WILLIAM MORRIS CENTENARY

Evening Star, Issue 21718, 12 May 1934, Page 19

WILLIAM MORRIS CENTENARY

DISPLAY AT PUBLIC LIBRARY The centenary of the birth of William Morris is being celebrated by an interesting display that is being held at the Public Library, and which will be on view for the next month. Morris believed that the ordinary articles which , are. used in the household sliould be, well made, and to this end he invited the aid of leading craftsmen of his day who were his friends. In designing articles for his own house he had the assistance of Philip Webb, George Jack, Rosette,_ Madox Brown, Burne-Jones, and William De Morgan in various ways. Miss Joachim has lent to the library s very fine bowl designed and glazed by William De Morgan and a large plaque of dragon design and two tiles, also dragon designed, by William De Morgan, and these are now'displayed in the New Zealand room. It will be remembered that William De Morgan later became a successful novelist, of his books the best known being ‘ Joseph Vance,’ ‘ Alice for Short,’ ‘ Somehow Good,| ‘lt Never Can Happen Again,’ ‘ Affair of Dishonour,’ ‘ Likely Story.’ The interests of William Morris were wide. He believed in the necessity for beautiful things and the essential pleasure which could he found in the labour of creating them. “ Time was when everybody that made anything made a work of art besides a useful piece of goods, and it gave them pleasure to make it. That is an assertion from which nothing can drive me; whatever I doubt I have no doubt of that.” This doctrine led him ultimately to Socialism, envisaging an Utopian State which, quite erroneously, as is pointed out in a recent article in the ‘ Contemporary Review,’ he believed could be carried out by a “ cataclysmic revolutionary ’change rapidly concluded,” and which was evidence of his complete “ inability to understand the complexity of modern economic conditions.”

Part of liis outline of the ideal State in ‘ How We Live and .How We Might Live ’ runs as follows;—“ Well, first of all I claim good health; and I say that a vas't proportion of people in civilisation scarcely even know what that means. To feel mere life a pleasure; to enjoy the moving of one’s limbs and exercising one’s bodily powers; to play, as it were, with sun and wind and rain ; to rejoice in satisfying the due bodily appetites of a human animal without fear of degradation or sense of wrongdoing; yes, and there withal to be well formed, straight-limbed, strongly-knit, expressive of countenance—to be in a Word beautiful—that also I claim.

. . . The next thing I claim is education, and you must not say that every English child is educated now; that sort of education will not answer my claim, though I cheerfully admit it is something. . . . What I claim is liberal education; opportunity—that is, to have my share of whatever knowledge there is in the world according to my capacity or bent of mind, historical or scientific, and also to have my share of skill of hand which is about in the world, either in the industrial handi- ■ crafts or in the fine arts—picture painting, sculpture, music, acting, or the like. I claim to be taught, if I can be taught, more than one craft to exercise for the benefit of the community . . . but also I_ know that this claim for education involves one for public advantages in shape of public libraries, schools, and the like such as no private person, not even the richest, could command; but these I claim very confidently, being sure that no reasonable community could bear to without such helps to a decent life.” There was a very close friendship existing between William Morris and the painter Burne-Jones—an amusing cartoon has been reproduced in the ‘ Listener,’ February, 1934, which is available with the collection in the Nwc Zealand room. Miss Joachim has also lent a very rare copy of the Burne-Jones ‘Flower Book’—an attempt “ to paint not the flowers themselves. but subjects suggested by their names. The first meaning of many

names has been forgotten and new meanings are found for them in the imagination of the artist.” One of the most interesting ventures of William Morris was the founding of the Kolmscott Press, for which he designed his own type. “ What I wanted was letter pure in form ; severe, without needless excrescences; solid, without the thickening and thinning of the line, which is the essential fault of the ordinary modem type, and which makes it difficult to read; and not compressed laterally, as all later type has grown to be owing to commercial exigencies. There was only one source from which to take examples of this perfected Roman type—to wit, the works o*f the great Venetian printers of the fifteenth century, of whom Nicholas Jenson produced the completest and most Roman characters froin 1470 to 1476. This type I studied with great care, getting it photographed to a big scale and drawing. it over many times before I began designing ray own letter; so that I think I mastered the essence of it.. I did not copy it servilely.” The library possesses a sot of William Morris’s own works printed “ at the Chiswick Press with the golden type designed by William Morris for the Kelmscott Press.”

A paragraph from the ‘ Listener ’ gives some idea of the scope of the work of William Morris: “Morris within certain limits had no objection to the machine—ho used loom and printing press. Later he set up dye shops and bleaching grounds at Merton Abbey, where he recovered the lost art of indigo dyeing. He saw the decadence of the former great art of the East, and believed that the only hope of. its revival must come from the West. < He would therefore make England independent of the East for carpets 1 which may claim to be considered works of art,’ and ho manufactured carpets of bright beauty. Not content with this, he started the most daring and difficult of his enterprises, a highwarp tapestry loom, going to the Gobelins factory for guidance, and then sat down to the loom himself to learn its compass before he took apprentices.” Miss Joachim has lent some interesting examples of William Morris fabrics. A cretonne designed and printed by William Morris, figured linen, a plain blue linen cushion cover, and a very beautiful embroidered cushion cover designed by William Morris and the work of Mrs Morris and Miss May Morris. Examples of William Morris wallpaper can be seen in ‘ A History of English Wallpaper, 1509 to 1914,’ by Allen V. Sugdon and John L. _ Edmundson. “ Wallpaper ceased to be just a cheaper substitute for something else and took its place as a wall covering on its own merits. England regained her position as leader in the applied arts, and not the least in regard to paperhangings.” A set of William Morris’s works which had previously to be withdrawn from the lending room because of the lack of space is being replaced, and will: be available for borrowing for some time.