-G A NATIONAL INDUSTR.. TfIE PRODCüïiON AND PATRONAGE OF ALEXANDER MORTON & COMPANY'S

*DONEGAL CARPETS

A M in

The Dcparcment of Art History

Presentcd in Partial Fulfiiment of the Rcquirements for the Dcgree of Master of Arts

concordia University Montreal, Quebec, Canada

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Handcaftiag a National IadusÉry: The Production and Patronage of Nexaxxkr Morton & Comparry's Dom@ Carpu

This thesis offers a social history of Alexander Morton & Company's Done@ carpeu - their production

and patronage. These ninetœnthccntury caqxts wne pmmoted as uiiaic pmducts and apjKaicd to

upper- and middle-cla co~lsumers in Britain, ireland, North America, Australia, New Zealand, and

South A f n a The new carpet ïndustry, based in ireland, catercd to the popular taste for d l things Oriental

and to the socialisl idais of the Arts and Crafb Mmmcnt (1850-1920). Donegal carpet designs ranged

h m Eastern motifs to Arts and Crafts florals to Celtic interlace. Prominent designers in the Arts a d

Crafts Movement created designs for thse carpets which wcre alsa acccpted as parc of the visual arts of

the Celtic Revivai in ireland

The Donegal carpet's succes can k cvplained using Piem Boutdieu's thcory conceming the socid

formation of taste. In this study of Moflon's Donegal carpe& 1 test the validity of three aspcds of

Bowdieu's theory: habiîus, culturai cudes, and symbolic capital. Archival material, press aceounts a d

historical writing reveal several issues involved in this enterprise, such as ethnicity, gendtr' class and

cultural appropriation. Thest. issues arc addressed in an examination of this literatw as well as the: design

transitions en&& by Morton & Co. Ultimately, this study is an attempt to locate the Donegal carpets

within the material and idcologicai conditions of oollsumption and production. In addition, a case study of

the Morton designer bhry Seton Watts highlights one woman's art production-

f

1 wish to express my âeepest gratitude to Dr- Janice Helland whose continued academic, personal and

professional encouragement means a great deal to me. Her unfailing confidence in my abiiities and

support of my ideas (whether to fly to England or cake a train to Kingston) bas made the production of th&

thesis a challenge and a pleasure. For king so gcnerous with tbùr Lime and kaowledgc, I thank the othcr

members of my thesis cornmittee, Dr, Catherine MacKenzie and Dr- Lydia Shanaan-

During my research in London, staff members of several institutions were exuemely helpfiil and kind In

particular, Eva White of the Archivt of Art and Design, whose patience was never-ending - evcn whcn 1

ordered an entire archive by mistake; as well as Ricliard Jeneries and Janet McLcan of the Watts Pichire

Gallery, who brought Mary Seton Watts to life and generowly a U o d me to keep a memento of my visit

Throughout the preparation of this thesis family, fiiends and colleagues shared with me theu intelligence,

encouragement, humour and time. For the invention of "mail night" which replenished my energy aad

creativity, 1 thank Karen DeLutis, Marthe Founier and Sandra Moldy. For entertainhg me on a QiIy

basis, I thank Andrea Welch with her calls, messages and chais over a cup of Whittards. For Listcning to

my countless ramblings on caqets and taking me out of moments of selfdoubt, for traveiling with me - again - and for putting up with ail the books, 1 thank Mark Paterson Finally, I thank my parcnts, Janet

and Stephen Cheasley, for their boundless encouragement and interest in my work and 1 wîsh to

thank my Mum for king my first cditor - a permanent position!

