"So I say our furniture should be good citizens' furniture, solid and well made...." William Morris. We have reproduced a range of early Morris & Co furniture. This suite was originally designed by the artist Ford Madox-Brown, one of Morris' partners in 'The Firm'. It was produced in 1861, shortly after Morris built the 'Red House' and was still furnishing it with medieval inspired work. The footposts on the bed match exactly the newel posts on the back stairs at Red House, showing the cross-over of ideas between the group. Morris eventually brought the suite to Kelmscott Manor (there is a Burne-Jones cartoon of Morris asleep on the bed).
The suite is in a reformed Gothic style, the chunky shapes possess great charm. It is painted a 'Morris' green, matching the original colour. The simplicity of the suite anticipated the Arts & Crafts movement by decades, and had a great influence on the work of designers around the turn of the century. Even seemingly 'simple' furniture such as this requires time and skill, and therefore cost, to produce properly. Morris ruefully acknowledged this in 1881, "The furniture for a workman's cottage? What can be done? If it be weel made instead of ill made it will cost not twice as much, but twenty times as much; crede milie experte".The suite comprises a single bed, washstand, clothes horse and dressing table mirror. Also shown in the photograph are one of our Kelmscott mirror frames, an A.W.N. Pugin frame and a CFA Voysey round mirror and pentray (on the washstand). £To commission.
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