"Kennet" curtains by Morris and Co.
Morris & Co.
Category
Textiles
Date
1877 - 1917
Materials
Collection
Shaw's Corner, Hertfordshire
NT 1275429
Summary
Set of three Morris and Co curtains, Kennet print. Blue background with yellow sunflowers. Very faded. Kennet curtains were used in Shaw’s bedroom at Shaw’s Corner, and possibly also in the study (NT 1275429.1-2); designed by William Morris in 1883 (Parry, William Morris Textiles, 237, no.55). Kennet evoked personal memories for Shaw, having also been present at Kelmscott Manor. Shaw had lectured and dined at Hammersmith with the Morrises on a regular basis during the 1880s and 90s, and stayed at Kelmscott Manor on a number of occasions where Kennet lined the walls of the ‘Green Room’. Shaw wrote what would later become a chapter of Fabian Essays in Socialism ‘The Transition to Social Democracy’ at Kelmscott in August 1888, as his diary records: ‘Began my paper for the British Association and worked at it in the green room (which was reserved for my writing).’ (15 August 1888, see Stanley Weintraub, ed., Bernard Shaw The Diaries, 1885-1897, vol.1, p.403). The erroneous Sanderson curtains have been replaced with the Morris & Co. designs as they would have been used during the Shaws’ occupation of the house. Owing to the fortuitous reissuing of some of the designs by the firm ‘Morris & Co’ in 2011, curtains in Kennet have been remade for Shaw’s bedroom and study.
Provenance
The Shaw Collection. The house and contents were bequeathed to the National Trust by George Bernard Shaw in 1950, together with Shaw's photographic archive.
Makers and roles
Morris & Co., manufacturer William Morris (Walthamstow 1834 - Hammersmith 1896), designer