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1 A 'DEALER'S LORE': ANACCoiNï OF ALEXAM)= MORTON & COMPANY'S ................................................................. DONEGAL CARPET INDUSTRY 10

Exploring ireland: The Donegal Carpet Industry fiom its Inccption

The Morton Family and ihe Irish People

A Cornparison: A l i a Hart's Donegal Indusuial Fund

The Popular Reception of Donegai Carpets

Political, Historical and Sacial Omissions

2 APPWG TO THE 'EDUCATED EYE': DESIGN TRANsmoNs IN DONEGAL ........................................................................................ CARPETS... 39

The Social and Political Seiting of the Donegal Carpet Industry

A Fashion for Ail Things Oriental

The Arts and Crafts Movement (1850-1920)

Wockers, Designers and James Morton

'A New National Industry'

LIST OF FIGURES

hfiormatioa in square brackcts indicaies the source ami page uumbcr fmn which the illustration has been taken (Sa bibliography Tw ni1l dctails). Tbe dimensions, when Imowa, are listai in centimetres.

Edmund Evans, AhdWn; or me Wondnfuf Lamp, 1875. Wood-* publishcd by George Routledge & Sais, Ladon, Glasgow, New York (27 x 23.5 cm) [Ca*iloguc item no, 198, Sato a d WaÉinabt, J u p and Bntdn, 1301

Charles Rickttts (1866-1931), Cos~untefor the Mikado, c. 1926, [Catalogue item na 2 15, Sato and Waianabe, Jupn und Britafn, 1331

Spinning and urpct wuving i t Morton's (int pr& in Killyùegs, Couaty Donegd. mlam, Arts and Crofis Carpets, 951

Morton Fmüy Photogrrpb: back mw - Wiiiiam, Alexaader (Alec), James, Gavin (Guy); fiont row - Mary, Maggïe, Jeanie, Alexander (senior), Agnes, Jeanie (senior), Helen (Neiiie). [Jocelyn Morton, Three Generatiom, 751

Eariy Donegd urpet dosdy modeilcd dtcr an Eastern uample, design attributed to Gavin Morton, date unavrilable. m l a m , Arts und Crafls Carpets, 1031

Donegd urpet dcsigncd by Gavin Morton and G. K. Robertson, c 1899. w l a m , Arts and CruEs Carpets, 971

The Duleek, Domgil carpet design4 by C. F. A. Voyscy, abibited at L i W s in 1903. [Haslam, Arts and Crafls Carpers, 125)

The Donnemuru, Donegai carpet designcd by C. F. A. Voysey, eshibited at Liberty's in 1903. [Haslam, Arts and Crufls Carpets, 1221

The Clenmure, Donegd carpet designcd &y C. F. A. Voysey, exhibited at Liberty's in 1903. (Haslam, Arts und Crafrs Corpets, 1001

Drawing for a design by George Wdton, c 1899. [Moon, George WaZton, 1001

George Waiton, detai! of stencilkd linen usai on the fneze in the moming room of the EIm Bank, 1898, [Moon, George WaLton, 691

Peony and Uly, tcxtik design by Ceorge Wdton for Morton & Co., Septanber 1927. woon, George Walton, 1741

vii

The Ardnw,n, DonegJ tupct wovcn for Liùerty's, c 1903. The design is an adapoitim f?om the Book ofKells. mlam, Arts and Crajfs Carpets, 130-3 11

Folio 128v of tbe Book of Rd&: Symbolr of the four tvmgeiiuts. [Bernard Meebau, The Book of Kei&: An nlustrated IntlrOdtrction to the Mumcscript in Triniîy CoIIege Dublin (Lmdoa: niames & Hudson, 1994), 40)

Foiio 27v of tJe BwrL ofKdLt: SymboIr of the four cwngelists. @fe&q 23e Book O/

Kellls. 81

Fovnàbg a Nrrthul Indusîry - Irish Ca*. PPZiotogiaph of Liberty's exhiiïtion of Don@ carpets (with garden pottery fiom the P m ' Art Guild) at the Grafton Gaiicy, Lon- 1 903. [Gd& Mary Seton Watts, 12 ]

-portraii, Muy Seton Frascr-Tytler. Oil on cari-, 188 1 (68 x 55.2 cm). [Gd& Mary Seton Watts, 27J

Mary Seton Watts .ad G. F. Watts in a resding dcove designed by Mary Won Watts, Limnersiease, 1893. [Gould, Mary &ton Wafts, 401

