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14th May 2019
We’ll begin the blog by discussing Victorian animals and our fascination with it. The fact that in Victorian England, you could go to a store in England and purchase exotic animals is incredible to us. In 2019, you can pop to Pets at Home and the biggest animal you will come away with is a rabbit (or a really big gerbil..) but, visit Charles Jamrach’s store in 19th Century London – Jamrach’s Animal Emporium – and you could purchase a whole manner of animals. If you saw ‘The Greatest Showman’ film, what you might not know that after P.T.Barnum’s circus fire in 1864, Jamrach was the main provider of animals for the circus. The Greatest Show indeed!
Visit Tobacco Dock and you’ll see a bronze statue. It’s there because in 1857, a Bengal tiger escaped the Emporium, found an eight year old boy and began to carry him away. Jamrach ran up and thrust his bare hands into the tigers mouth which forced him to drop the child. The young boy hadn’t seen such an large cat before and had tried to pet the animal – but after the incident the parents sued and were awarded £300.
Now; Wombats. Australian animals, males are usually about 30kg but can be bigger than that. Mostly nocturnal, they do feed during the day but because they are nocturnal, it means their hearing is increased as is their sense of smell. You’ll notice that their eyes are on the sides of their head so they can see sideways much better than they can forwards. They’re vegetarian and not particularly aggressive but if their burrow is invaded, they sound like they can have an aggressive streak towards their intruders!
At the beginning of the 18th Century, it’s important to know the feeling of the time. Of course, Australia was at the other side of the world and so it appears that the English were just beginning to learn more about the other countries and their animals. The British rule in India taught them lots about Elephants and so exotic animals weren’t a complete unknown.
Wombats were first known in England because of John Wilson – a convict transported to Australia because of a theft in Wigan. He befriended the local aboriginal people and learnt about the ‘Whom-batt’ as he called it.
Our Wombat is from the gift shop in Wightwick Manor as a little representation of Top – photo taken in Kelmscott Manor – notice behind, a book from Morris’s Kelmscott Press
In September 1869, Dante Gabriel Rossetti bought himself a wombat that he called ‘Top.’ Named after his William Morris’ nickname. Sadly, by November of the same year, the wombat died. Now, it’s not known nor recorded of whether the wombat was brought over from Australia or was born in Jamrach’s shop – or how old he was when Rossetti bought him.
For three months though, Top joined Rossetti’s menagerie in Chelsea. Rossetti is well known to have a private zoo/menagerie in his spacious garden. A tiny piece of Australia brought all the way to Chelsea to inspire and intrigue the Pre-Raphaelites.
In the Zoological Society’s Gardens in London, during 1856, a wombat had been born – it’s not clear if this is the first one or not (if you know – let us know!) As a child, Rossetti loved to visit the zoo and had gone a lot during his childhood. During one visit, his sister Christina was bitten by a peccary, her and their other brother, William, were actually the ones that discovered the families love for Wombats. When Rossetti was an adult, he remained a lover of the zoo and would take walks there and would have the meeting point of ‘the Wombat’s Lair.’
Our Wombat in Kelmscott Manor
Following his wife Lizzie Siddal’s death in 1862, Rossetti could no longer bear to live in their home and moved to Tudor House. The garden measured 4/5ths of an acre and so was perfect for his dream of a menagerie. He set about filling his zoo – some were allowed to roam free which resulted in various consequences (some disastrous) and some in cages – again, some with disastrous consequences. Sometimes, he set up a marquee in the garden where himself and friends would dine sat on Persian rugs surrounded by some of the animals. He was, for obvious reasons, not a popular neighbour.
