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19th October 2017
Born in 1839, Jane Burden was born in Oxford, the daughter of Robert Burden, a stableman and Ann Maizey a laundress. She grew up in a poor home and had little education herself. Had she not met and gotten involved with the artists, she probably would have followed her mother into the domestic service industry. Instead, she became the ultimate embodiment of Pre-Raphaelite beauty ideal.
Jane met William in 1857 when she visited the Drury Lane Theatre Company in Oxford along with her sister Elizabeth. It was Edward Burne-Jones and Dante Gabriel Rossetti who noticed her sat in the gallery below them and asked her to model for their art. She refused at first, so much so that she didn’t even show up to her scheduled time with Rossetti who wished to paint her for her mural – she didn’t know either of them and was wary. Upon a chance second meeting bumping into Burne-Jones, she finally agreed – unknowingly signing herself up to be the face of the Pre-Raphaelite movement as the woman in many of the artists paintings. The artist that loved to paint her the most was Rossetti who became obsessed with using Jane as his model and muse.
The two were undoubtably in love by this point, but he was engaged to be married to Lizzie Siddal and so after meeting Morris when she was his painting of Queen Guinevere (La Belle Iseult) she agreed to marry him. Ironically, Guinevere was famously beautiful – and famously unfaithful.
It can be noted here that by her own admission she was not in love with Morris at this point and it was a one sided love. It was now that she received her education – to become the wife of a wealthy gentleman, it wouldn’t do that she’d received little formal education. She was privately educated to learn French, Italian and the piano, also taught etiquette. Morris himself had an influence too as Jane became a talented needle woman, creating many beautiful embroideries.
Their daughter Jenny was born in 1861, followed by her sister May in 1862. The family moved to Red House in Kent – have you been? Today it’s a National Trust house and a beautifully preserved family home – famous due to it’s constant source of inspiration to Morris. It was this home that when he looked to decorate couldn’t find any suitable furnishings and so he, along with his good friend Philip Webb, created their own. It was from this the Firm – Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co. was formed – later leading to his own venture, Morris & Co. The house led to the Arts & Crafts movement. Later they moved to Kelmscott House – the basement and coach house remains to be where our friends at the William Morris Society are! We love visiting, it’s beauty never fails to amaze us!
Ultimately, her marriage to Morris really seemed to come to it’s end in 1871 when Morris went to Iceland to escape the affair Jane was having with Rossetti after his wife died. Their affair had led Morris to move Rossetti into their home in Kelmscott to keep their affair private. It’s important to remember that during the Victorian times, a marriage such as Jane’s to William wasn’t unusual – for girls from poor backgrounds, a marriage for class and not love was extremely common.
Her relationship to Rossetti, though it lasted until his death in 1882, wasn’t without it’s issues. He had a dependancy on chloral hydrate, a drug which was taken for insomnia. She distanced herself from him due to this. His art of her has lived on, from her own modelling in his images to him using artistic impressions of her as mythological roles such as pandora, she had a sombre face in each. Art critics and historians have projected this onto the fact it reflects Rossetti’s own troubled soul. His art of her is nevertheless iconic of the epitome of beauty of Pre-Raphaelite womanhood, which must have undoubtably been incredibly flattering for her.
Her last love came in the form of an affair with Wilfred Scawen Blunt, was a poet and political activist, which carried on until 1894. After the ending of the romance, her husband fell ill and she cared for him until his death. After this, she remained single the rest of her life, dying 16 years after Morris, aged 75.
Her lasting image, due to Rossetti’s art, are of a sombre and sullen woman, though we know her to have a much more full and round personality. It’s important to remember her many talents – she had an active role in the family business Morris & Co., was a multilingual talented musician and embroider and a home maker for her two daughters. Along with her intelligence and hobbies, she’s also captured the attention of art fans for generations as she remains to be the face of Pre-Raphaelite womanhood.
