May Morris: Arts and Crafts Designer by Rowan Bain et al. (review)

Social historians of art have recently renewed research into the economic side of artists' lives and art work to assess the role of individuals within the art world. May Morris: Arts and Crafts Designer, a substantial volume re-examining the work of William Morris' younger daughter, May Morris (1862-1938), is just one example of the advantages of this research. Until the 1990s, May was overshadowed in the historiography by her father's achievements, but now she is seen as a leading figure in the Arts and Crafts Movement. In her case, an examination of the business side of Morris and Co. has established her central role and prodigious output as manager of the company's embroidery department from 1885 to 1905. Jan Marsh's scholarship into the women in the Arts and Crafts movement in 1986 and Linda Parry's reappraisal of May in 1996 and 2013 began the process, and now with this volume May takes pride of place in our understanding of women's leading role in the movement.

May Morris: Arts and Crafts Designer, with contributions by five curators of art from the William Morris Gallery in London and the Victoria and Albert Museum, was published to coincide with an exhibition of artwork at the Gallery between 7 October 2017 and 28 January 2018 entitled May Morris: Art and Life. It is a weighty volume consisting of six essays, 226 pages, and 210 illustrations accompanied by extensive explanation of the visual material. One is immediately struck by the sheer beauty and quality of the embroidery designed and executed by May Morris and her department as one looks through the pages of this book. Jan Marsh's opening biography entitled "A Well-Crafted Life" immediately situates May at the centre of the socialist movement of the day among individuals such as Annie Besant, Eleanor Marx, George Bernard Shaw, and Henry Halliday Sparling, and at social and political events organized by the Socialist League (later the Hammersmith Socialist Society) and the New Drama movement of the day. More than just an exercise in art history, this volume skilfully examines May's work for the Morris firm in the context of the Arts and Crafts revival and the socialist movement of the day, as well as establishing May's role as a New Woman in the period between 1890 and 1910.

May Morris was an accomplished socialist, designer, embroiderer, exhibitor, author, editor, and teacher who was responsible for all embroidery department orders, customers, and employees at Morris and Co. She became head of the department in 1885 at the age of just 23, remaining in the position until 1905, and continued to design and embroider until her death in 1938. The essays written by Rowan Bain and Jenny Lister examine the hand-written ledgers by May Morris for Morris and Co.'s embroidery department and inform us that she took on 453 orders for a total of 670 items between 1892 and 1896, most of which were embroidered designs on fabric. These were invoiced for a total of £1,186 over these four years (the equivalent of £70,000 today) and contributed to the Morris firm's profits. A decorated portière, which could sell for as much as £95 to the American market, was accompanied by a small portable embroidery kit of the same design which sold for as little as £3. In this way May expanded the market for Morris and Co. designs and found a solution to the problem that generally existed between the arts and crafts ideal of individually handcrafted items and the resulting higher price of that creative product.

May Morris' areas of work then form the five other chapters of the volume including her contributions to drawing and painting, wallpaper and embroidery, book covers and designs, dress and costume, and jewellery and metalwork. In the spirit of the Arts and Crafts revival movement, May Morris researched late 16th and early 17th...