The Watts Mortuary CbapeI, Compton, Surny, 1894-98. [Gould, Mary Seton Watts, 451

Spi& of Truth, detail, Watts Chapel, date unavulible. [Gould, Muty Ston Watts, 471

Terracotta gardcn pottcry, Potten' Art Guild, 1898-1902. [Catalogue item nos. 8 1-83, 86, 87,90, Gould, Mary Seton Watts, 5 11

Jessie Newbey design: linm appliqué cushion =ver embroidered in silks with edges of needleweavbg, worked by the designer, c. 1900. [ P q , Textiles of the Arts and Crafis Mivement, culour plate 821

23e Pdian carpet designcd by Mary Seton Watts, 1899. Wool (26 1.6 x 1 17 an). [Catalogue item no. 43 in Gouid, M a v m o n Watts, 521

Detail of pelican on carpct reverse. [Gould, Mav Seton Watts, 531

Portrait of Junts Morton by G. FI Watts (1901) prcsateâ as a wedding gifi to Beatrice Fagm Morton. [iocelyn Morton, Three Genemtiom, 107)

In the late nineteenth ccntury, the Swttish textile maadixtwer, Alexander Morton

developed a prosperous carpet industry in the West of Wand (County Donegal). The

success of this prodm largdy depended on its reception by the public, who decided

whether it was in 'good taste'. An examination of the formation of taste wiu reveal how

these carpets came to have value asmibed to them by a particular group within a particu&

context. For purposes of this thesis, the discussion of taste relies on Pierre Bourdieu's

anaiysis fiom The Field ofCu/turai Production (1 993) and Dishnction (1 984). Bourdieu's

theory is fiindamental to this project as it explains the social ground of aesthetic taste. He

claims that, without this grounding, M e would be perceived as a universal aesthetic and

2 cultural practice, when in fact it is a produa of pnvilege.

In nineteenth-century Britain taste, partidarly in the upper classes, was greatly affecteci

by the ever-expanding British Empire, which extended as far from England as Afiica and

1 Motto fiom a speciai postage stamp issucd by the Canadian gonrmnent, 1898, to œl&ratt the advent of

imperiai penny postage. Keith Robbins, TIre Eclpse of a Great Power: Modern Britain, 1870-1975 (New York: Longman Group, 1983), 18.

2 Pierre Bourdieu, Tlic Field o/Cufturaf Producion: k~ssoys on Art and Liferatwe, cd- Randal Johnson

Wew York: Columbia University, 1993). 24.

3 Asia. The continued expansion of empire was debated in English society. There were

people who felt the Empire would be spreading itseif thin if it continued to grow while

4 others advocated further colonisation. The political instability marking this debate

resulted in Queen Victoria taking the title of 'Empress of India' in 1876. This event

promoted the image of a strong British Empire by confirxnîng India as its centre - the

'jewel in the Imperia1 crown' so to speak.

Through this colonial expansion, the British public was exposed to other cultures in the

Empire. SeMce to the Empire offered an attractive career for many young Englishrnen,

5 with the Indian Civil SeMce being the most prestigious posting. Letten home, diaries and

other written accounts (published memoirs for example) by these people brought to life

6 tales of these 'exotic others' for the British public's pleasure. Collecton in Britain

3 For instance, in 1813 China ceded Hong Kong to the British who later annexed upper Burma in 1886

and part of Malaya in 1896. The Suez Canal was completed in 1û69 with the shares in its ownersliip held by French investors and the khedive of Egypt, who mIed as a monarch. In 1875, the debt-plagued khedive sold his shares to the British govemment (under Disraeli) and by 1882, the British had occupied Egypt (Mortimer Chambers, et al., The lVestem Experience. 5' ed. (Montreal: McGraw-Hill, 1991), 1065). At one point during her reign, Victoria !vas queen to a quarter of the world

4 Robbins, 18, See also Deborah Weiner's discussion of the debate between anti-imperialists and Liberal

impenalists over the expansion of the British Empire, in pdcular the Boer War in South Afnca, 1899- 1902 (Architecture and Sociaf Refornt in Late-Pîctorian London (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1994), 132).