His animals, at various times, according to ‘Rossetti’s Wombat’ included: “a white Brahmnin bull, or zebu (a specimen of the distinctive humped cattle of India). This was purchased on a whim from a ‘beast show’ in Cremorne Gardens” – page 68. “By May 1870 Rossetti had acquired two kangaroos – an adult female with a male joey in her pouch. These came to a bad buy mysterious end.” – Page 78. He also had a racoon which seems, nicely put, mischievous – Rossetti is known to have had to pay compensation for it’s raids on the neighbours gardens. There were also several peacocks – one of them was a beautiful white peacock which dived under the sofa and refused to come out until it died. His armadillos also were a nuisance to the neighbours and their privet hedges. The dormice were given to William Morris’ children in April 1868 when he took them through his pockets as he stepped through the door – we’re sure Morris was thrilled! He attempted to get an Elephant through what reads as a harebrained scheme and also a woodchuck. He also almost had a lion but it was only the fact he was put off by the expense of running hot water pipes through the garden to keep the lion warm during the English winter that he didn’t get one.
Other animals included: Punch the Pomeranian, Wolf the Irish deerhound, Jessie and Bobby barn owls, wood owls, Virginian Owls, mice, squirrels, rabbits, hedgehogs, and possibly a penguin. A grey parrot which tried to bite off visitors fingers and perhaps others that we don’t even know about!
Our Wombat in Kelmscott Manor
We’re so interested in the Rossetti and Top story – there’s so much to read. We did use John Simon’s fascinating book, “Rossetti’s Wombat” for reference in this blog and as quoted by page numbers above, did use it to help write parts of this blog. Also notice our featured image of the blog – it’s our Wombat on the windowsill at Kelmscott Manor next to Rossetti’s photo!
Posted in News by Laura
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
Did you know we do bundles of our fabric offcuts? 🌿 Perfect for sewer and quilters, they’re various sizes and designs and available on our Etsy and website - this is our latest “almost fat quarter” bundle that all are almost 50cm pieces, you could even make double sided cushions or anything! What would you create? 🪡🧵 (message us if you’d like a link to our bundles!🫧)
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#williammorris #fatquarters #fatquarterbundle #preraphaelite #quiltingcotton
With this hot weather upon us, if you’re like us and using it to get all your washing out and dry, we thought we’d tell you our washing guidelines! 🫧 We’d recommend folding your fabric face to face when in the wash (so pattern side to pattern side!) to protect the print and then wash at 30 degrees, hang on the line to dry! 🧺 All our fabrics are digitally printed in the UK and products manufactured in the UK 🇬🇧
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#williammorris #goldenlily #flowerscape #wmorris #preraphaelite
All our wonderful William Morris fabrics are digitally printed here in the UK, creating high quality print in incredible colour ways, if you’re quilting and crafting from our cotton and heavyweight cotton fabrics, we thought it’d be handy to have all the pattern repeats in an easy to save post ☺️
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#williammorris #craftingfabric #quiltingfabric #floralfabrics #patternfabric
Merton in blue is one of the most beautiful William Morris designs, a timeless blue and white, it was first designed in 1888!
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#williammorris #wmorris #morrisdesign #merton #preraphaelite
If you’d like a sample of Merton, just send us a message and we’ll get one sorted out for you!
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#williammorris #floralfabric #blueandwhite #blueandwhitefabric #tablescape
Have you seen Merton before? It’s so underrated as a Morris design we think! It was actually the first design that he printed on rotary screens under the name “Morris & Co.” After their rebrand from “Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co.’” 🌿 We’re just appreciating it during peony season!
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#peony #peonyseason #morris #morrisandco #preraphaelites
Taking a closer look at beautiful Lily design, a timeless design Morris designed in 1874, if you’d like a sample of Lily, just let us know! 💌
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The table details;
Lily napkins- £16.99 for 4
Lily tablecloths- starting from £29.99 depending on size
Also mentioned;
Lily cotton by the half metre- £9.25
Lily heavyweight cotton by the half metre- £10.25
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#williammorris #wmorris #preraphaelites #lily #quiltingcotton
When cutting fabric stacks, we always wonder what is being made from them, we often get messages about quilts being stitched together with various tonal colours, curtains ready to be part of daily life or dresses being sewn to be worn to the next big event, so if you ever make anything from our fabrics- whether it be a huge project or a tiny one made of our scrap bundles, do let us know what you make! 🪡🧵
Can you name the designs within the photo? All sold by the half meter, £18.50 per metre of cotton, £20.50 per metre of heavyweight cotton 🫶🏻
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#williammorris #wmorris #morrisfabric #floralfabric #quiltingcotton
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