|
William
Morris (1834-1896) William Morris leads the way in design reform in nineteenth-century England, and his influence will spread to the United States where the Arts and Crafts Movement will influence design well into the twentieth century. Appalled by the over-decorated, machine-made objects that he encountered in the Crystal Palace Exposition held in London in 1851, Morris established his own design firm (Morris, Marshall & Faulkner, later Morris & Company) in 1862 with the mission of creating good design that would be accessible to the English middle class. Although this ambition was not realized in his designs for furniture, stained glass, wallpaper, and carpet design, Morris nonetheless launched a design reform movement which emphasized the collaboration of a group of artists and designers who followed John Ruskin’s instructions to choose a medieval craftsman’s approach to design, emphasizing simplicity, with a presentation of honest materials and construction. In January 1891 Morris founded the Kelmscott Press at Hammersmith, England, and so extended his interest in medieval forms and “honest” design into the print world. Between 1891 and 1898, the Kelmscott Press issued 53 books (about 18,000 copies). Instead of elaborate, gilded covers enclosing intricate and detailed illustrations, Morris most often relied upon a print that resembled script, along with decorative initial letters and motifs that he drew from medieval manuscripts. In other words, the typography becomes art. Here again Morris leads the way in England, and his influence extends to the United States, especially in the work of Elbert Hubbard and the Roycrofters.
|
|
 |
Roses
and Holly: A Gift-Book for All the Year.
Illustrated
by: Gourlay Steel, R. Herdman, Clark Stanton, Gift
of: Dr. Peter Koblenzer |
|
Charles
Perrault. Les
contes de Perrault.
Paris: Librairie de Théodore
Lefèvre et Émile Guérin, Éditeur, 1904. Engraved
by Lefrancq after Desandre [Jules-Marie Desandre] Gift
of: Evan Hopkins Turner |
 |
 |
William
Morris. The
Roots of the Mountains. Gift
of: Mrs. Lydia W. Kin
|
|
Charles
Dickens. The
Battle of Life: A Love Story.
London:
Bradbury & Evans, 1846. Illustrated
by: D. Maclise, R. Doyle, J. Leech, C. Stanfield Gift of: Dr. Peter Koblenzer
|
 |
 |
William
Morris. A
Dream of John Ball: Being an Idyll in Prose.
Gift
of: Mrs. Lydia W. King The
Roycrofters reprinted several William Morris titles,
|
|
William
Morris. Gothic
Architecture: A Lecture for the Arts and
Crafts Exhibition Society.
London: The Kelmscott Press, 1893. Illustrated
by: William Morris, extra-illustrated by Mark
Samuels Lasner Gift
of: Maurice Buxton Forman
|
 |