Posted in News by Laura
We have one Golden Lily small tote in stock! ✨ Perfect for taking out and about, if everyone loves them we’ll start to make them ✂️ We have them in stock in Trellis too in small and large size, DM me for a link ✨
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#williammorris #williammorrisdesign #goldenlily #floraltote #totebag
Florals florals florals ✨ These are our exclusive range of designs that we’ve restored from our French archive that dates from the late 1800s- early 1900s, would you like a sneak peak at our archive? There’s still lots of gorgeous designs in there ready to shine again! 🫶🏻
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#floral #floralprint #floralfabric #floralfabrics #smallbusiness
Gorgeous wildflowers gracing this tablescape ✨ Lily is such an underrated design by William Morris, it’s one of our favourites! 🫶🏻 we’ve got 20% off everything on our website this weekend with code; WEEKEND if you have your eye on anything, but be quick, it ends midnight tomorrow! 🤎
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#williammorris #wmorris #lily #floraltable #wildflower
Cut this gorgeous fat quarter bundle today ✂️ Can you name all the gorgeous William Morris designs? ✨
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#williammorris #williammorrisfabric #fatquarter #fatquarterbundles #floralfabric
Did you know all our William Morris designs are licensed William Morris designs that we digitally print and manufacture in the UK 🇬🇧
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#williammorris #williammorrisdesign #floralfabric #smallbusinesssupportingsmallbusiness #quiltingfabric
Cut this gorgeous fabric stack today- can anyone name these iconic William Morris designs? ✨
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#williammorris #wmorris #quiltfabric #curtainfabric #floralfabric
Our fabric patchwork bundles, fabric bundles and remnants have been restocked on our website now! 🤎 With only a few available, hurry to get the designs you want, the bundles are great for smaller sewing and quilting bundles, what will you create? 🪡🧵
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#fabricscraps #fabricstash #williammorris #fabricseller #fabriclove
Is there anything better than fresh flowers? 🌻 Bringing sunshine and nature indoors with Merton blue on the table today 🤍
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#williammorris #wmorris #floraltable #flowerstagram #blueandwhite
In 1864, William Morris designed gorgeous Trellis- inspired by the rose trellis in the gardens of @redhousent 🌹 We’ve got a limited collection of small and large cotton tote bags that we’ve just put live on the website- the perfect accompaniment to your next day out, it’s a design that’s proved itself to be timeless, plus it’ll go with every outfit, what’s not to love! 🤍 If everyone loves our cotton totes, we could bring them out in more designs, which design would you like to see a tote in? 🌟
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#inspiredbynature_ #williammorris #trellis #garden #floraltotebag
Perfect in every colour; it’s Brother Rabbit ✨ Our licensed William Morris Forest Green colour way of Brother Rabbit now comes in tea towel form to add some timeless floral magic to your kitchen, did you know the birds and rabbits within the design were drawn by Philip Webb? 🐦⬛
Our tea towels are all printed and manufactured in the UK, and are £10.99 each 🌟
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#williammorris #williammorrisdesign #floral #philipwebb #floralprint
Gorgeous Mallow Forest Green in the sunshine this week ☀️ Our heavyweight fabric is so versatile with so many crafts, what will you make? 🧵
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#williammorris #williammorrisdesign #williammorrisfabric #greenfloral #craftingfabrics
Wrap an order with us for a custom bundle of some wedding table linens 🌿 These Mallow Forest Green napkins and a custom table runner are now on their way to a customer to adorn their wedding tables, we’re so pleased to be involved in the tables of a few weddings this year! 🤍 If you are looking for gorgeous timeless William Morris florals for your tables, get in touch we’d love to discuss it with you ✨
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#williammorris #weddingtablescape #weddingtables #weddinglinens #weddingtablescape
It’s coming home! 🏴 To celebrate, take 15% off our website all weekend with code: HOME at checkout ⚽️ Hurry it ends Tuesday 🌿
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#williammorris #england #itscominghome⚽️ #britishbusiness #floralprint
The latest project, a little quilted jacket! ✨ Our William Morris Merton Blue cotton fabric is looking gorgeous, we’ll show you it when it’s finished ☺️ Remember if you’re quilting, our cotton fabric is perfect for the projects and we have lots of complimenting designs and colour ways within our range! 🪡
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#merton #quiltedjacket #quiltingfabric #quiltingfabrics #fabricstack
