Lilies in William Morris Designs

The Lily carpet at the V&A

According to the Victoria and Albert Museum, it holds a carpet titled 'Lily', designed by William Morris for Morris & Co., dated ca. 1874 and machine woven. The museum describes it as woven with the 'Lily' pattern of floral motifs in blues, greens and pinks.

The carpet sits in a broader context. According to the Art Institute of Chicago, in the 1870s Morris began designing hand-knotted and machine-made carpets.

Two lily textiles at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Metropolitan Museum of Art holds two woven textiles whose titles pair the lily with another flower. (144.8 x 97.8 cm), accession number 1998.276. The Met's record lists only Morris as designer and names no firm as producer, so nothing further can be added on that point.

According to the Met's record, it was designed by John Henry Dearle, dated 1893, in silk and wool, accession number 23.163.14. The museum classifies it as Textiles-Woven and records that it was purchased with the Edward C. Moore Jr. Gift, 1923.

The two Met textiles sit within the wider pattern of flowers in Morris designs.

What the records do and do not tell us

A motif study should be honest about gaps. None of the sources checked gives a botanical identification of the lily in the Lily carpet, Tulip and Lily or Rose and Lily, so any species name would be guesswork. No Morris writing or quotation about lilies appears in the evidence either, and no named-author interpretation of the motif exists in the material reviewed for this page.

One further object needs a caveat. According to the Art Institute of Chicago, the Swan House Carpet was designed by William Morris, produced by Morris & Co., London, design c. 1883, made 1887, and was among the original furnishings of the John J. Glessner House in Chicago. The record available here is a truncated excerpt that does not describe the full design, so whether it shows lilies cannot be confirmed and it is not counted as a lily design on this page.

In summary, the checked evidence establishes:

• Three named designs with lilies in their titles, at the V&A and the Met.
• No botanical identification of the lily motif in any checked source.
• No Morris quotation about lilies and no named-author interpretation.
• No confirmation that the Swan House Carpet shows lilies.

Other well-known designs appear in the records checked without any mention of lilies, so they are not treated as lily designs here. According to the Victoria and Albert Museum, its Willow Bough wallpaper specimens were designed by William Morris, first issued 1887, block-printed in distemper colours on paper, and printed by Jeffrey & Co. for Morris & Co.

Context: Morris carpets of the 1870s

The Lily carpet fits a documented shift in the firm's output. According to the Art Institute of Chicago, in the 1870s Morris began designing hand-knotted and machine-made carpets. The V&A's machine-woven Lily carpet of about 1874 falls squarely in that decade, which is why the machine weaving in its record is not a contradiction but part of the firm's carpet work at the time.

Related flower motifs

Two of the designs above name their companion flowers in their titles, so the natural next steps are the motif pages for those flowers. Read more on Tulips alongside Tulip and Lily, and see our guide to Roses for the other half of Dearle's Rose and Lily. Each page follows the same rule as this one: documented objects first, interpretation only where a named source provides it.