William Morris: Tulip, 1875 – Porcelain Art Mug

Morris designed Tulip in 1875, in the years when he was teaching himself to dye and print by hand but did not yet have a printworks of his own — that came with Merton Abbey in 1881, so this pattern was still produced for him by a commercial firm. It is one of the designs he built on an older source: the swaying symmetrical stems and the turned-over leaves come out of the Italian cut velvets he studied at the South Kensington Museum.

It is a roller print — the cloth drawn between engraved copper rollers, one for each colour — which is why it reads more finely than the wood-block prints Morris made later at Merton Abbey. The pattern was sold in several colourways and on more than one cloth; this length is the pale green on cream. Tulips rise between broad acanthus leaves, and behind them a fine scrolling stem fills the ground so that nothing is left empty.

The mug carries the pattern as a frieze, at roughly a third of life size. Tulip is a mirrored pattern, so the section was set by the flowers and not by the repeat: one whole tulip stands at the centre of the front — the opened bloom, the bud beside it and the long flower turning down out of the same stem — uncut, with the mirrored pair falling away to either side.

Fine Porcelain — 10 oz. Dishwasher and microwave safe.

William Morris, Tulip, 1875; roller-printed cotton. 76.1 × 95.3 cm. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Mrs. Philip White, 1937.579. Public domain (CC0).

Selected by Dr. Walther Fuchs for the Tazzarte collection.