A PANEL OF TWELVE WILLIAM MORRIS & CO. YELLOW PERSIAN DIAPER POTTERY TILES
Morris & Co., England, ca. 1880s - 1890s

Comprising twelve pottery tiles of square shape, hand-painted in cobalt blue, copper green, yellow, and outlined in manganese black against a white Dutch tin-glazed ground, decorated with a repeating scrolling floral pattern featuring yellow rosettes and cobalt blue serrated leaves inspired by Ottoman saz leaves, mounted within a later wooden frame, each tile approximately 15cm x 15cm, 65cm x 49cm including the frame.

William Morris (1834 - 1896) was one of the most prominent members of the Arts and Crafts Movement in England. By the 1880s, he had become an internationally acknowledged commercial designer and his name was associated with some of the most iconic 19th-century interiors and wallpaper patterns, still very much en vogue today. His work, often incorporating plant and animal life, drew its inspiration from the simple rural life, designs of the Medieval period, and intricate patterns from foreign lands, specifically Persia and Ottoman Turkey. In 1882, Morris described Persia as 'the pattern designer's holy land', paying homage to the wonderfully rich and varied artistic tradition this country developed and acknowledging his indebtedness to the patterns originating from the Middle East.

Morris and his peers disagreed with the idea of 'progress' as a form of enforced mass industrialisation: it detached the artist from his creation, yielding to a much staler creative process. He always stressed the importance of a lasting connection between the maker, the object and the consumer. To this end, he voluntarily exported the production of his tiles to Ravesteijn, in Utrecht, where the pottery production was still done by hand.