5 Large and well+rganised, the Indian Civil Service developed from the reforms that followed rebellions

against the British in 1857-58. Its members s a w themselves as an elite corps, and they were in pmctice the cfféctive nilers of India (Chambers, 1072).

6 For e.uample, Lady Rosamund Lawrence's reminiscences of her family's involvement in the Indian Civil

SeMce and her own experiences in India with her husband: "Now that the British have left India these pages may be of interest for the picture they give, not of political strife, but of those equally tme days when the District Oficer wvas regarded by millions of Indians as his 'M-Bap', his Mother-Father." Rosamund Lawrence, Indian Embers (Oxford: George Ranald, n.d). See a b , Marian Fowler's Befow the Peacock Fan: Firsf Ladies ofthe Raj (Matkham: Penguin Books Canada, 1987) which traces the Iives of

showcased theu interest in the colonies in 'do' c a b i ï s fïiled with goods fiom the

Empire. This fascination with colonial peoples was also evident in Englïsh cuitural

products, especWy the decorativt arts, aeated in response to personai a<paiences or

7 second-hand accounts of the colonies F~gure 1).

Japanese art and design was also very fashionable in nineteenth-century Engfish society.

For centuries Japan had presented its isolation, but in 1853 the land'mg of the AmerÏcaxt

Commodore Matthew Perry soon forced the country into commerce with the West. In the

following decade, Japan embarked on a qsternatic policy of adopting Western industry,

8 technology, education, laws and govemment institutions. This 'opening' of Japan memt

that its cultural goods were also available to the English market. Japanese culture became

- --

four women through their mernoin of life and travel ia India For a discussjon of the female ucperiencc of the Orient and tspccially of the harem, çce Reina Lmwk. Gendering Orientufism: Race. Femininiiy, cmd Represenration (New York: Routledge, 19%). Lewis examines written accounts of ute harem by Occidental women within a discussion of Henrieüc Browne's ûrienlalist art work. She cites Sopbia Poole's The EngIishwoman in Empt: Lettersfiom Cairn written during a residence there in 1842. 3 and 4 with E. W. h e Esq.. Author of 'The Modern Egyptian '. &y His Sisfer 2 vols. (London: Charles Knight and Co., 1844) and Lady Anne Blunt's A Pilgnmage to Nejd: me Cradfe of the Ara6 Race. A Visit to îite Court of the Arab Emir, and 'Our Persim Compaign, ' 2 vols. (London: John Murray, 1881). Far a discussion of the Orientalist backgrounds of many of these women traveiicrs, sce Iant Robinson, W9ywmd Women: A Guide ro Women Travefiers (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990).

7 "Cabinets [of curiosity] expresscd a visual imagc of the inclusiwncss of the Euopean vicw of the worid

and its facile ability to incorporate and domesticate potcntially îransgrtssive worlds and wtoms" (John Elsner, and Roger Cardinal, ais., TIle Cuilures of Coliecting (Cambridge, MasS.: Harvard Uniwrsity Press, 1994), 203)- For more iaZormatïon on cabinas of curiosity and ninetccnîhuntury coUactihg practices, sce Tony Bcnneit*~ discussion of tbe muscum as supplanting and surpassing '&O' cabine& in me Birth of the Museum: History, Zheory. Poiitics (New York: Rwtledgc, 1995)- Atso, Douglas Cole's CapturedHerituge ~ancouvet: UBC Press, 1995) contains a similar discussion within a North Amcrican conta

8 Chambers, 1071. Sœ also, Hugh Cortazzi, T h e British in Japan in tht Nineteenth Centwy," in J a m

and Britain: An Aesthetic Diafogue 1850-1930, eds. Tomdro Sam and Toshio Watanak (London: Lund Humphries, 1991), 55-65.

