Artichoke by John Henry Dearle for Morris & Co.: History and Design

Artichoke at a glance: the two recorded designs

The Victoria and Albert Museum holds two carpet samples under the name Artichoke. The first, museum number O258807, is a sample of carpet with William Morris listed as primary maker and a primary date of ca. 1875. The second, O89263, is a machine-woven wool three-ply Kidderminster-type carpeting that the V&A attributes to William Morris as designer and to the Heckmondwike Manufacturing Co. as manufacturer, dated 1875 to 1880.

The two records do not explain their relationship to each other, and neither gives a first issue or registration date for the design. The table below sets out what each record states.

One further point belongs here. The V&A also holds an 1877 watercolour design for embroidered wall-hangings titled The Artichoke, which is a separate work with its own history. It is covered later on this page.

What the Artichoke carpet patterns show

The O258807 sample is described by the V&A as showing one pink and two small blue flower heads with green foliage on a dark blue indigo ground. The sample also bears a label reading 'Morris & Company / Art Workers Ltd / 17 George Street / Hanover Square'. The museum describes it as a sample of three-ply Kidderminster carpet in wool.

The O89263 sample shows a repeating pattern of artichoke heads and leaves alternating in stripes with tulip-like flowers, in shades of green, pink and blue on a dark blue ground, according to the V&A record. Beyond artichoke heads, leaves and tulip-like flowers, no other plants or motifs are identified in the supplied records, so nothing further can be securely named.

Both descriptions are visual only. No supplied source offers any symbolic reading of either pattern, and none is attempted here.

Dating and attribution: what the records say and where they differ

According to the V&A, the records give differing dates for the O258807 sample: a primary date of ca. 1875 with a second production date of 1917 to 1925, while the O89263 sample is dated 1875 to 1880 and a V&A caption gives the same range. These positions come from the museum's own records and are not reconciled within them. No supplied source gives a first issue or registration date for the design.

The place of manufacture raises a similar question. No supplied source states whether that firm worked for Morris & Co. or as an independent licensee, or how the ca. 1875 design relates to the 1917 to 1925 production.

On attribution, the V&A records name William Morris as designer or primary maker for both samples, O258807 and O89263. No supplied source attributes any design named Artichoke to John Henry Dearle, so the Dearle attribution sometimes attached to this name cannot be confirmed from the evidence consulted here. For designs that are securely attributed to Dearle, see the reference list of Dearle designs for Morris and Co. Dearle design list

Artichoke in the context of Morris and Company's carpet and wallpaper work

Artichoke belongs to a firm whose documented output ranged across wallpapers, textiles and carpets. The first wallpaper Morris designed was Trellis in 1862, a pattern suggested by the rose trellis in the garden of Red House, his home in Kent, according to the V&A. Between 1882 and Morris's death in 1896, Morris & Company issued a further 35 new wallpaper designs.

Morris's own view of wallpaper was guarded. The V&A records that Morris still described wallpaper as a 'makeshift' decoration and preferred woven textile hangings for the walls of his own home.

That warning comes from Morris's essay The Lesser Arts (1877), where he advised wallpaper designers to avoid falling into the trap of trying to make your paper look as if it were painted by hand. It is a documented statement about wallpaper design in general, not about Artichoke specifically. No supplied source records any statement by Morris about Artichoke itself.

The firm's carpet work is documented separately, and the V&A's records for the Bullerswood Carpet show the scale the company reached in hand-knotted work. Bullerswood Carpet

A separate design that shares the name: the Artichoke embroidery

The V&A also holds a watercolour design for an embroidered wall-hanging titled The Artichoke, museum number O1261697, attributed to William Morris as artist and dated c.1877. This is a distinct work from the carpet samples, and no supplied source explains whether the two are related beyond the shared name.

The commission is documented. Ada Phoebe Godman, who lived at Smeaton Manor in North Yorkshire, asked William Morris in 1877 to produce a design for wall-hangings for her drawing room for her to embroider. According to the V&A, the design was delivered on 31 August 1877, and an existing drawing of Mrs Godman shows she was still completing the embroideries in 1900.

The V&A attributes the design's pattern structure to Morris's fascination with Middle Eastern patterns and the designs of early Italian brocaded silks and velvets, showing repeating artichokes in a traditional pattern structure. The museum owns one of the completed hangings; others are in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, and the William Morris Gallery, Walthamstow, London. The full story of the commission is told on the page for the Artichoke embroidery.

Where to see Artichoke

The documented holdings are as follows, with object numbers where the records supply them.

Museum holdings recorded for designs named Artichoke:

• Victoria and Albert Museum, carpet sample O258807, listed with William Morris as primary maker, ca. 1875
• Victoria and Albert Museum, carpet sample O89263, designed by William Morris, manufactured by the Heckmondwike Manufacturing Co., 1875 to 1880
• Victoria and Albert Museum, watercolour design for The Artichoke embroidery, O1261697, c.1877