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'Dove and Rose' woven double cloth

William Morrisdesigned in 1879

William Morris Gallery

William Morris Gallery
Walthamstow, London, United Kingdom

At Merton Abbey, Morris & Co.'s textile workshop, Morris had installed hand-operated jacquard looms, which partly automated the weaving process. Large orders were sub-contracted to companies that used steam-powered looms. Morris welcomed technological progress that genuinely saved repetitive labour without compromising the quality of the final product. He believed that “it is the allowing of machines to be our masters and not our servants that so injures the beauty of life nowadays”.

To weave the ‘Dove and Rose’ textile, Morris’s original design was painted on point-paper (see WMG A451). This was used to make a series of punch cards, which were fed into the loom and controlled the production of the pattern. Morris felt uneasy about subjecting his employees to the “deafening clatter” of the weaving shed, but accepted it as a necessary evil to produce fine fabrics in silk and wool.

According to Morris, writing in a letter to Rosalind Howard, the structure of this fabric made it suitable only for curtains and hangings rather than upholstery.

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  • Title: 'Dove and Rose' woven double cloth
  • Creator: William Morris, Morris & Co.
  • Date Created: designed in 1879
  • Location Created: Merton Abbey, Surrey, England
  • Type: woven silk and wool
  • Rights: © William Morris Gallery, London Borough of Waltham Forest
  • Physical Dimensions: 57.8 x 87.6 cm
  • Object Number: F198
  • Medium: hand-loom jacquard woven silk and wool
  • Credit line: Presented by Miss E. Pugh, 1961
William Morris Gallery

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