International studio (61.1917)

The Arts and Crafts Exhibition


NECKLACE, “ SILVER LIGHT ”
DESIGNED AND EXECUTED BY W. T. BLACKBAND

the taste of succeeding generations
was strangely organized and most
independent, and in the face of this
and of the prejudices to be combated
its success was surprising. Mr.
William Rossetti, one of the few men
now living who were acquainted with
the conditions of the business, says of
Messrs. Morris, Marshall, Faulkner and
Co.:
“ Light or boisterous chaff among
themselves, and something very like
dictatorial irony towards customers,
were the methods by which this sin-
gular commercial firm was conducted,
and was turned, after a longish period
of uncertain probation, into a flourish-
ing success. There was no compromise.
Mr. Morris, as the managing partner,
laid down the law and all his clients
had to bend or break. . . . The goods
were first rate, the art and workman-
ship excellent, the prices high. No
concession was made to individual
tastes or want of taste, no question

connected by slender chains, with
a long pear-shaped amethyst for
pendant.
With the exception of the in-
teresting drawing, The. Adoration of
the Magi, by Miss Lilian Pocock,
the remaining illustrations to this
article are reproductions of de-
signs by William Morris, Sir E.
Burne-Jones, and Walter Crane
shown in the Retrospective Room ;
a room full of mementoes of the
earlier periods of the Arts and
Crafts movement, and to some
perhaps the most interesting part
of the exhibition. A few of the
examples shown date back to the
days of Red Lion Square, where
in the sixties the business of
Messrs. Morris, Marshall, Faulkner
and Co., was founded, and included
among its artist partners Rossetti,
Burne-Jones, Madox Brown, and
Philip Webb. The combination
that collectively and through the
individual efforts of its members
was destined to influence strongly


NECKLACE, “ BACCHANALE,” WITH PAVLOVA AND NIJINSKI ON
CENTREPIECE. DESIGNED AND EXECUTED BY CECILIA ADAMS
21