941). The design remained on Morris & Co.'s stock lists until 1912-13 and a number of panels, other than the Membland six, are known to have been made, presumably available on commission. In 1899, Lewis Day attributed the design and its execution to the year 1876 (William Morris and His Art, Art Journal Supplement, 1899, p.19). At least one panel uses De Morgan's own Fulham Pottery tiles but De Morgan supplemented his own production by buying in blank tiles from the Architectural Pottery, Poole, Dorset, which he decorated at his Fulham factory.