9 increasingly popular, affecting al1 areas of the arts in England. For example, the 1885

Gilbert and Sullivan operetta The Mikado first opened at the Savoy Theatre with the

chorus: "If you want to h o w who we are. we are gentlemen of Japan." However, the

operetta's supposedly-Japanese setthg of Titipu, elaborate costumes, and Japanese

characters such as Ko-Ko, Yum-Yum, Nanki-Poo, and Pish-Tush, were not meant to be

accurate representations of Japan but, rather, they camotiflaged a satire of the British

10 bureaucracy (Figure 2).

This fashion for everything Oriental was also seen in academic circles in the form of

Orientalism (the study of the Orient). Edward Said has re-defined Orientalism as a means

of 'dealing' with the Orient by "making statements about it, authorising Mews of if

describing it, by teaching it, settling it, niling over it."" He daims the West, in this case

Bntain, saw the Orient as a pIace of romance, filled with exotic beings, and producing

9 For instance, the art critic for the London newspaper Queen. reviewing the Iune 19 10 AngIo-Japanese

Eshibition at White City in Shepherd's Bush, London, wrote: "The colour prinls of Iapan have, witlun the Iast half century, taken Europe by storm. Theu superb concentration, their decorative purpose of pattern and rhythm of line, have exercised an extraordinary influence on our modem art." (Martin Hardie, "Japanese Art," Queen, 18 June 1910, 1100.) More recentiy, similar eshibitions, held as part of the 1991 Japan Festival celebrations, took place throughout the U K In Glasgow, the exhiiition Art for Industry: The Glasgow Japan Exchange of 1878 (Glasgow: Glasgow Museums, 1991) displayed the contents of an 1878 of contemporary art wares fiom Japan, including œramics, îùmihire and other laquer ware, metal wax, te\iles and paper. In exchange for this gift, Glasgow shared its marine engineering and other industrial expertise with Japan. Another e.uhiiition in the Festival, Japan and Britain: An Aesrhetic Dialogue 1850-1 930, was held at the Barbican Art Gailery to cornmernorate the hundredth anniversary of the Japan Society of London. This e.xhiiition's catalogue offers an oveMew of the cultural exchange between Britain and Japan in the nineteenth century and a list of artists and products in Bcitain affected by this 'dialogue'. This interest in Japan is also evident in North America where, for example, the American arclutect Frank Lloyd Wright owned an immense collection of Japanese screens.

10 Sato and Watanabe, Japan and Britain. 133; and W . S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan, The hlikado or The

Town ofTitipu, Lakeshore Light Opera, Dorval, 18 February 1999 (playbill).

11 Edwvard Said, Orientalism. (Toronto: Random House, 1978), 3.

haunting memories and landscapes- Ultimately, the Orientalist was viewed as superior in

12 this EstWest divide of colonialism-

The expansion of British Imperia1 power was but one factor contributing to a specific taste

developed in nineteenth-century society. In England, the harsh working conditions and

extremes of wealth and poverty created by industrialisation were the cause of much social

reform. Movements were developed throughout Bntain in reaction to the treatment of

workers, especidy children. It was at this time (1892) that Friedrich Engels' scathing

cornmentary on the English class system, The Condition of the Working Clars in England,

13 was first published in Britain. The Arts and Crafts Movement developed within this

climate of social reform, as artists became more aware of the working conditions in the

industries for which they designed. One such artistldesigner was William Morris, often

cited as the most important advocate of the Arts and Crafts ovem ment.'^ Moms criticised

a system that allowed British craftsmen to lose both their skills and their self-respect while

12 Ibid., 1; Lavis, 4-5,

13 Friedrich Engels, The Condition of the JVorking Clas in England, ed. Victor Kiernan (New York:

Viking Penguin, 1987). For fùrther mding on social reform see Deborah Weber's Architecture and Social Refom in Late-Viclorian London, which e.uamines the architecture related to reform movements, such as free public libraries and elementary xhools, settlement houses floyubee Hall and Passmore Ed~mrds), working class housing (Octavia Hill's pmjects), art galleries and museum. See alsa, C. Waters, British Socialists and rhe Politics of Popular Culture 1884-1914 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1990); Standish Meacham, Toynbee HaII and &cial Refom, 1880-1914 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1987); and S. and H Baniett, eds., Prucîicable Sxialism: Essays on Scia1 Refom (London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1888). For a discussion of social refonn within the Arts and Crafts Movement in America see Eileen Boris, Art and Labor: Ruskin, Morris and the Crajlsn~an Ideal in Anierica (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1986).

