Lot 106: KELMSCOTT MANOR -- [John Henry DEARLE (1860-1932)]. 7 leaves extracted from an oblong 4° notebook

KELMSCOTT MANOR -- [John Henry DEARLE (1860-1932)]. 7 leaves extracted from an oblong 4° notebook (108 x 134mm) bearing pencil drawings of a view of the exterior of Kelmscott Manor, 7 views of interiors of Kelmscott Manor, 2 titled 'Kelmscott', and a sketch of a male figure in 15th-century costume (light offsetting on one). Provenance: the artist (purchased from his descendants).

AN IMPORTANT SERIES OF SKETCHES OF KELMSCOTT MANOR. Morris and Dante Gabriel Rossetti took a joint tenancy on the Elizabethan Kelmscott Manor, Oxfordshire in June 1871 (Rossetti's share being taken over by F.S. Ellis in 1874), and, although Morris never lived there, it remained a refuge and haven to him throughout the remainder of his life, and provided the name for both his London house and his private press: 'the gabled, grey stone building replaced Red House [Morris' earlier home] as his ideal imagined place of domesticity, gregariousness, happiness, fulfilment' (F. MacCarthy William Morris (London: 1994), p. 311), and it was used as the model for the house described in chapter XXXI of Morris' utopian work News from Nowhere, where the attics appear as 'quaint garrets' (a view of the house is used as a frontispiece to the Kelmscott Press edition of the work). The view of the exterior of Kelmscott Manor shows the building from the west, whilst the other views of the interior show a series of other rooms, including attic-rooms. The sketch of the male figure in 15th-century costume has the initials 'GC' beneath it, possibly Geoffrey Chaucer; above the figure are notes for a colour-scheme. These drawings are by J.H. Dearle, who joined Morris & Co in 1878, and was trained as a tapestry weaver by Morris, producing his first tapestry design in 1887, before becoming the firm's chief designer in 1890, working on a variety of woven and printed textiles, and becoming Art Director after Morris's death. (9)

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