Bird and Pomegranate wallpaper, designed by Kathleen Kersey for Morris & Co., c.1926, reprinted c.1950 by Arthur Sanderson and Sons Ltd

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Here's another object in our #MorethanMorris series, where we highlight some of the other artists and designers represented in our collection.

Kathleen Kersey’s Bird and Pomegranate design was the last wallpaper Morris & Co. ever issued Produced against the backdrop of increasingly streamlined, modernist trends in design, Kersey’s pattern is in keeping with Morris’s earliest and most simple designs including Trellis,…

…which features small, agile birds, and Fruit, in which pomegranates adorn a sparsely-decorated background. Kersey was born in 1889. Designs for wallpaper she exhibited as a student in 1911 (now in the V&A) show the influence of Arts and Crafts artists including C.F.A. Voysey.

Kersey designed wallpapers and textiles and was one of several women designers to contribute to the success of Morris & Co. The popularity of this pattern is shown in the fact that this example is a reprint issued by Sanderson in the 1950s.

Text by William Morris Gallery curator Roisin Inglesby