14 The 1884 issue of The Builder notes that Moms spoke on the subject of Art and Socialism at the

Wlutechapel art gallery, an event organisai by the Bametts, founders of Toynbee Hall (The Builder. 12 April 1884, 501, quoted in Weiner, 237).

industry became rich by manufacturhg technidy-advanced yet 'artistically-dead'

products. In his publications, lectures and work he attempted to redress this imbalance by

recornmending new standards of design which he believed would restore pleasure and self-

1s respect to the worker. Proponents of the Movement adopted the Japanese attitude

toward the various branches of the arts: believhg al1 the arts were worthy of

16 appreciation. They tried to dismantle the established hierarchy of the arts in Britain and

promoted craft and the decorative arts as valid and valuable categories of art production.

The socialist bais of Moms's ideals is evident in his desire for beauty in objects of

everyday use - supposedly available and fiordable to everyone. Theoreticaüy, members

of the Arts and Crafls Movement accepted these goals but were not able to achieve them

17 in practice. Many Arts and Crafts products were too expensive for the working classes.

Thus, the Movement's supporters, financial and ideological, were largely from the middle

and upper classes.

The Arts and Cr&s Movement also aimed to educate the public taste "to a preference for

art born of one's own day and in one's own country."'* This nationalism in art production

1s Linda Parry, Textiles of the Arts and Crufi Movement (London: Thames and Hudson, 1997), 13. See

also Peter Stansky, WilIim~ Morris (New York- Osford University Press, 1983). For more about Moms' socialism, see E. P. Thompson, CYilliani hforris: Rontantic to Revolutionary (London: Merlin Press, 1977) and William Moms, "How 1 Became a Socialist," in NeiïsfFont Nowhere and Other Kritings, ed. Clive Wilmer (New York: Penguin Books, 1991).

16 For an esample of this attitude toward art production in the art journais, see Mabel Cods lengthy

article "The Arts and Cr& Exhibition," Artist (October 18%): 9 4 .

17 See Parxy, Stansky, Thompson-

18 A. H. Mackmurdo, "History of the Arts and Cr* Movement," hand- and -tten manuscript, h m

unpublished memoiis, held at the William Morris Gallery, Wdthamstow, quoted in Parry, 15. In England,

was taken a step m e r in the Celtic Revival of Scotland and Ireland during the late

nineteenth century. Each country endeavoured, through the Revivalist style, to become a

reflection of its past 'glorious' selE The expression of 'beauty, health and national pride'

were the main objectives of the Revival in both these countries. Most of the early work

comrnissioned in the Revivalist styie in Ireland was from churches. Eventuaüy, however,

much work was fuelled, executed or acquired by Nationalists, whose aims either remained

romantic or became hast exclusively politicai, gMng an Ïmpassioned, sharp edge to

19 most Revivalist endeavours. In Ireland, the already-popular literary revival offered the

visual arts a successfùl example to follow. In addition, the Celtic Revival in both countnes

had close links to the Arts and Crafts Movement, in ideology and practice, and as such,

gained popularity with the upper classes who already supported this Movement.

This brief outline of factors af5ecting taste in nineteenth-century Bntain and Ireland sets

an overall context for the following study of Alexander Morton & Company's Donegal

carpet industry. The supremacy of the British Empire lasting throughout the nineteenth

century led to an English sense of superiority and possessiveness toward colonial

20 cultures. As a result of this fascination with Bntain's subjugated peoples the acadernic

discipline of Orientalism was developed. Closer to home (England), the consequences of

this attempt is referred to as the Gothic Revival (its proponents were ofien called medievalists, see quote on p.49).

i 9 Eiizabeth Cumming and Nicola Gordon Bowe, The Arts and Craj?s Movenrents in Dublin and

Edinburgh. 1885-1925 (Dublin: Irish Acadernic Press, 1998), 9-13.

