William Morris's Borage Chintz: History and Design

Borage at a glance

Two things should be said at once. The V&A fabric records name no printer, so the maker of the 1883 cottons is unknown from this evidence. No first-issue or registration date appears either, only the design date of 1883.

What the pattern shows

The two V&A fabrics print curling floral stems on a white ground, one in yellow (O270959) and one in red (O270958). The V&A describes both as block printed cotton designed by Morris for Morris & Co.

The ceiling paper version looks different in the record. The V&A describes its specimen (O248755) as stylised flowers and foliage with two axes of symmetry on a pale ground. This is description, not interpretation.

No botanical species are identified in any of the records. The pattern name suggests borage, but the catalogue entries themselves identify only floral stems and stylised foliage, so any plant identification beyond the title would go further than the evidence.

A small physical detail survives on the ceiling paper specimen: it is stamped and inscribed on the back in ink with its title, number and price, and it was given by Morris & Co. to the museum.

Dates and attribution: what the records agree on

On attribution the records are consistent. The V&A lists William Morris as designer of Borage for Morris & Co., and the Met gives the same attribution for its cotton. No source in the evidence attributes the pattern to John Henry Dearle or any other hand.

On dates the two institutions overlap but differ in emphasis. The V&A dates the furnishing fabrics to 1883 and gives a production date range of 1883-1919. According to the Met's record, its cotton was designed in 1883 but printed between 1917 and 1923.

That means 1883 is the design date, not a proven first-issue date. No registration or first-issue date appears in the evidence, and the V&A's range implies production continued for decades without specifying when individual printings occurred.

How Borage was made

The documented techniques are simple to state. The V&A describes both fabrics as block printed cotton. The ceiling paper specimen is a colour woodblock print on paper.

Only one manufactory is named anywhere in the evidence. According to the Met's record, the 1917-23 cotton was printed at Merton Abbey Tapestry Works, which the Met credits as the manufactory. The V&A fabric records for the 1883 examples name no printer, so who printed those first cottons cannot be said from this evidence.

Further production details, such as the number of blocks or the dyestuffs used, are not recorded in the evidence for either version. The records give medium and technique and stop there.

The ceiling paper version

Borage is not only a fabric. The V&A holds a ceiling paper specimen, museum number O248755, dated 1888-89 in the record, attributed to Morris. Its existence alongside the fabrics means the pattern was produced in both furnishing fabric and ceiling paper versions according to the V&A records.

The specimen carries its own documentation. It is inscribed on the back in ink with title, number and price, and it was given by Morris & Co.

It belongs to a pattern book. The V&A records it as part of Volume 2, a book of Morris & Co. patterns from 1882-96 with the number E.530-608-1919.

Where to see Borage

Four museum records document the pattern across two institutions. Together they cover two colourways of the fabric, the ceiling paper and the late Merton Abbey printing.

The Met's example entered the collection in 1923, purchased with the Edward C. Moore Jr. Gift, according to the museum's record.

Open questions for researchers

Several questions a researcher would naturally ask cannot be answered from the evidence available here, and it is better to say so than to fill the gaps.

The main gaps are these:

• No documented statement by Morris about Borage appears in the evidence.
• The V&A fabric records name no printer for the 1883 cottons; only the Met names a manufactory, Merton Abbey, for its 1917-23 example.
• No plant species is securely identified beyond the pattern name. The records describe curling floral stems and stylised flowers and foliage only.

Later reissues are another grey area. The Met's 1917-23 printing is documented, and the V&A's production range to 1919 implies continued output, but no explicit reissue record appears in the evidence.

Borage among Morris's printed cottons

Borage belongs to the group of floral printed cottons the firm produced, appearing in both fabric and ceiling paper form like several other Morris & Co. patterns in the V&A records. For the wider picture, the Morris chintz list gathers the printed textiles in one place.

Other designs from the same world have their own profiles here, including Brother Rabbit, our guide to Honeysuckle and Snakeshead in detail. Each shows how much the museum records do, and do not, tell us about a single pattern.

Bringing Borage home

Originals of Borage sit in museum collections, but the pattern can still be lived with. Our William Morris Original Designs collection includes printed designs in the spirit of the firm's chintzes, described accurately and without suggesting they are museum originals.