We’re often asked what the different weights of our fabrics are and what projects they’d be good for. These are our three different types of fabrics in our Brother Rabbit red colourway - cotton on the right, heavyweight in the middle and pvc on the left ✨ As you can see on the second photo, and as the name suggests, our heavyweight fabric has a thicker, heavier weave which makes it good for projects such as curtains and light upholstery 🪡 Our cotton fabric is perfect for quilting and projects such as dress making but honestly the amount of crafts that can be made out of them both are endless! 🫶🏻 Our pvc fabric is great to put straight on the table as it won’t fray so doesn’t need a hem and is easy to maintain as it’s wipe clean! All our fabrics are sold by the half metre and if you’d like a sample of any of our fabrics in any weight just let us know and we’ll get a free sample sent to you! 💌
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#williammorris #cottonfabric #quiltingfabric #curtainfabric #ukfabric
Our William Morris range is a gorgeous mix of colours and florals, which is your favourite? In some designs such as Strawberry Thief, Brother Rabbit, Willow Bough and Mallow we have different colour ways that we digitally print in the UK so check our website for the full range! 🫶🏻
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#williammorris #preraphaelite #quiltingfabric #fatquarters #britishbusiness
Perhaps the most famous Morris design, Strawberry Thief was registered in 1883, inspired by Morris watching the thrushes stealing strawberries from under his fruit nets at the beautiful @kelmscottmanor 🍓 It was printed using the indigo dye technique, which was labour intensive and first attempted in 1875 but not perfected for 8 years 🎨 We also print Strawberry Thief in a beautiful red 🫶🏻
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#strawberrythief #historicdesigns #britishdesign #kelmscottmanor
Gorgeous Golden Lily, designed in 1897, it’s been a timelessly popular design ever since but did you know that it really increased in popularity in the 1960s when the Beatles George Harrison wore a Golden Lily shirt? ✨
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#goldenlily #wmorris #georgeharrison #englishsummer #englishdesign
Daisy is a special one to many as it was the second ever design Morris created, in 1864, made up of repeating drawn Meadow Daisies 🌼
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#morrisandco #preraphaelite #preraphaelites #daisy #daisydesign
We print Willow Bough in this beautiful blue and also in green 🌿 First designed in 1887, it was first produced as a wallpaper design which May Morris, Williams daughter, used to decorate her bedroom before being adapted for fabric in 1895 when it was block printed in Merton Abbey 🌿
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#maymorris #mertonabbey #mertonabbeymills #willowbough
Trellis is a special design as it was the first wallpaper he designed for his company, Morris & Co. In 1864 🌿 It was inspired by the rose trellis in the garden of his stunning home @redhousent that he co designed with his friend and architect, Philip Webb
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#philipwebb #redhouse #trellis #rosetrellis
We print Mallow in a wine colourway and this beautiful forest green colour ✨ It was first printed in 1879 and used to hang in the wonderful Arts & Crafts home, @standennt in the Croxley bedroom 🫶🏻
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#a
you’ve got to make everything an event, including breakfast! 🥐
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On the table;
Willow Bough blue placemats- £38.99
Willow Bough blue napkins- £20.99 ✨
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#williammorris #williammorrisdesign #willowbough #preraphaelites #floralhome
Have you seen our forest green colourways of Mallow and Brother Rabbit? 🌿 We brought them out last year and were so happy that they’re ever so popular with everyone 💚 This week we’ve also got a 10% discount running on our website with code: floralsummer 🌅
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#williammorris #williammorrisfabric #wmorris #williammorrisdesign #preraphaelite
Did you know all our fabrics are printed and all our products manufactured in the UK? 🤍 It’s important to us that our William Morris fabrics are all high quality and the printed colours all beautiful to ensure all his designs live on timelessly to a high standard 🇬🇧
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Products featured; our Daisy William Morris tea towel - £10.99 ✨
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#williammorris #wmorris #morris #floralteatowel #floralhome
A moment for the greens! 💚 Can you name all these beautiful green William Morris designs? 🌿 All digitally printed here in the UK 🇬🇧 The good thing seeing them all together is you can see which work together for a sewing project or quilt, or layered together for your next tablescape! 🫧
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#williammorris #williammorrisdesign #williammorrisfabric #preraphaelites #floralfabrics
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