William Morris's Blackthorn Wallpaper Explained

Blackthorn: what the museum records say

The Victoria and Albert Museum holds wallpaper specimens titled Blackthorn under at least three object numbers. The record for O250943 names William Morris as primary maker, gives a primary date of 1892 and a place of production of England. According to the same V&A record, the paper was designed by William Morris, published by Morris & Co. and printed by Jeffrey & Co., with a production date of 1892.

Two further V&A records complicate the picture. Object O249338, dated 1892, is catalogued with John Henry Dearle as primary maker, and the V&A states that this example was designed by Dearle. Object O251141 is also catalogued with Dearle as primary maker, with a broader production date range of 1880 to 1917, and the V&A attributes that specimen to Dearle as well. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, according to its own record, lists John Henry Dearle as the designer of its Blackthorn.

The materials and techniques given in the records also vary. The V&A lists O250943 as print on paper and O249338 as colour woodblock print on paper, while O251141 is recorded as colour woodblock, or machine, print on paper. The Metropolitan Museum of Art describes its sheet as block-printed in distemper colors.

Who designed Blackthorn: Morris or Dearle?

The attribution of Blackthorn is genuinely unsettled in the documented records, and it is worth setting out each position with its source. The V&A record for O250943 states that Blackthorn was designed by William Morris. The V&A records for O249338 and O251141 state that the design is by John Henry Dearle. The Metropolitan Museum of Art likewise credits Dearle as designer.

No source in the available evidence resolves this conflict. The evidence does not record any statement by the V&A, the Metropolitan Museum of Art or any named scholar explaining which attribution is preferred, and no published catalogue entry in the evidence addresses the question directly.

The documented positions can be summarised as follows:

• Designed by William Morris: V&A record O250943, which also names Morris as primary maker.
• Designed by John Henry Dearle: V&A record O249338, which names Dearle as primary maker and dates the specimen to 1892.
• Designed by John Henry Dearle: V&A record O251141, a specimen with a production date range of 1880 to 1917.
• Designed by John Henry Dearle: the Metropolitan Museum of Art record, which lists Dearle in the role of designer and dates the sheet to 1892.

One detail within the specimens may bear on the question, though it does not settle it. The V&A records that O249338 is inscribed on the back in ink with title, number and price, so the specimen carries firm commercial information, but the evidence does not state that the inscription names a designer.

The surviving examples and how they entered the collections

The V&A's O250943 specimen was given to the museum by Mr Sydney Vacher, according to the V&A record. Beyond that donor name, the evidence gives no further provenance for this example.

O249338 has a firmer institutional history. The V&A records that it is part of 'Volume 2', a pattern book of Morris & Co. specimens, and that the object was given by Morris & Co. itself. The pattern book context matters, because it means the specimen entered the record as a trade sample rather than as paper removed from a wall.

The third V&A example, O251141, also comes from a pattern book. The V&A records that it belongs to a wallpaper pattern book containing 132 specimens, mounted on a display stand with a cloth cover, produced by Morris & Co. of 449, Oxford Street, London, and given to the museum by Shand Kydd Ltd.

According to the Met's record, the sheet is dated 1892. The evidence gives no object number and no provenance details for this example, so those points cannot be stated here.

How the paper was printed

The V&A record for O250943 lists the technique simply as print on paper. The record for O249338 specifies colour woodblock print on paper, and the record for O251141 hedges slightly, listing colour woodblock, or machine, print on paper. The Metropolitan Museum of Art describes its sheet as block-printed in distemper colors.

The pattern book containing O251141 carries an inscription from Morris and Company about how hand printing worked. The V&A records the inscription, which is truncated in the available evidence, as reading:

The inscription continues beyond the text recorded, explaining that each separate colour was slowly dried before another was applied, according to the V&A's description of the pattern book.

One printing question remains open. The V&A record for O250943 credits Jeffrey & Co. as printer, but the other records in the evidence do not name a printer at all, and no source states where Blackthorn was printed across the whole of its production life.

What we cannot yet say about Blackthorn

Some of the most obvious questions about Blackthorn cannot be answered from the documented records, and it is more useful to say so than to paper over the gaps. The following points are not established by the evidence available.

The documented gaps are:

• The pattern's appearance. No record in the evidence describes the imagery of Blackthorn, so no plant or motif can be securely identified here, and the title alone does not establish what the design depicts.
• The distinction between the design date and the first issue or registration date. The records give production dates only, 1892 for two V&A specimens and the Met sheet, and 1880 to 1917 for one V&A specimen.
• A definitive attribution. The V&A record for O250943 credits William Morris as designer, while other V&A records and the Metropolitan Museum of Art credit John Henry Dearle, and no source in the evidence resolves the question.
• Any documented statement by William Morris specifically about Blackthorn. No such statement appears in the evidence.
• Later reissues of Blackthorn. No excerpt documents any reissue.
• Where Blackthorn was printed throughout its production life. Only one record names a printer, Jeffrey & Co., and no record confirms printing at Merton Abbey for this design.

Anyone researching Blackthorn further would do well to consult the object records directly and to look for a published design catalogue entry, since the questions above turn on sources not available here.

Blackthorn in the wider wallpaper catalogue

Placed alongside the rest of the firm's output, Blackthorn sits in the catalogue of Morris & Co. wallpapers with a documented production date of 1892, and specimens are recorded by the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the latter crediting John Henry Dearle as designer. Beyond that, the general context the evidence supports is a firm whose wallpaper designs, according to the V&A, centre on plant-based forms and are stylised evocations of natural forms rather than literal transcriptions.

For readers who want to see how Blackthorn sits among the firm's other papers, the complete list of William Morris wallpaper designs sets out the designs in one place.