A William Morris berry

My son took me on a sweet and challenging hike along a rocky ridge in the rolling Pennsylvania hills. A wild berry patch reminded me of this Bradbury & Bradbury "Morris Tradition" wallpaper.

Where you can buy William Morris wallpaper

 Willow

Charles Rupert Designs and Historic Style.  An older post about Wm Morris wallpaper is here (you can also search blog using "wallpaper" for additional posts or click on "wallpaper" in tag cloud).

Chrysanthemum

 Daisy

 Vine

Larkspur

Wild Tulip

Marigold

"Britain's most stylish couple"...

Charlotte and Peter Fiell, using Morris's stylish Fruit in their stylish hallway!  Read the full article with other pictures of their gorgeous Arts and Craft Aesthetic style home in today's New York Times. 

(Michael Harding for the New York Times)

David Mabb's deconstruction of Morris

(all click to enlarge)

Last month I had an opportunity to visit artist David Mabb in his studio a few miles from William Morris's Red House.  You may remember him from the "Smash the Bourgeoisie" post.  These paintings (on Morris wallpaper) come from a series called Rhythm 69 which can seen in its entirety here along with an essay discussing the installation.  I wish I could buy one (or four) of these paintings but David is hoping to sell them as a set, all sixty-nine---so my next wish is that I owned a large corporate headquarters with lots of wall space!  In fact, why doesn't Sanderson buy these?

Mabb's wall-of-Morris with photograph of him in his Fruit fabric suit posing as Russian artist Rodchenko.

William Morris on acid....wallpaper

Thistle

These are some of my favorite wallpaper designs from the Scottish design firm Timorous Beasties (best name ever??).  

From their website:  "Noted for its surreal and provocative textiles and wallpapers, the design studio Timorous Beasties was founded in Glasgow in 1990 by Alistair McAuley and Paul Simmons.....By depicting uncompromisingly contemporary images on traditional textiles and wallpapers, Timorous Beasties has defined an inconoclastic style of design once described as "William Morris on acid.""

Para Flower

Barberini Bee

Iguana

White Moth

Happy Easter from Happy Valley...

I just returned from visiting my kids in Happy Valley, Pennsylvania, the region around the town of State College.  Nobody seems to know why this area is called Happy Valley but the town does seem to "talk the talk"....

A little closer to home, here are a few more pics from Pioneer Valley, in western Massachusetts.  Specifically, these are 19th century tobacco barns near Deerfield.  In the 1860's, Deerfield was the leading grower of tobacco in the nation ---- this old wood seems almost spiritual.

All the door panels are thrown open when the tobacco leaves are drying.

Finally, there is a new museum, the Flynt Center of Early New England Life in Deerfield that displays a large collection of 18th to early 20th century decorative arts.  Here is one piece to give you a flavor....it is a wool "bed rug" from the late 18th or early 19th century, in a Tree of Life pattern, based on 17th or 18th century Indian palampores.  What is interesting is that William Morris was inspired by the very same fabrics and patterns later in the 19th century (see this post here)......compare to his wallpaper pattern below.

What you see here is about five feet across.

Morris Pink and Rose wallpaper (1891)

Comment Roundup...

 Tony Pinkney's comment of two days ago ("May Morris once confessed that 'in my Father's "Trellis" [wallpaper] there was a certain one of the birds who gave anxiety to a child in her cot high-up in the Queen Square house because he was thought to be wicked and very alive'.)" sent me for a closer look at Trellis and I'm sure I know what bird this is --- look at the one in upper right....definitely sinister looking.

 Trellis wallpaper, 1862, from V&A collection

(from The Birds movie poster)

I also found a picture of a Trellis piece by artist David Mabb (Smash the Bourgeoisie, Victory to the Decorating Business post) which reminds me to mention that he'll be part of an exhibition in Houston later this month.  If you are nearby, details can be found here.

 bird still looks dark and scary....

But what of Voysey's Alice in Wonderland paper?  Would it be too scary for a toddler?  Upon enlargement, the Queen of Hearts and the Cheshire Cat definitely look intimidating and quite a few other characters look seriously depressed (Lion, Mailman, Queen of Clubs, Gryphon, etc.).  Hmmm.   Tony, I think you're right, this might not be the best paper for a nursery unless you were planning to put prozac in your baby's bottle!

 click to enlarge

Yesterday, Hels asked why shingles were used ubiquitously in buildings in this part of the USA - was it a local inexpensive building material (yes, but I don't think that would have mattered to these rich folk)?  Did it insulate against the cold better (not sure, but again, these were summer cottages so I doubt they cared)?  Was it related to some sort of Puritan aesthetic?  The 19th century architects such as H. H. Richardson were reacting against Victorian/Eastlake fussiness, and their designs of rustic Shingle Style homes were meant to invoke the more naturalistic times of the early colonial settlers.  For this reason the shingles were left a natural monotoned color and meant to blend into the landscape. But of course this casual simple look of more humble dwellings was disingenuous as these were definitely the mansions (aka "summer cottages") of the uber-wealthy.  So yes, it would appear that the development of the Shingle Style was related to a revival of a Puritan aesthetic. 

Along these lines, I've often pondered why many more modest New England homes have clapboard on the first floor and shingles on the second and third floors.  Dan Cooper thinks that builders/owners probably put the more expensive clapboards where they would have the greatest effect (front and center) and that shingles were a less expensive form of siding.  Ironically, when I replaced the first floor shingles on my house a few years ago, I switched to clapboards which now cost about 30% less than cedar shingles.  Dan also brought my attention to the book Newport Shingle Style by Cheryl Hackett which I will check out.

Finally, to Anne, yes, I take most (but not all) of the pictures.  If it is someplace I'm visiting, I'm the photographer.  Most of the pics taken off web or from books are obvious, like two above or other "product" or art pictures, but I could do a better job at referencing. 

Voysey's Alice in Wonderland

With Tim Burton's Alice In Wonderland now in theatres it seems a good time to post a photo of designer and architect Charles Voysey's beautiful Alice wallpaper designed about 1930.  How perfect would this be in a nursery?  You can buy it from he of all things Voysey, David Bermen at Trustworth Studios.

click to enlarge, the detail is gorgeous

And if you'd like a few pillows to throw around the room, Marie at William Morris Cushion Covers (link in left sidebar) has found some vintage material from The Habitat V&A Collection printed in 1988 which she has sewn up.

And if you are a huge Lewis Carroll fan and have a ridiculous amount of money to spend on something fascinating, check out the celestial constellation globes below (and a more detailed description here).

Tweedledum and Tweedledee as Gemini twins along zodiac
 

Morris in real life - A Jasmine hall

My friend Janet, a graphic designer, has William Morris's Jasmine (1872) wallpaper in her front hall.  Morris used the same paper in his study at Kelmscott House.  It is incredibly welcoming.  This pattern comes in a number of other colorways (and in fabric) which you can see here and below.

Note added later:  The paint is Benjamin Moore Bavarian Cream.

You can find a link to post about push button electrical switches here.