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

Granville at a glance: quick facts

The facts above come from three object records in the Victoria and Albert Museum. The V&A names John Henry Dearle as designer and Morris & Co. as publisher in its records for O248913 and O251238, and names Jeffrey & Co. as printer in the records for O248913 and O248911.

Two points need flagging before anything else:

• The V&A records give different production dates for the three specimens: 1896, late 19th century, and 1880 to 1917. None of these can be confirmed as the date the design was first drawn or first issued.
• The technique is recorded as colour block print on paper for two specimens, and as colour woodblock, or machine, print on paper for the third, so the question of hand block printing versus machine printing is not fully settled by the records.

What the pattern shows: acanthus over a flowering ground

Granville is built in two layers. Large acanthus leaves dominate the surface, and behind them runs a smaller, denser pattern of leaves and flowers. This description follows the V&A's own accounts of the three specimens and is observation of what the paper shows, not a claim about symbolic meaning.

The two dated specimens differ in colouring as well as ground: one pairs green leaves with blue flowers on a dark ground, the other blue and green leaves with pink-red flowers on a pale ground. Whether these represent distinct colourways, and how many colourways existed in total, the records do not say.

Dating the design: what the records do and do not say

The V&A dates the O248913 specimen to 1896. Its record for O248911 gives the production date only as late 19th century, and its record for O251238 gives 1880 to 1917.

These dates describe the specimens, not necessarily the design. The evidence does not distinguish between the date Granville was drawn, the date it was first issued, and the date a particular pattern book was assembled. The pattern books themselves are undated, according to the V&A's summary descriptions, which removes one possible anchor. So 1896 should be read as the recorded date of one specimen, not as a securely established design date.

Who printed it and how

The V&A records for O248913 and O248911 name Jeffrey & Co. as the printer of Granville. The firm printed wallpapers for Morris & Co., and its name on these records is the clearest production evidence the museum files provide.

The technique is recorded as colour block print on paper for O248913 and O248911. The record for O251238 hedges, describing the technique as colour woodblock, or machine, print on paper, so that one record leaves the hand versus machine question open.

The pattern book containing O251238 carries its own statement on method. The V&A notes that the book includes printed text stating 'THESE PAPERS ARE PRINTED BY HAND' and explaining that hand-printed papers are produced slowly, each block dipped into pigment and pressed onto the paper. The record does not say whether this statement applies to every specimen in the book, so it supports the hand-printing account without closing the machine-print question raised by the technique entry.

The O251238 record also fixes the selling side of the business: the specimen is recorded as produced by Morris & Co. at 449, Oxford Street, London, the firm's Oxford Street address.

The surviving specimens and their pattern books

Three Granville specimens are recorded in the V&A. Two of them, O248913 and O248911, come from a pattern book of Morris & Co. patterns with the reference E.633-858-1915. The third, O251238, comes from a wallpaper pattern book containing 132 specimens, reference E.2734-2866-1980, mounted on a display stand with a cloth cover.

The backs of the two Vigers specimens carry evidence of how the papers were sold. The V&A records that they are inscribed in ink with title, number and price, which makes them working stock rather than presentation pieces.

Dearle and the later Morris & Co. wallpapers

Granville belongs to the period when the firm's wallpaper output was no longer headed by William Morris himself. The V&A notes that many of Morris & Co.'s later wallpapers were designed by J. H. Dearle and other designers employed by the company, working in the style of William Morris (1834 to 1896). That note is the museum's framing of the whole group, and Granville sits inside it.

Dearle's wallpapers reward the same object-by-object treatment as Granville. For the wider picture, see the Dearle design list, and for two designs examined in the same way, a closer look at Golden Lily and a closer look at Daffodil.

Open questions about Granville

Several points often repeated about Granville cannot be checked against the evidence gathered here, so this page leaves them open rather than filling the gaps.

What the evidence does not establish:

• The design date. The 1896 production date given by the Victoria and Albert Museum for one specimen (O248913) cannot be confirmed as the date the design was first drawn or first issued.
• Any published attribution beyond the V&A records. No other source on Granville is present in the evidence used here.
• Any documented statement by William Morris about Granville. None appears in the evidence.
• Later reissues. The evidence records nothing about reissues, by Morris & Co. or anyone else.
• The number of colourways. Two different colourings are recorded, but the total number of colourways is unknown.
• Whether the O251238 specimen was block printed by hand or machine printed. The record allows either reading.