The Decorative Arts Society 1850 to the Present

Editor's NoteAuthor(s): BARBARA MORRISSource: The Journal of the Decorative Arts Society 1850 - the Present, No. 12, ASPECTS OFBRITISH INTERIOR DESIGN (1988)Published by: The Decorative Arts Society 1850 to the PresentStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41809158 .

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Editor's Note

In 1985 the ninth number of the Journal was devoted to aspects of British design from 1870 to 1930 and the present issue continues the exploration of this theme with contributions on furniture, wallpaper and textiles, decorative design and mural decoration.

The interest in the work of Christopher Dresser, whose designs for Elkington's were discussed in the ninth issue, has increased in the last three years and the discovery of an hitherto unknown book of designs, assessed by Fiona Baker and Widar Halén, will surely lead to the identification of some hitherto unattributed objects.

The revival of the settle and inglenook in the 19th century, explored by Maureen Harper, was a particularly British phenomenon although through the influence of architects such as Baillie Scott, and of the Arts and Crafts movement, the settle and inglenook featured also in the work of continental architects, particularly in Germany.

Clare Latimer's article on the use of wallpaper in the period 1870 to 1910 focuses on the division of the wall surface into dado, filling and frieze from its heyday during the aesthetic movement to its decline after the turn of the century. Most of the leading wallpaper designers (including Christopher Dresser) and manufacturers catered for this fashion. It is perhaps worth pointing out that William Morris, the most prominent wallpaper designer of his generation, designed only filling and ceiling papers, although many of his customers, Linley Sambourne among them, used two or even three of his designs to provide contrasting frieze and dado. Morris himself favoured a moulded plaster or painted frieze and it was only after his death, when the three-fold division was no longer the height of fashion, that Morris & Company produced matching friezes, designed by J. H. Dearie.

The last three contributions concentrate on the first three decades of the 20th Century and fascinating links can be discerned among the artists and designers whose work is discussed. Dr. Nicola Gordon Bowe has drawn on family papers as well as contemporary published sources to document the hitherto neglected decorative work of Maxwell Armfield, her great uncle.

Joseph Southall, the friend and mentor of Maxwell Armfield, is one of the artists whose work is discussed by Alan Powers in his analytical study of the revival of fresco in the early 20th century which details the work of Mary Sargant Florence, Mary Creighton MacDowell, Neville Lytton and other artists associated with the Society of Mural Decorators and Painters in Tempera.

The enterprise of Elspeth Little in setting up her shop 'Modern Textiles' in Beauchamp Place in 1926 to encourage the design, production and retail sale of hand-block-printed textiles is the subject of Hazel Clarke's well documented article. Of particular interest are the original photographs of the British Section at the Leipzig International Exhibition of Arts and Crafts in 1927, which provide not only views of the textiles, but glimpses of the pottery, glass and other exhibits included in the display.

The Committee of the Decorative Arts Society would like to express their warmest thanks to all the contributors for their generosity in sharing the results of their research with the Society and for sparing a great deal of time and energy in preparing the texts and illustrations for publication. The copyright of each article rests with the individual author.

BARBARA MORRIS.

Front cover: Walter Crane; Kingfisher and Iris Wallpaper and Frieze. Jeffrey & Co. 1877. Published by the Decorative Arts Society ISSN 0260-9568 Printed by G. Beard & Son Ltd., Brighton

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