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16th October 2020
If you’ve read about William Morris, you’ll know he was hugely talented and passionate about a number of things. Did you know this included setting up the Kelmscott Press. From 1890-1896, he mastered the skill of fine hand printing. Our friends at the wonderful William Morris Society sent us these lovely photos to share with you.
In 1888, Morris attended a lecture on printing by his neighbour, Emery Walker. Mass produced, badly made and unsightly, his vision was a return to traditional craftsmanship. The books, as shown in the photos, now remain a wonderful representation of the Art and Crafts aesthetic typical for Morris.
You can see the fine detail within the books – not just ordinary passages of text. Instead, intricate, beautiful Morris designs. In total, the Kelmscott Press printed three books. According to Helen Dore, an authority on Morris, this equalled 18,234 volumes.
With Morris, this new venture was very much how his love for architecture began – pushing back on the new ways of manufacturing. At the time of the Victorian industrial revolution, Morris wanted to keep and celebrate traditional craftsmanship. Morris was a lifelong lover of medieval manuscripts, with the craft of hand printing declining. By his death, he’d collected over 1000 books of their earliest print. These all lived in the library of his home, Kelmscott.
Just like his other passion projects, the Kelmscott Press was created to perfection. “The aim of the Press was to revive the allied art crafts of type-designing, fine printing and book production, producing hand-printed limited editions on handmade paper. William Bowden and his son were employed as compositors.” (Helen Dore, William Morris, 1990)
Morris aimed to revive the craft of printing which had become less popular due to commercial degradation. “As with the other decorative arts, he was not content just to design beautiful books, but went to considerable lengths to familiarise himself with all the materials and processes involved- the paper, ink, and the cutting and making of the type.” (Helen Dore, William Morris, 1990)
Because he already knew about block printing from his time printing designs in Merton Abbey and also his talent at calligraphy. Therefore could design type fonts; “Chaucer,” “Golden” and “Troy.” Inspired by 15th Century type with all three fonts, he designed all three. Then, he continued to study them to understand the difficulties of using intricate lettering.
The images of Nature of Gothic and News from Nowhere show how detailed and beautiful the texts are. Definitely not just your average book. As you can see, each page is a work of art. He made over 600 designs for these borders, title pages and inscriptions in the last years of his life. His work, as always, was an impeccable example of artistry. Using pure linen rags instead of paper to model it on 15th Century Bolognese paper.
Each page printed for the Kelmscott Press (printed by Joseph Batchelor) had a watermark, designed by Morris. “His authoritative Arts and Crafts essay on printing gives a survey of its early history and his own views on the principles of good typography, emphasising the importance of legibility; well laid-out pages (stressing that the double, not the single, page should always be considered the unity), with margins in due proportion to the type area. Although Morris excelled at decorative borders and initials, he also felt that books could be most beautiful in terms of typography alone, without any other ornament.” (Helen Dore, William Morris, 1990)
Thank you to the William Morris Society for sending us these photos! Referenced throughout was Helen Dore.
Posted in Kelmscott manor by Laura
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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A little update from us 🇬🇧
From 1st July, our product prices will be increasing due to continued rises in manufacturing and material costs.
We’ve worked hard to absorb these increases for as long as possible, but to continue providing the quality you expect from us, a small price adjustment is now necessary.
Every product we create is proudly printed and manufactured here in the UK, using high-quality materials and processes that ensure a finish we’re proud of. Our fabrics are all digitally printed to give a crisp finish.
If you’ve been thinking about placing an order, now is the perfect time — all orders placed before 1st July will be at our current prices.
To thank you for your support, we’re offering an exclusive discount before the new prices take effect.
Use code: thankyou
Enjoy 10% off your order until 14th June
This is the perfect opportunity to place your order at current prices and enjoy an additional saving before the increase.
Thank you for supporting a UK small business and for choosing quality. We truly appreciate every order ❤️
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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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#williammorris #williammorrisdesign #wmorris #morrisdesign #blueandwhitedecor
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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#williammorris #williammorrisfabric #lily #floraltable #floralmagic
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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#strawberrythief #williammorris #williammorrisdesign #birddesign #floralfabric
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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#williammorris #williammorrisdesign #strawberrythief #ukfabric #curtainfabric
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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#williammorris #fabricbytheyard #fabricbymeter #floralfabric #ukfabric
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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#floralfabric #craftingfabric #quiltingfabric #dressmakingfabric #fabricstash
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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#williammorris #wmorris #eastertable #eastertablescape #floralhome
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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#williammorris #wmorris #eastertable #floraltable #eastertablescape
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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#williammorris #wmorris #springfloral #floralkitchen #smallbusiness
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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#williammorris #wmorris #morrisfabric #lily #floraltablescape
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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#williammorris #wmorris #preraphaelites #flowerpowerfabric #flowers
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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