were simply provisional colors used during the early years
of the Firm, and set aside by the establishment of the
Morris dye-house, where full frank hues of indigo blue,
madder red and weld yellow were perfected, and employed
m the production of the beautiful Hammersmith carpets
and Merton tapestries and chintzes.
                          In textile fabrics the progress
made by Morris was no less sure and rapid than in the
art and craft which we have just considered. His
appreciation of necessities and how to accomplish them
was alike in all fields of practical work. His attainments
in the weaving of tapestry are especially remarkable and
characteristic, He criticised the Gobelins Factories as
having degraded a "fine art" into a mere "upholsterer's
toy,"' and therefore set himself to revive the craft. In
default ofman existing instance where the actual weaving
process might be observed, Morris gathered details, as
best he might, from an old French official handbook,
published prior to the Revolution. He caused a handloom
to be set up in his own bedroom at Kelmscott House,
Hanmmersnth, and, in order that the new interest should
not interfere with his ordinary o  pations, he was
accustomed to practise weaving i the early morning
hours. He so gradually became an expert workman,
and even devised technicalimprovements upon the French
historical system. Indeed, he may be said to have
restored the splendid and almost extinct art of the fifteenth
and sixteenth centuries. This statement is justified by
the beautiful works in arras: "The Star of Bethlehem,"
and the series illustrating "The Quest of the San Graal,"
designed for the great dining-room of Stanmore Hall, near
Harrow.
                          A third art,-that of printing,-
to the practice of which Morris devoted much time during
the later years of his life, would seem at first to be
removed from the sphere of the pure decorator. But we
find the secret of this devotion in the words of the artist


WILLIAM MORRIS


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