May Morris's Honeysuckle Wallpaper: History and Design

Honeysuckle at a glance: designer, date and medium

The V&A gives 1883 as both the primary date and the production date for the specimen O248679. The record does not state whether this is the date the design was drawn or the date it was first issued, so the distinction between design date and issue date cannot be made from the evidence on hand.

The specimen is inscribed on the back in ink with its title, number and price, and it was given by Morris & Co. to the museum. It belongs to a firm pattern book context, which is how many Morris & Co. wallpaper records survive today.

What the pattern shows: intertwined flowers and foliage

The V&A describes the O248679 specimen as a pattern of intertwined honeysuckle flowers and foliage. The same description is used for the third wallpaper specimen, O251148, so the entwined honeysuckle motif is consistent across the records.

The V&A states that the success of Morris's wallpaper designs relies on close observation of nature, and that the designs are stylised evocations of natural forms rather than literal transcriptions. That reading comes from the museum, and it applies to the firm's wallpaper work generally rather than to this pattern alone. No symbolic meaning for the honeysuckle motif is recorded in the evidence, so none is offered here.

Beyond honeysuckle flowers and foliage, no other plants or motifs are securely identified for this design in the available records. Any further detail would be observation of individual impressions rather than documented identification.

For readers comparing designs, the honeysuckle motif appears across several Morris firm patterns, and our guide to Honeysuckle gathers the family together.

Three Honeysuckle wallpapers in the V&A

The V&A holds three wallpaper records under the title Honeysuckle that relate to May Morris's design. They differ in technique, date range and the pattern books they belong to, so it is worth keeping them distinct.

The V&A also notes that a different design with the title Honeysuckle is for a chintz. That is a separate textile design and should not be confused with the wallpaper discussed here. The overlap in titles is a recurring source of mix-ups in listings and auction descriptions.

If you want the other side of that confusion untangled, Honeysuckle in detail covers the printed textile associated with William Morris, which is a different object from the wallpaper on this page.

How the wallpaper was printed

The O248679 specimen is a colour woodblock print on paper, made in England. The O251148 record describes its specimen as a colour woodblock, or machine, print, so the V&A allows for both methods in that case.

The O251148 record preserves Morris & Co. promotional text that asks 'What is the advantage of hand-printed papers over those printed by machine?' and describes hand-printed papers as produced very slowly, each block being dipped into pigment and then firmly applied, with this process taking place with each separate colour. The text is the firm's own sales copy, quoted in the museum record, but it gives a plain account of the block printing method the firm used for its wallpapers.

The printer of the May Morris Honeysuckle wallpaper is not named in the evidence. Jeffrey & Co. and Merton Abbey are both associated with other parts of the firm's production, but neither can be attached to this design from the records available, so no printer is claimed here.

May Morris and the firm after her father

From the early 1880s onwards, wallpaper became less of a central concern for Morris as his energies focused on the production of textiles at Merton Abbey Mills. That shift frames why wallpaper design in the firm's later years passed to other hands, including his daughter's.

The V&A records Mary (May) Morris as the designer of the Honeysuckle wallpaper on all three wallpaper records, and states that O251148 was published by Morris & Co. The attribution to May rather than to William Morris or to John Henry Dearle is consistent across the museum's records for this design.

May Morris also maintained a long relationship with the V&A. The museum records that a commission to decorate one of its interiors was the start of a long relationship between William Morris and the Museum, perpetuated after his death by his daughter May, and that May lent objects relating to her father's work to various exhibitions. That connection helps explain why firm material, including pattern book specimens, reached the museum's collection.

May Morris's design work sits alongside that of other later designers for the firm. The Dearle design list is the reference point for John Henry Dearle's patterns from the same period, and Golden Lily is the best known of them.

What we cannot confirm about Honeysuckle

Several points often repeated about this design cannot be confirmed from the records available, and it is cleaner to list them than to guess.

The following remain unestablished:

• No documented statement by William Morris or May Morris specifically about the Honeysuckle wallpaper appears in the evidence.
• The V&A gives 1883 for O248679 but does not state whether that is the design date or the first issue date.
• The printer is not named for this design. The evidence names Jeffrey & Co. only for other wallpapers and Merton Abbey only for tapestry.
• No documented reissue history exists beyond the 1880 to 1917 production range the V&A gives for O251148.
• No plants or motifs beyond honeysuckle flowers and foliage are securely identified for the pattern.

Where a claim rests on a single institution, the V&A, it is attributed in the text. Readers who need firmer ground on any of the points above should consult the museum records directly.

Seeing Honeysuckle today

The documented place to study the design is the V&A, which holds the three wallpaper specimens O248679, O1110639 and O251148. The records give the dates, techniques and pattern book contexts summarised above, and the O248679 specimen sits in Volume 2 of the firm's pattern books.

For the wider family of honeysuckle patterns across wallpapers and textiles, see our guide to Honeysuckle, and for the printed textile associated with William Morris see Honeysuckle in detail.

May Morris's Honeysuckle sits within the later history of the firm, when design work passed to other hands. Our Dearle design list sets out that wider context, and a closer look at Flora and Pomona shows the firm's Merton Abbey work in another medium. For a comparison of a later designer's flower pattern, see Golden Lily, and for a Morris-era carpet see the Bullerswood Carpet in detail.

If you are looking for a honeysuckle pattern to live with, our Original Designs collection gathers prints drawn from documented Morris and Morris & Co. patterns, including honeysuckle subjects.