Owen Jones, The Grammar of Ornament and William Morris

Owen Jones and Morris: what the record actually shows

It is worth being precise about the limits here. In the sources used for this page, Owen Jones appears only through his dates and through the V&A's stylistic contrast with Morris. No meeting, quotation, documented influence, or record of Morris reading or owning The Grammar of Ornament appears in the evidence.

What the supplied records establish, and what they do not:

• The V&A contrasts Jones's severe, geometric and formal wallpapers with Morris's flat, stylised ones.
• Jones's dates are 1809 to 1874.
• No evidence records a meeting, correspondence or documented influence between Jones and Morris.
• No evidence quotes Morris on Jones or on The Grammar of Ornament, or records whether Morris read or owned the book.
• No evidence supplies examples of Jones's designs or reproductions from The Grammar of Ornament for direct comparison.

Jones and Morris compared on wallpaper

The comparison below keeps to what each source states. Jones's side rests on the V&A's characterisation; Morris's side rests on his documented output and named designs.

Both men worked within the same reform climate. The Design Reformers, active since the Great Exhibition of 1851, rejected elaborate French-style wallpapers and aimed for less gaudy, flatter, more honest papers. the Great Exhibition of 1851 and what Morris rejected sets out that context in full.

Morris's side in detail: pattern, not imitation

Morris's wallpapers give the contrast substance. His woven textiles drew on other sources: Tulip and Rose, the first dateable design for a woven furnishing textile, was registered in 1876, and Peacock and Dragon dates from 1878, with many woven designs inspired by 16th and 17th century Italian silks. The Wandle of 1884 took inspiration from a 16th century Italian brocaded velvet acquired by the South Kensington Museum in 1883.

Morris was explicit that wallpaper should not pretend to be something else. In his essay The Lesser Arts (1877) he warned against sham-real boughs and flowers and advised wallpaper designers:

His partner Burne-Jones put the same principle bluntly. Speaking of Morris, Burne-Jones said:

The V&A reads Morris's strengths the same way. The museum holds that Morris realised his talents lay more in pattern than figuration, and that the firm relied mainly on Burne-Jones's figurative talents for stained glass. From the mid-1870s the two worked together on embroidery, Morris providing decorative detail and Burne-Jones figuration.

That division of labour shows in surviving objects. A tile panel in the V&A was designed by Edward Burne-Jones and William Morris, painted by Lucy Faulkner, and made by Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co. between 1862 and 1865. A Baptism of Christ panel in the same museum was designed by Burne-Jones and made by the firm about 1862.

Where the record disagrees or falls silent

Britannica adds detail to that tour: visits with Street and Burne-Jones to Belgium and northern France, where Morris first saw 15th century paintings by Hans Memling and Jan and Hubert Van Eyck and the cathedrals of Amiens, Chartres and Rouen.

On the Jones side, the silence is larger. The records supply no works by Jones, no publication details for The Grammar of Ornament, and nothing about his career beyond his dates and the V&A's description of his wallpapers as geometric and formal. Any claim of a documented Jones-Morris relationship goes beyond what these sources support.

Which sources to trust

For the stylistic comparison between Jones and Morris, the V&A is the source to rely on, since it is the institution that makes the contrast. For Morris's biography, Britannica supplies the tour and education details. Treat any source claiming a documented Jones-Morris influence with caution, because the records used here support none.

Morris's own standing is well documented. The V&A describes him as a key figure in the Arts & Crafts Movement who championed handmade production. His company became fashionable following the 1862 International Exhibition and secured commissions including two rooms at St James's Palace and the West Dining Room of the South Kensington Museum, where he later became an examiner in 1876 and joined the Committee of Art Referees in 1884.