Jasmine Trail: The Printed Cotton by William Morris

The naming problem: what the records actually call this design

This matters for anyone researching the pattern or checking a caption. A print sold under an invented title cannot be traced to an object record, and the two documented works differ in medium and date, so they should not be treated as one design.

The Met's Jasmine wallpaper, 1872

The Metropolitan Museum of Art holds a wallpaper titled 'Jasmine', designed by William Morris, dated 1872, and block-printed in distemper colors, under accession number 23.163.4j. According to the Met's record, the sheet measures 21 7/16 x 22 1/2 in. The V&A independently lists 'Jasmine' among Morris's wallpaper designs of the 1870s and dates it to 1872, so the two institutions agree on the date.

What the record does not state is the printer: no firm is named for the 'Jasmine' wallpaper in the evidence consulted, unlike some other Morris wallpapers where the printer is documented.

The V&A's Jasmine Trellis fabric, 1868 to 1870

The V&A holds a furnishing fabric titled 'Jasmine Trellis', designed by William Morris, made by Thomas Wardle and manufactured by Bannister Hall, dated 1868 to 1870, in England. This is a printed cotton for furnishing use, not a wallpaper, and it sits several years earlier than the Met's 'Jasmine' wallpaper.

The fabric record connects to the earliest phase of Morris's printed textiles. According to the V&A, the first printed fabrics made by Morris's company, in 1868, were copies of 1830s white-ground chintzes produced at Clarkson in Lancashire using blocks rather than the roller method. The 'Jasmine Trellis' fabric falls within that same window, though the V&A's general remarks on that period are not specific to this design.

How these wallpapers were made

Morris's 1870s wallpaper patterns required a complex printing technique involving a large number of individual printing blocks, which made the resulting papers more costly than his earlier, simpler designs. The Met's 'Jasmine' sheet, block-printed in distemper colors, belongs to that later, more demanding group.

The contrast with the 1860s fabrics is one of method as well as date. The early chintz work relied on copying existing 1830s white-ground designs with blocks at Clarkson, while the 1870s wallpapers were original patterns built up block by block. Readers interested in the printed cottons of the earlier phase can follow the Honeysuckle chintz profile, which covers a documented fabric of that later printed-cotton tradition.

Where the sources disagree and what remains unknown

The records leave several questions open, and it is worth listing them plainly before any conclusion is drawn from partial evidence.

Placing the designs in Morris's wallpaper work

The Victoria and Albert Museum holds 'Trellis' wallpaper, designed by William Morris and Phillip Webb, printed by Jeffrey & Co., 1862, and also 'Sunflower' wallpaper, designed by William Morris, manufactured and printed by Jeffrey & Co., 1879.

Those records show what a fully documented wallpaper entry looks like: designer, printer, date and museum number all stated. The 'Jasmine' record names the designer, date and technique, but not the printer, which is why it sits one step short of the 'Sunflower' and 'Trellis' entries in completeness.

Seeing the designs and taking a pattern home

The Metropolitan Museum of Art's 'Jasmine' wallpaper is under accession number 23.163.4j, and the V&A's 'Jasmine Trellis' furnishing fabric is in the V&A's collection under its own record. For the wallpaper side of the story in more depth, our Jasmine wallpaper profile follows the Met and V&A records for the 1872 design.

If you want a jasmine pattern on the wall, one option in our Morris-attributed jasmine pattern print shows a scrolling jasmine design in the Morris manner; the records consulted here do not identify its design name, so we describe it visually rather than by title. The wider range is gathered in our William Morris Original Designs collection.