William Morris set up his first tapestry loom in 1877, in
his bedroom at Kelmscott House, and taught himself
the technique of weaving. Choosing the hauteTisse, or upright
loom, in which the weaver faces the back of the tapestry and
guides the shuttle through the warp threads with the aid of a
mirror, he completed his first experimental tapestry in
September 1879, a symmetrical pattern of acanthus and vine
inspired by French and Flemish "large-leaf" verdure tapestries
of the sixteenth century. 1

At the Merton Abbey Works, to which Morris & Company
moved in June 1881, looms were set up for tapestry (as well as
carpet) weaving, to be executed by young male apprentices
under the direction of John Henry Dearie, who had previous-
ly served in the glass-painting studio. It soon became evident
to Morris that he would need to rely on Burne-Jones as a
designer to the same degree as with the firms stained glass, and
payments of £25 each for the designs of Pomona and Flora
(cat. no. 134) appear in the artist s account book for December
1882 and January 1883. These were clearly small-scale cartoons
for the figures alone, as a letter of February 28, 1883, from
Morris to his daughter Jenny reports that "Uncle Ned has done
me two lovely figures for tapestry, but I have got to design a
background for them: I shall probably bring them down [to
Kelmscott Manor] next time I come for my holiday task." 2

Two colored designs in the Pierpont Morgan Library, New
York (1975.46), and at Wightwick Manor, Staffordshire, must
represent Morris's completion of that task, copying Burne-
Jones's limpid figures onto backgrounds combining his favorite
vigorous acanthus with carnations, violets, and other bright
flowers, the whole set off by borders of vines and roses. It
became the usual workshop practice to photograph the designs
to full size, make a tracing, and place it against the warp, keep-
ing the original to hand for reference. 3 At that stage, revisions
of detail would have been made, including the addition of
birds and animals to Flora and the substitution of Morris's own
verse for the Latin inscriptions. 4 The tapestries were made in
1884-85 by the firm's three leading weavers, William Knight,
William Sleath, and John Martin. Flora was repeated in 1888,
and both designs were reproduced several times on a smaller
scale, with a more stylized floral background by Dearie and
without the verses. 5 An embroidery of Flora was also executed
at the Royal School of Art Needlework in the late 1880s.

Flora and Pomona exemplify Morris's vision for the revival
of tapestry weaving, involving artist and craftsman working
together, as expressed in his essay of 1888, "Textiles": "As in all
wall-decoration, the first thing to be considered in the design-
ing of Tapestry is the force, purity and elegance of the silhouette
of the object represented, and nothing vague or indeterminate
is admissible Depth of tone, richness of colour, and exquis-
ite gradation of tints are easily to be obtained in Tapestry; and
it also demands that crispness and abundance of beautiful
detail which was the especial characteristic of fully developed
Mediaeval Art." 6

1. Now at Kelmscott Manor (Society of Antiquaries of London); Victoria
and Albert Museum 1996, no. M.115. A similarly bold running acanthus
background appears in the tapestry The Forest, woven in 1887 (Victoria
and Albert Museum; ibid., no. M.120).
2. Morris, Letters, vol. 2a, 1881-1884 (1987), p. 160.
3. See Parry 1983, pp. 104-5.
4- The verses were published in Poems by the Way (1891), along with others
written specifically for tapestries. Very similar exotic birds occur in a
watercolor tapestry design by Morris, dated to 1879-81, in the Victoria
and Albert Museum (Victoria and Albert Museum 1996, no. M.117).
5. See Parry 1983, p. 186; there are small Pomona panels in the Art Institute
of Chicago and in the Victoria and Albert Museum (Victoria and Albert
Museum 1996, no. M.126).
6. "Introductory Notes to the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society," in
Catalogue of the First Exhibition (London, 1888), p. 16; reprinted in Arts
and Crafts Essays by Members of the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society
(London, 1893), pp. 23-24.