Evenlode by William Morris: History of the Printed Textile

Evenlode at a glance

The table below gathers the core facts about Evenlode as they appear in the Victoria and Albert Museum's records for the three examples the museum holds. Everything in it comes from those records; where the records differ between objects, the differences are shown in the later section on the museum examples.

One point needs care. The 1883 date in the records is the design date the V&A gives for the pattern. The evidence does not supply a separate first issue or registration date, so none can be stated here.

What the fabric shows

The V&A's physical description of O270963 records flowers and leaves in yellow, white, and shades of red, green, and blue on a dark green ground, with a Morris & Co. label attached to the fabric. That is the fullest colour account of the pattern in the museum's records.

The V&A's record for the second example, O270964, describes block printed cotton with flowers in pink and yellow with green and blue leaves on a dark green background. The two descriptions agree on the dark green ground and on flowers and leaves as the pattern's content, but they differ in the colour range recorded, so both are given here as the museum states them.

The third example, O270961, is recorded as block-printed cotton showing a selvedge to one side. That detail matters for anyone studying how the fabric was made up, since the selvedge shows the width of the cloth as it came off the printing table.

No plant species is named for Evenlode in the sources used here, and no symbolic meaning is attached to the pattern by any named author. What follows is description only, kept to what the records state.

Design date, attribution and the maker's marks

The V&A lists William Morris as designer and primary maker for O270963 and O270964, and as designer for O270961. The V&A's record for O270961 describes the fabric as designed by William Morris for Morris & Co. The attribution to Morris himself is therefore consistent across the three museum records.

The V&A dates the design to 1883, with a primary date of 1883 and a production date of 1883 on both O270963 and O270964. Each of those two objects also carries a second production date range, which is discussed below under the museum examples.

Two stamped marks survive on the fabrics. One, recorded on O270963, reads 'Morris & Company 449 Oxford Street London W'. The two addresses differ, and the records do not explain the difference, so both are reported here as stamped.

The 'Regd' in the second mark presumably stands for registered, but the stamp carries no date. No first issue or registration date for Evenlode can therefore be given beyond the 1883 design date in the V&A records. Anyone who states a specific registration date for this pattern is going beyond the evidence available here.

How Evenlode was printed

The V&A describes O270963 as block printed cotton, dyed, discharged and block printed. That combines three processes: dyeing the ground, discharging colour out of the dyed cloth, and printing with blocks.

The records name no printer and no workshop for Evenlode. The evidence does not mention Jeffrey & Co. in connection with this design, and no source supplied here links Evenlode specifically to Merton Abbey. Those gaps are stated rather than filled.

The dyed, discharged and block printed description is consistent with the dark green ground recorded on both dated examples. Discharge printing is the technique of removing colour from a dyed cloth to form a pattern, and it was used where a light motif was wanted on a dark ground. The records describe the result; they do not describe the working sequence, so no further detail about the printing process can be given.

Three museum examples

The Victoria and Albert Museum holds three Evenlode furnishing fabrics. The V&A's records for them differ in the production date ranges they give, and one example was printed decades after the design date. The table sets out each object as the museum records it.

The V&A records differing end dates for the production ranges, 1919 on O270963 and 1912 on O270964; they are reported here as given. They may reflect different assessments of how long the pattern stayed in production, but the records do not explain the difference.

The V&A's record for O270961 gives a production date of 1925 to 1930, with 1883 also recorded as a production date. This example is the only documented evidence of a later printing of Evenlode in the sources used here. It shows that the design was still being printed from Morris's 1883 pattern some four decades on. No other reissue evidence is supplied, so none can be described.

What we cannot yet confirm

Several questions about Evenlode remain open on the evidence available. They are listed here so that readers know the limits of this page rather than taking silence as certainty.

If you are researching the pattern in depth, the three V&A object records are the primary documents to consult, since they carry the object numbers, dates and physical descriptions cited throughout this page.

Evenlode among the river patterns

Companions covered in detail elsewhere on this site include Cray and more on Kennet.

To compare Evenlode with its river-named companions, continue to the overview of Morris's Thames tributary chintzes, which links each design's own history page.

For a wider look at Morris's designs, browse the William Morris Original Designs collection.

Bringing Evenlode home

If you want to live with the pattern rather than only read about it, the William Morris Original Designs collection gathers framed prints of individual Morris designs, including work from the river group. Each print is described by its own classification, so you can see at a glance what is a Morris design and what is a later interpretation.

A framed print is a practical way to study a pattern's structure at close range: the repeat, the spacing of the flowers and the way the dark ground carries the lighter motifs. Those are the same features the V&A records describe for the original lengths.