William De Morgan

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
(Redirected from
William de Morgan
)

William De Morgan

William Frend De Morgan (16 November 1839 – 15 January 1917) was an English potter, tile designer and novelist.[1] A lifelong friend of William Morris, he designed tiles, stained glass and furniture for Morris & Co. from 1863 to 1872. His tiles often recall medieval or Islamic design patterns. He applied innovative glazes and firing techniques. Galleons and fish were common motifs, as were "fantastical" birds and animals. Many of De Morgan's tiles were designed to create intricate patterns when several were laid together.

Life and work

Fantastic ducks on 6-inch tile with lustre highlights, Fulham period

Born in Gower Street, London,

Pre-Raphaelite circle. Soon De Morgan began experimenting with stained glass, ventured into pottery in 1863, and by 1872 had shifted his interest wholly to ceramics, initially working in Fitzroy Square.[3]

In 1872, De Morgan set up a pottery in

biscuit tiles of red clay were obtained from the Patent Architectural Pottery Co. in Poole. Dust pressed tiles of white earthenware were bought from Wedgwood, Mintons and other manufacturers but De Morgan believed these would not stand frost. He continued to use blank commercial dust-pressed tiles which were decorated in red lustre into his Fulham Period (1888–1907).[citation needed] However, he developed a high-quality biscuit tile of his own, which he admired for its irregularities and better resistance to moisture. His inventive streak led him to spend hours designing a duplex bicycle gear and lured him into complex studies of the chemistry of glazes, methods of firing, and pattern transfer.[citation needed
]

De Morgan's decoration of pottery included chargers, rice dishes and vases. Some of these were made in his works, but many were bought as biscuit ware from Wedgwood and others and decorated by De Morgan's workers. Some were signed by his decorators including Charles Passenger, Fred Passenger, Joe Juster and Miss Babb.[5]

William De Morgan (c. 1890), Sands Ends Pottery: tiles inspired by Middle East examples
Persian ware display at the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery

De Morgan was particularly drawn to Eastern tiles. Around 1873–1874, he made a striking breakthrough by rediscovering the technique of

İznik ware), profoundly influenced his unmistakable style, in which fantastic creatures entwined with rhythmic geometric motifs float under luminous glazes.[citation needed
]

William and his wife Evelyn

The pottery works was beset by financial problems, despite repeated cash injections from his wife, the pre-Raphaelite painter Evelyn De Morgan (née Pickering), and a partnership with the architect Halsey Ricardo. This partnership was associated with a move for the factory from Merton Abbey to Fulham in 1888. During the Fulham period De Morgan mastered many of the technical aspects of his work that had previously been elusive, including complex lustres and deep, intense underglaze painting that did not run during firing. However, this did not guarantee financial success, and in 1907 De Morgan left the pottery, which continued under the Passenger brothers, the leading painters at the works. "All my life I have been trying to make beautiful things", he said at the time, "and now that I can make them nobody wants them."[citation needed]

De Morgan turned his hand to writing novels, and became better known than he ever had been for his pottery. His first novel, Joseph Vance, was published in 1906,[6] and was an instant sensation in the United States as well as the United Kingdom.[7] This was followed by An Affair of Dishonour, Alice-for-Short, and the two-volume It Never Can Happen Again (1909).[8] The genre has been described as "Victorian and suburban".[who?]

De Morgan died of trench fever in London in 1917, and was buried in Brookwood Cemetery. Recollections praise him for his personal warmth and the indomitable energy with which he pursued his kaleidoscopic career as designer, potter, inventor and novelist.[citation needed]

Museums and collections

De Morgan's grave in Brookwood Cemetery

Collections of De Morgan's work exist in many museums, including the

Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge
.

A number of properties in the UK open to the public have tiles and pottery on display or incorporated in the building's decoration. They include

Leighton House (London Borough of Kensington). His ceramics, papers and artworks by both de Morgans, were collected by his sister-in-law after his death. These are now the collection of the De Morgan Foundation. Long-term loans of these artworks can be seen at Cannon Hall at Cawthorne in Barnsley, with a selection of both William's and Evelyn's work on display in the exhibition 'A Family of Artists', and at Watts Gallery in Surrey and in the De Morgan Collection exhibition in the Malthouse Gallery at Wightwick Manor, a National Trust Arts & Crafts house in Wolverhampton. A selection of ceramics from the De Morgan Collection is on long-term loan to the Ashmolean Museum
in Oxford. There are also other, temporary exhibitions from the collection from time to time.

See also

References

  1. ^ Phelps, William Lyon (March 1917). "William De Morgan". North American Review: 440–446.
  2. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press [1]
    , Retrieved 20 April 2008.
  3. ^ "Fitzroy Square Pages 52–63 Survey of London: Volume 21, the Parish of St Pancras Part 3: Tottenham Court Road and Neighbourhood. Originally published by London County Council, London, 1949". British History Online. Retrieved 4 August 2020.
  4. ^ "Settlement and building: Artists and Chelsea Pages 102–106 A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 12, Chelsea". British History Online. Victoria County History, 2004. Retrieved 21 December 2022.
  5. ^ William Gaunt and M. D. E. Clayton-Stamm. 'William De Morgan', Studio Vista, London 1971, p. 168.
  6. ISBN 9780804718424
    .
  7. The World's Work: A History of Our Time
    . XVI: 10337–10342. Retrieved 10 July 2009.
  8. ^ XIX Century Fiction, Part I (Jarndyce, Bloomsbury, 2019).
  • Hamilton, Mark (1997). Rare Spirit A Life of William De Morgan 1839–1917. London: Constable. p. 236.
    ISBN 0-09-474670-2
    .

Further reading

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to William De Morgan.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=William_De_Morgan&oldid=1217892621"