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email: info@michelehill.com.au |  |
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InspirationMorris & Co. - The Adelaide (South Australian) Connection:Many British clients commissioned Morris & Co to produce major interior makeovers that included carpets, curtains, soft furnishings, wallpaper and furniture. One major commission was to decorate St James Palace, London in 1880. The silk "St James' was used in the Council Chamber Room and Throne Room as did wallpaper of the same name. This design was to also appear in Adelaide.The Scottish born couple Robert Barr Smith (1824 - 1915) and his wife Joanna (1835 - 1919) were one of Morris & Co’s major clients. Robert was reputed to be "the richest man in Australasia" along with his business partner and brother-in-law Thomas Elder (1817 - 1897). They were involved in shipping, merchant, pastoral and mining interests in South Australia. This allowed Robert Barr Smith the privilege of purchasing extravagant homes, which were decorated extensively with Morris works. For a period of 45 years (1884 - 1929) three generations of Barr Smiths decorated at least seven houses in and around Adelaide. (Joanna gave birth to 13 children - only seven survived) Homes included;
It is known that the Barr Smith’s often traveled to Britain sometimes spending up to 12 months at a time. Research has not revealed the true connection between Morris and the Barr Smiths although a letter that Robert wrote in 1881 to his London architect, records his asking him to look for soft furnishings including a Persian rug for the homes they were renovating here in Adelaide. Morris would have been a natural source for the British architect to turn too. It is also thought that one of Morris’s daughters (May) attended school with Mabel Barr Smith (one of Robert and Joanna’s daughters). Despite this connection the many purchases occurred so that Adelaide can now claim to own the biggest collection of Morris work outside of Britain. The Barr Smiths not only purchased furniture, carpets, wallpapers and soft furnishings, but they also purchased numerous embroidery works. Joanna and May Morris became quite closely acquainted though the many purchases and correspondence. Some of these embroideries included screens, portiere, mantle borders, cushion and table covers and workbags. Other significant Adelaide works:During 1900 the Hon. George Brookman (1850 - 1927), a trustee of the Adelaide Public Library, Museum and Art Gallery, visited the Paris National Exhibition. It was here that he saw the series of the most elaborate Morris & Co tapestries - The Quest of the Holy Grail. He then went on to visit Merton Abbey where he saw a nearly completed version of The Adoration which was being woven for a German Museum. With much persuasion he coerced Morris & Co to accept a commission to reproduce the work for Australia. It took four men two years to produce the tapestry (one weaver died during its construction) and arrived in Adelaide in 1902. It was first displayed at the Unley Town Hall before Brookman sold it to the Art Gallery in 1917 for 500 pounds.Brookman was also responsible for the first stained glass window in Adelaide - Federation that he later donated to the Adelaide Stock exchange. Following this Morris & Co supplied stained glass windows for eight South Australian churches. St Augustine’s holds the window based on the same Adoration tapestry. This was installed in 1928 with the final Morris window to come to Adelaide - The Celebration of Peace at All Souls in 1939. This was a year before Morris & Co went into liquidation ending 50 years of patronage with South Australia. Morris was told by his doctors in February 1891 that "Henceforth he must consider himself an invalid to the extent of husbanding his strength and living under a very careful régime". Morris had suffered gout since his early 20s, but now it became seriously debilitating along with an infected kidney (1890). The previous year Morris had relinquished sole control of Morris & Co and entered into a partnership with the company’s joint commercial managers, Robert and Frank Smith. Life slowed down for Morris, and he was able to spend more time at Kelmscott Press producing illuminated manuscripts and books. In 1895 Morris wrote "It was the essence of my undertaking to produce books which it would be a pleasure to look upon as pieces of printing and arrangement of type". These were happy years, free of the administration of the Firm and the busy schedule of his socialist crusade. He could spend his time doing the things he enjoyed; writing romances, designing fabrics and making beautiful books. At the end of 1895 Morris was looking frail, losing weight, and his untidy mop of hair was completely white. A leading physician diagnosed diabetes. On June 2nd, Morris was to receive one of the first two copies of Chaucer. In July he spoilt himself by purchasing an illuminated manuscript for £1000 -the largest sum he had ever spent. In August he took a cruise to Norway against his doctors wishes, but he returned early, writing to Webb, "P.S. Somewhat better, but hated the voyage; so glad to be home". Morris was now too weak to write his books but completed ‘The Sundering Flood’ on September 8th by dictating. The following morning he signed his will and three days later a friend wrote in his diary "Morris is dying, slowly. It is an astonishing spectacle. He sits speechless, waiting for the end to come". On Friday October 2nd Morris could not recognize his oldest friend Burne - Jones. The following morning he died in the bedroom of his London home, aged 62 years. Morris’s simple funeral was held in a little 12th Century village church he so cherished at Kelmscott, all decorated for the Harvest Festival with pumpkins, apples and autumn leaves. Far removed from the grandeur of a funeral at St Paul’s Cathedral or Westminster Abbey, his body was placed in an unpolished oak coffin and transported in a glass sided hearse drawn by two horses to Paddington Station. The train was met at Lechlade by a gaily painted harvest-cart, decorated with vine leaves. Edward Burne Jones wrote that "The burial was as sweet and touching as those others were foolish". "The little wagon with its floor of moss and willow branches broke one’s heart it was so beautiful - and of course there were no kings there - the king was being buried and there were no others left". In the rain his body was laid to rest in a corner of the churchyard beneath a starkly beautiful gravestone designed by his faithful friend Philip Webb. |
