Bird Blanket_William Morris🄬

William Morris is a pioneer of arts and crafts who represents Britain and still has many enthusiastic fans today.

We have completed a series of works that add a HOiSUM-like twist to William Morris's famous natural works, including the "River" series named after tributaries of the River Thames in the UK.

On March 25, 1877, Morris wrote to dyer Thomas Wardle (1831-1909) that he was "studying to see if birds might give me some inspiration for my next design".

This was Morris' first design to juxtapose a pair of facing birds, and he was inspired by 16th- and 17th-century Italian silk fabrics in the collection of South Kensington Museum.

At Kelmscott House*, where the Morris family began living in 1878, this work was hung on the walls of the first-floor drawing room, and Morris' second daughter, May Morris (1862-1938), said of the design, "Serene, familiar and most suited to the needs of everyday life. It evokes not the fortune of a millionaire but the modest assets of a middle-class merchant, living with beautiful objects carefully collected over time."

* Kelmscott House is the house in Hammersmith, London where William Morris spent his later years.

100% COTTON
Made in the USA

Year of creation: 1878

References
"William Morris: A History of Design Through the British Landscape," edited by Brain Trust and supervised by Haruhiko Fujita, Goto Shoin, 2017.

"William Morris: Father of Modern Design," edited by the National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto, the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, and Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art, NHK Osaka Broadcasting Station, 1997.

Parry, Linda (ed.), "William Morris", Exh. Cat. London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 1996.