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

Daffodil at a glance

The table below gathers the core details of Daffodil exactly as the Victoria and Albert Museum records them. Where the records give more than one value, both are shown.

A second V&A example, O270897, is described in the museum's record as cotton printed with a pattern of daffodils, leaves, small blossoms, and wavy stripes, again with a Morris & Co. label attached. That description is the most complete account of the design's appearance in the records used here.

What the fabric shows

The V&A's description of the O270897 example is the plainest guide to the pattern. It records cotton printed with daffodils, leaves, small blossoms and wavy stripes. The daffodil flowers give the design its name, and the wavy stripes give the ground its structure.

Beyond those four elements the record does not go. No other plant or motif is securely identified for Daffodil in the evidence used here, and the full physical descriptions of the other two examples are incomplete. Anything more about the pattern would be guesswork.

The same example carries an attached Morris & Co. label, which ties the cloth physically to the firm that commissioned it.

The V&A dates the design to around 1891, with an alternative range running from about 1891 to 1919 on the O88763 record. The later end of that range presumably reflects continued use, but the record itself does not explain the two datings.

Who designed Daffodil, and when

The V&A records John Henry Dearle as the designer of Daffodil across all three examples of the fabric, made for Morris & Co. in England. The records differ slightly in how the name is written, with variants that read John Henry Dearle, a plural form of designers, and Dearle alone. The substance of the attribution is the same in each case.

A Morris & Co. label survives attached to the examples, confirming the maker as the firm itself.

According to the V&A, the records give a production date of ca. 1891, and on the O88763 entry an alternative of ca. 1891 to 1919. No first issue or registration date separate from these production dates appears in the evidence, so the honest answer to when Daffodil was first printed is: around 1891, on the museum's dating, with the exact year unknown.

John Henry Dearle at Morris & Co.

Dearle joined Morris & Co. in 1878 as a shop assistant. Morris trained him as a tapestry weaver, and from that start he rose to the position of designer.

According to the V&A, Dearle produced his first tapestry design in 1887, and by 1890 he was the firm's chief designer. Daffodil, dated around 1891, belongs to the first years of that role.

His remit went well beyond any one medium. The V&A records that he designed tapestries, carpets, embroideries and both woven and printed fabrics, that he supervised most textile production up to and after Morris's death in 1896, and that he later became Art Director.

The museum also makes a point about credit. According to the V&A, Dearle's contribution was much neglected and his work was often attributed to Morris because of Morris's fame. The three Daffodil records, each naming Dearle, are part of the correction.

Daffodil sits within a wider body of printed and woven work by Dearle for the firm. Our reference list of designs by John Henry Dearle gathers the documented designs in one place.

The three V&A examples

The V&A holds three examples of Daffodil. The table below lists each with its museum number, so that readers can locate the objects directly in the museum's collection.

The three records agree on the essentials: the same design, the same designer and the same maker. They differ mainly in how fully each object is described, and in the small variations of wording noted above.

What the records do not tell us

Several reasonable questions about Daffodil cannot be answered from the evidence used for this page. Listing them plainly is more useful than filling the gaps with assumption.

• No printer is named for Daffodil. The evidence does not state whether Jeffrey & Co. or Morris & Co.'s own Merton Abbey works printed the cloth.
• No first issue or registration date is given, distinct from the ca. 1891 production dates on the records.
• No documented statement by William Morris about Daffodil exists in the evidence.
• No published attribution discussion beyond the V&A records is available here, so the attribution rests on those records alone.
• No later reissues of Daffodil are documented in the evidence.

On technique, the records do say the fabric is block printed, which is the extent of what can be stated. According to the V&A, the fabric is block-printed cotton. Who cut the blocks, where the printing took place and which dyes were used are all unrecorded in this evidence.

More Dearle designs to explore

Daffodil is one of several printed and woven designs the V&A attributes to Dearle, dated by the museum to around 1891. Golden Lily is the best-known of his flower patterns, with its own documented history in the museum's records.

Designs linked to May Morris's Honeysuckle wallpaper show another strand of the firm's later pattern work. According to the V&A, Morris, and later his daughter May and assistant John Henry Dearle, produced a large number of embroidery designs for completed panels or 'embroider yourself' kits. For the wider picture, the parent Dearle design list sets his work for Morris & Co. in order.

If you are looking for a printed example of a Dearle design for your own walls, our Original Designs collection brings together the designs we currently print from.