Born on this day: Philip Webb

12th January 2018

Born on this day in 1831, he was an architect, designer and long time close friend with William Morris; the two worked together many times throughout their lives and were closely linked in their ideals as they were both members of the Arts and Craft movement. Webb is now widely considered as the ‘father’ of the movement!

We often speak about Webb in our blogs, especially when it comes to his work on Morris’ designs and the houses he designed – Red House in Bexleyheath (London) and Standen in West Sussex.

Morris and Webb met when Morris was 22 and Webb was 25, becoming friends for life, Webb called Morris, “the best man” he ever knew, showing the affection between the two. They bonded over their love of the arts, the English countryside, the buildings of the medieval era and their need to preserve them! The Arts & Craft Movement was actually a reaction to Victorian Industrialisation – killing the skills of traditional craftsmanship. Progress in machinery takes away from the traditional methods of art that they both were keen to revive and keep going for both buildings and furnishings. Webb was also the co-founder of the SPAB – Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings.

In terms of his childhood, it was a happy one – one of 11 children, he grew up in Oxford and showed an interest in the beautiful architecture all around him from a very young age. The cottages, churches and cottages sparked his lifelong love for architecture. His interest of preserving the older buildings began in 1852 when there was set to be an alteration to the spire of St Mary’s Church in Oxford. For the rest of his life he carried on his battle of preserve and restore old buildings to their former glory in an authentic way – traditional restoration instead of modernising them with their restoration.

His influences of the English countryside are clear throughout his work. His father took him for numerous visits during his childhood to the countryside and we can see the influence of this through his work. The birds and rabbits he drew in Morris’ Brother Rabbit is reflective of this – we license this beautiful design and think that this is a fantastically timeless design and one we can see Webb’s art at it’s best. His father encouraged his artistic talents – as he drew the plants and animals seen on their travels and his father secured tuition for him from a skilled botanical artist – Mrs Richardson.

Along with Morris, Edward Burne-Jones and Dante Gabriel Rossetti, they established the interior decorating and furnishing business, Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co. which later became Morris & Co.

Stylistically, in the homes he designed, Webb embraced the comfortable and traditional, choosing functional over the ornate Victorian ornamentation. In his work we can see traditional English building methods with red bricks, sash windows, gables, steep-sloped roof and tall Tudor-like chimneys. For hobbies, as well as his art, he also loved horses, riding and keeping them he even designed stables for them. From being a young child until he died, he kept horses and when the time came that he was too restricted by his rheumatism to ride, he watched them run in the field behind his home.

We can clearly see Webb’s beautiful art in our licensed William Morris design, Brother Rabbit.

(Featured image is a Portrait of Philip Webb by Charles Fairfax Murray. ©National Portrait Gallery, London)

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Mid week tables require; a vase of gorgeous fresh flowers, as many sweet treats as you can get your hands on, and of course, a gorgeous tablecloth set- this Willow Bough blue is one of our all time favourite William Morris designs, it’s utterly timeless and so beautiful 🌿
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The table details;
Willow Bough blue napkins- £16.99
Willow Bough tablecloths- starting at £29.99 depending on size
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Aren’t these the most gorgeous blooms!! 🫶🏻 This is our William Morris Compton design and it’s so underrated as a design, it’s beautiful year round because all the different details can be brought out of it, pair it with springtime greens to pop the green tones or autumnal burnt oranges during the colder months, it’s so versatile! ✨ Swipe to see my little photoshoot gatecrasher 😂
All our products are digitally printed and manufactured in the UK 🇬🇧
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Bringing nature indoors, we our gorgeous oven gloves thrown over the cooker- a chic way to make something practical beautiful too! 🫶🏻
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Gorgeous postbox 📮 If you’d like a free sample of any of our fabrics just send us a message and we’ll get them sent out to you 💌 If you’re ordering from abroad, we will always take the parcel to the post office to make sure we’re comparing different postage methods to get the best postage prices for you- we’re wanting to spread the floral goodness global! Today I pottered to the post office to send a lovely pvc apron to Australia which is amazing that Morris is well known world wide! 🐨🦘🇦🇺
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The best season is peony season 🫶🏻 Our favourite flowers, having peonies blooming in the house is always the best ✨ This is our William Morris Merton design, the most stunning blue and white pattern is so timeless ✨
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Lily is one of our favourite William Morris designs, it’s such a beautiful botanical design with all those willow leaves in the background 🌿
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Happy Strawberry Thief day! 🍓 On this day in 1883, Morris registered this beautiful design, isn’t it amazing that all these years later, it’s still as timeless as ever now more popular than ever and decorating homes across the world 🐦‍⬛
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We want to say a huge THANK YOU to all our lovely customers who have been so patient with us whilst our website checkout has been all in a tizzy - and thank you for your orders on another platform, we appreciate you keeping us going as a small business- but, we’re back up and running now so please use code: THANKYOU at checkout for 15% off until Sunday 🫶🏻✨ (song was me when we finally got tech issues fixed 🫠😂)
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📣 This fabric is on a big sale! 📣 Our red Strawberry Thief drill fabric is currently on sale for £15 a metre 🍓 Our drill fabric is a slightly heavier weight and weave than our heavyweight fabric and is perfect for light upholstery, curtain making and more 🪡🧵 It won’t be on sale long so grab yourself some whilst you can ✨
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Golden Lily always brings the sunshine indoors ☀️ we’ve got 15% off our website right now with code: florals 🌷
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The soundtrack to our day- our fabric cutter! 🎼 If you ever order fabric from us this is how we get our cuts so straight ☺️ Did you know that we sell our fabrics by the half meter, so however big or small your project is, we’ve got fabric for you ☺️ This is our gorgeous William Morris Strawberry Thief blue design, it’s very often on our cutting table as it’s so popular! Do you prefer it in red or in blue? 🍓
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The prettiest design; Hearts & Kisses 🤍 An original design, we’ve restored it from our late 1800- early 1900s French archive, we just love how delicate it is 💕 Would you like to see more of our archive designs? 🌷
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An Easter crafting weekend, our pvc wipe clean fabric is perfect for crafting with easy clean up!🌷🐣 Hope you’ve all had a lovely weekend, remember if you’re doing any shopping, our 15% off is still running on our website with code; EASTER 🐣
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🌟 15% off our website! 🌟 Get your tablescapes sorted for Easter (or get a treat for yourself from the Easter bunny!) with code; EASTER on our website only until Tuesday 7th 🐣🐰
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Replacing all normal eggs with chocolate ones for the foreseeable future 🐣 Brother Rabbit Green on the table always looks so beautiful, we just love this new colour way in this gorgeous William Morris design ✨
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Spring is officially here! 🌷 Take 15% off our website this weekend with code; EASTER to celebrate spring finally being here, use it to treat yourself or to get those Easter tables ready! 🐣
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Officially mini egg season, so we’ll incorporate them into every meal 🐣🌷 On the table today is our William Morris Lily design, isn’t it a stunning design 🌿
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Gorgeous flowers this weekend 🤍 We can’t get over the beautiful tulips 🌷 Brother Rabbit blue on the table, do you prefer it in the blue, red or green? 🌿
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A moment for the greens 🌿 We know sometimes it’s hard imagining different designs together for projects whether you’re quilting with tonal colours or mix matching curtains and cushions, the things you can do with our William Morris fabrics are endless, so seeing them together you can see how beautifully they pair together ✨ We’ll post the blues next so you can see them together too! 🤍 Message us if you’d like a sample of anything, we send them free in the UK 📮
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Born on this day: Philip Webb

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