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

Golden Lily at a glance

The Victoria and Albert Museum records John Henry Dearle as the designer of the Golden Lily wallpaper, published by Morris & Co. from the firm's Oxford Street shop in London. The specimens are made in England and are colour woodblock, or machine, print on paper.

For the specimens it holds, the V&A gives a production date of 1880 to 1917. That is a broad span covering the firm's later wallpaper output, and no supplied source narrows it to a single year of design or first issue.

The key recorded facts:

• Designer: John Henry Dearle, per the V&A record.
• Medium: colour woodblock, or machine, print on paper.
• Production date: 1880 to 1917, per the V&A.
• Surviving specimens: three at the V&A, numbered O251189, O251194 and O251190.

What the pattern shows: layout and repeat

The V&A describes Golden Lily as showing a variety of entwined plants, with pink, yellow and blue flowers and green foliage. The stems cross and interlace across the ground, so the eye travels through the pattern rather than resting on a single motif.

The same description appears across the museum's specimens, which suggests the printed design was consistent between them. The ground colour changes between examples: one is on a pale ground, one on a dark-green ground and one on a dark-blue ground.

One limitation should be stated here. The museum record describes the plants generally and does not identify individual species, so any plant-by-plant reading of Golden Lily would go beyond the evidence. What can be said is what the record states: entwined plants, flowers in pink, yellow and blue, and green foliage.

Who designed it, and when

The V&A attributes Golden Lily to John Henry Dearle.

The dating is less tidy. The V&A gives a production date of 1880 to 1917, which brackets the firm's later wallpaper years rather than naming a moment. No source supplied for this page records an exact design date, a first issue date or a registration date for Golden Lily, so none can be stated.

It is also true that no documented statement by William Morris about Golden Lily appears in the evidence used here. If you see a Morris quotation attached to this design, it does not come from the sources behind this page.

The attribution matters because Morris's name is often attached to designs that are Dearle's. Golden Lily is one of the works where the V&A record names Dearle, and on that record it is best cited as a Dearle design for Morris & Co. For more of his output, see the reference list of designs by John Henry Dearle for Morris & Co..

How it was printed

The V&A records the Golden Lily specimens as colour woodblock, or machine, print on paper.

It is tempting to fill the gap with the firm's known printers. Jeffrey & Co. printed several Morris wallpapers, including Sunflower (1879), Trellis (1862) and Larkspur (1874), according to the V&A records for those designs. But no supplied source names Jeffrey & Co. for Golden Lily, so that connection cannot be made here.

The same caution applies to place of production. The V&A record states that the specimens were made in England and published by Morris & Co. from the firm's Oxford Street shop in London. It does not tie Golden Lily specifically to the firm's Merton Abbey works, which the evidence connects to tapestry and later textile production rather than to this wallpaper.

Surviving specimens in museum collections

Three specimens of Golden Lily wallpaper are recorded at the Victoria and Albert Museum, under numbers O251189, O251194 and O251190. They share the same design but differ in ground colour, which makes them a useful group for seeing how the pattern was offered.

The O251189 specimen has a documented history of its own. It forms part of a wallpaper pattern book containing 132 specimens, catalogued as E.2734-2866-1980, mounted on a display stand with a cloth cover. The V&A records it as a gift from Shand Kydd Ltd.

Beyond these three records, the sources used here do not list holdings of Golden Lily at other institutions. The full dimensions of the V&A specimens are also not given in the material available, so they are omitted rather than estimated.

Dearle's role at Morris & Co.

Dearle's authorship of Golden Lily makes more sense against his career at the firm. According to the V&A, tapestry weaving was established at Merton Abbey when company production was consolidated at the site in 1881, and Morris appointed John Henry Dearle to manage production.

From there Dearle moved into design work. The V&A notes that large tapestry commissions were often designed by Morris, Dearle and other artists in collaboration, and executed by the company's weavers on Flemish-style looms that Morris had built. The Forest tapestry of 1887, held by the V&A, is credited jointly to William Morris, Philip Webb and John Henry Dearle and was made by the Merton Abbey workshop.

A designer who managed workshop production and collaborated on tapestry was well placed to develop wallpapers too. The story of the firm's later weaving is told in more detail in the article on the Flora and Pomona tapestry.

Where Golden Lily sits in Morris & Co. wallpaper history

Wallpaper was the firm's founding trade in papers. According to the V&A, the first wallpaper Morris designed was Trellis in 1862, followed by Daisy in 1864 and Fruit in 1865. The firm's papers quickly found an audience: after the 1862 International Exhibition, work by Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co. became fashionable and led to decorating jobs including two rooms at St James's Palace and the West Dining Room of the South Kensington Museum.

Golden Lily falls in the later stretch of that history. Between 1882 and Morris's death in 1896, the V&A records that Morris & Company issued a further 35 new wallpaper designs. This is the period in which the V&A's 1880 to 1917 dating for Golden Lily begins.

The context matters for another reason. From the early 1880s onwards, wallpaper became less of a central concern for Morris as his energies focused on textile production at Merton Abbey Mills. Designs issued in those decades, including this one, belong to a firm whose founder was looking increasingly towards weaving and dyeing.

Comparisons with other papers make the pattern's period clearer by contrast. Sunflower (1879), Trellis (1862) and Larkspur (1874) are all recorded at the V&A as Morris designs printed or manufactured by Jeffrey & Co. They belong to the earlier and middle wallpaper years; Golden Lily, credited to Dearle, sits after them.

Lily designs in the wider record: what connects and what does not

Several Morris & Co. designs carry lily titles, and it would be easy to assume they are all versions of one another. The records say otherwise, and the honest position is that no supplied source explains the relationship between Golden Lily and the other lily titles.

What the records do show is a set of separate designs. The Metropolitan Museum of Art records a design titled Tulip and Lily with William Morris as designer. The Met also records Rose and Lily with John Henry Dearle as designer, dated 1893, worked in silk and wool.

The V&A records a Tulip and Lily sample designed by William Morris, made by the Heckmondwike Manufacturing Company in 1875, and a Lily sample designed by Morris, manufactured by the Wilton Royal Carpet Factory Ltd. about 1875.

The safe conclusion is narrow: Golden Lily is a wallpaper by Dearle, as the V&A record states, while the other lily titles are distinct designs by Morris or by Dearle in different mediums. Until a source links them, treat them as neighbours in the catalogue rather than variants of one pattern.