Morris Exhibit At The Foreign Fair
Boston, 1883-84

The largest carpet in the room is the one called Ilyssus; it measures seventeen feet ten inches by nine feet six inches. Opposite to it is a smaller carpet, of very deep, rich coloring, the size, twelve feet by eight feet. These, and some of the smaller rugs, were bought soon after the opening of the Fair. The carpet with the light-blue border measures about fifteen feet by ten feet six inches. It will not leave Boston, nor will the one opposite, called the Orchard, - perhaps the most remarkable carpet of all for design and color. It has this inscription in the border: - "durum et durum non facit murum." The size is sixteen feet by eight feet inches.

Of the rugs on the floor, that with the red centre is remarkable as being the first rug dyed with Dermes in Europe, since cochineal was introduced and established in our did-houses. Those who are acquainted with the cochineal shades on wool, will notice the greater beauty of the reds in this carpet; and we may also note, they are much more permanent, - Kermes being the veritable grana from which ingrain-dyeing got its reputation. The floor of this room has, like the others, a centre-rug of three-ply Kidderminster. We ask you to note how well the cheaper but not necessarily vulgar material consorts with the more dignified Hammersmith. In the other rooms, you will see similar fringed rugs, which look neither cheap nor mean beside silk damasks, through their more appropriate place is certainly with wall-papers and chintzes.

We may go from the Hammersmith carpets to the next front room, where

DAMASKS AND DRESS-SILKS

are the chief display. Damask, for wall-hanging, is now a revived taste in Europe. Not that the use had ever quite died out; but just before the revival, damasks were seldom used except for palaces and the richest houses, and they were always silk damasks. One of those we exhibit is a mixture of silk and wool. We call the increased use of these wall-hangings a revival, because the covering of walls with stuffs, tapestries, or whatever would hang, must have preceded the use of paper for walls; paper-hangings, by their name, being evidently a substitute for something better, but more costly. The three walls of this room are covered with damask of different design. it is perhaps necessary to say that this is because we wished to exhibit as many varieties as there was space for. The rooms must not therefore be taken as consistent decorations, but simply as show-rooms. The large pattern in gold suffused with pink in a silk damask of the best quality, - the name of the pattern, St. James. It was first used, though not in these shades, for the Throne-room at St James's palace. The smaller pattern on the wall to the right, a Damascening of dark bronzy green, steely blue, cooper and gold tints, is also a silk of the purest make. We call the pattern, Flower-garden. The colors suggest the beauties of inlaid metals. On the opposite wall is the silk and wool damask. This is very novel in effect, and an admirable wall-covering, even where pictures are hung. Though the pattern is large and full of variety, a tone of warm, broken grayness is the prevailing effect. It is quite warm enough to harmonize with the gold of picture-frames, and gray enough not to hurt the color of a picture. The introduction of the fine wool through the pattern is the main cause of the subdued splendor.

It would be a real loss to give up such a pattern (and we have others equally valuable) from fear of the moth, which we know is much dreaded in America. The damage done by moths in woolen goods is a serious thought to a housewife; but it can only happen when goods are kept from the light and shut up generally. Stuffs exposed and stretched on walls are not likely places for the moth to choose when she lays her eggs, and the ordinary Spring cleaning should be an insurance against that; but in point of fact, this cloth is better guarded. A skin of silk covers the whole surface, visible in many places, and only hidden, where the other colors of the pattern come to the front, by single threads of wool. There is, therefore, nothing to attract the moth. The damask patterns shown on the walls of this room are but three out of many varieties of which the patterns are capable; many yards of wall-space would have been needed to display them all to any useful size. Our agents, Messrs. Elliot & Bulkley, 42 East 14th Street, New York, or Mr. Davenport, 96 Washington Street, Boston, will be happy to show other colorings and versions of these patterns. The Flower-garden, besides being woven all silk, is made with silk and wool, and so made is a most useful wall-covering or curtain. All these damasks, it must be kept in mind, are intended for curtain-use as well as for walls; and they are even more handsome so, the changeable hues being much more beautiful when the change is assisted by the folding of the drapery. We might have shown some of them as curtains in this room, but in doing that we should have lost the opportunity for showing

THE UTRECHT VELVETS,

and we think these of too much importance in furnishing to be omitted. they make excellent curtains where rich, quiet color, with but faint pattern, is required, and they make the very best covering, except silk, for chairs, &c. the various shades exhibited have all their proper numbers attached, and the prices are plainly marked. By quoting these numbers, the exact colors can at any time be had from the houses authorized to sell our goods.

In the centre of this room is a table on which are arranged a selection of the

DRESS-SILKS

we manufacture. It may be thought strange that Mr. Morris should concern himself with the colors of ladies' dresses; but it is nevertheless a part of the purpose Mr. Morris had before him when he undertook to give us the means of beautifying our homes. Had that even been otherwise, Mr. Morris could scarcely have escaped the consequence of the reform he has worked in household decorations generally. In England the calls upon him to provide something that ladies might wear in rooms he had helped to make lovely, were too many to be disregarded, and he offers these as his answer to the demand. The textures are of two kinds, damask and simple twill. The silk of which they are made is of the purest, and the dyes are also pure and good. The fabrics are designed to hang well, with sufficient body and richness; they are very pliable and substantial, without unnecessary weight. Two guarantees can be given, - the silk will not cut with use, nor will it get greasy.

From the Silk room we will pass to the one behind, which is furnished entirely with cotton. This room is also used as an office for esquires, &c., but it is open to the public as freely as all the others. In it we show six different patterns of

HAND-PRINTED COTTON CLOTH

as wall-hangings, and some others as curtains. These patterns are not a tithe of the great variety of furniture-prints we make on cotton, linen, and worsted. Two on worsted (Challis) you have already seen at the entrance to one of the Carpet rooms; for the remainder, not exhibited, we can only refer you to our Agents in New York, or to Mr. Davenport in Boston. The cost of most of our furniture-prints has lately been much reduced, and man new designs have been added to stock.

Those exhibited on the walls of this room are mostly new, and the method of using them is also new. Not absolutely, perhaps; but it is so long since rooms were generally hung with printed cloth, at least in England, that the proposal to make that use general is a novelty. We venture to do that partly on the ground of the moderate cost of the material, but more because of the beauty of tone and surface to be got by this means, much surpassing, in those respects, even very costly wall-papers. The hanging is exactly like that of the damasks in the other room. The cloth is fastened not to the walls, but to thin laths or batons first nailed to the margins of the wall, - that is, above the dado, under the cornice or frieze, and round doors and windows. To these laths the cloth is tacked in folds (chintz should always be folded) and moderately strained, - the edges of the cloth and the tacks being afterwards hidden by a suitable gimp or fringe. The fixing is very easy, and the cloth can be as easily taken down for cleaning, or to change from one room to another.

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