Arts & Craft Style NZ

n England the Arts and Crafts movement drove a new “middle class” fashion for interior decoration. Firms such as Liberty’s and Morris & Co. who used a wide range of designers including C.F.A.Voysey, and Walter Crane, provided designs for carpets, wallpapers, tapestries, and woven and printed textiles needed to satisfy the furnishing requirements for the “Artistic” home. During the Victorian period the fashion had been to heavily drape windows and furniture. The new style ushered in by William Morris, inspired the use of lightweight chintzes to replace the heavy velvet upholstery with this lighter, fresher, and less elaborate window treatment. Curtains were now hung on simple wooden or brass rods, and a single oriental rug or Morris made carpet was laid over a polished or stained wooden floor, with complimentary patterned wallpaper. Always the emphasis was on complimentary colour and pattern.

Morris’ sublime genius as a flat pattern maker, and his flair for experimentation with natural animal and vegetable dyestuffs enabled him to begin to produce fabrics and wallpapers that became the standard to aspire to on both sides of the Atlantic, and cemented his place as the leader in his field.

New “Aesthetic” colours such as Russet Browns, Madder Reds, Sage Greens, Peacock Blues, and subtle Yellows were the dominant palette in his luxurious patterns based on “natural” motifs, like birds, leaves and animals.

A great favourite of both Morris and the public of the time was his beloved “Acanthus” leaf pattern. This can be seen as a recurring element in many of his popular designs. Morris’ quest for perfection in all he attempted led him to team up in 1875 with Thomas Wardle, a silk dyer with works in Leek in Staffordshire. The two collaborated on patterns and colour schemes, consulting with old herbals and reviving Old Elizabethan recipes for vegetable dyestuffs. Today, a tribute to his enduring genius, many of Morris & Co. patterns including those of Morris himself and subsequently James Dearle, his apprentice who took over the designs at the company after Morris’ death are still available today.