20 Although not officialiy umsidered a 'colony* of the British Empire, Ireland su€féred from prejudices

comonly held towvard colonial peoples. 1 discuss Ireland's unusuai 'colonial* situation in greater detail in Chapter 2 (63-66).

rapid industrialisation were being documented and brought to the fore of political and

social-reform debates. The effkcts of industrialisation, panidarly on the working classes,

were cataiysts for the Arts and Crafts Movement, in particular, which advocated sociaiist

ide& and universal access to art- As an extension of this Movement, the Celtic Revivai

emphasised nationalism expresseci through art. Though primarily in Ireland and Scotland?

the products created as a resuk of the ReMval were also very popular in England.

Bourdieu's theory wiU help to explain why this nineteenth-century taste developed and

how it was perpetuated. This general context will permit a clearer discussion of a specific

case - the Donegal carpet industry- Bourdieu explains that a person's tastes are developed

through a lifetime spent absorbing the social order, which leads to the creation of an

individual's habitzts- He claims that, through their habitas, people naturalise assumptions

of gender, race and social hierarchy promoted in the social order surrounding them. Thus,

the habilirs idorms each person's level of cultural competence and detemiines what is

considered 'tastefil' o r appealing to them. In the first chapter, 1 will use this concept of

the habitus to demonstrate how the 'story' of Morton's Donegal carpet industry was

manipulated to appeal to a target market.

An analysis of the design transitions in Donegal carpets is the basis for the second chapter.

Such an analysis will reveal the cultural codes embedded in these carpets, recognisable to

Morton's clientele. This recognition meant that the consumers assigned value to the

Morton product, making it a popular cultural commodity. Relating the design transitions

to the social, politid and historical context of their production w i U explain why these

codes were familias to Morton's patrons and how the codes were used to promote tbis

product.

The finai chapter is a case study of the designer Mary Seton Watts, exploring her

anomalous identification in a 1903 Liberty's exhibition catalogue. Formal recognition by

Liberty's was a priviiege seldom granted designers. Most d g about Morton & C a ' s

Donegal carpets overlooks the women in this organisation - weaverq designers, spinnen,

dyers. Thus, despite being a tangent fkom the topic of Morton's Donegd carpets, a

discussion of the designer Mary Seton Watts specifidy highlights the Me and art

production of a woman working for Morton & Co. In this chapter, Bourdieu's notion of

syrnbolic capital wiil be used as a method for speculating possible reasons for this

exception to cornmon practice. Ultimately, my goal in writing this thesis is to test these

three elements of Bourdieu's theory - habitus, cultural codes, and symbolic capital - by

applying hem to the instance of the Donegai carpet industry.

A 6 D ~ ~ ' s LORE': AN ACCOUNT OF ALEXANDER MORTON & COMPANY'S

DONEGAL CARPET ~ B ~ U S T R Y

To support the daim that taste is JociaUy consmicted, French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu

bas developed the concept of the habitus. He explains that the habitus is "a set of

dispositions which generates practices and perceptions. Pt] is the r d t of a long process

of inculcation, beginnllig in early chüdhood, which becomes a 'second sense' or a second

nature."' Thus through theu habitus, a penon may corne to embody asswnptions of

gender, race, age and social hierarchy and, in effect, naturalise the social order in which

they develop.' The habitus i s the basis of an individual's level of cultural cornpetence and

determines what appeals to her/him, what is considemi 'tartefui'. In this chapter, 1 wish to

present the story of Alexander Morton & Company's Donegal carpet indu* and explore

how this story has been manipulated by the press, promoters and historians to appeal to a

certain habitus, that of the prospective Donegal carpet consumer.

According to Bourdieu, the dispositions represented by the habitus are "'durable' in that

they 1st throughout [a person's] Hietirne. They are 'transposable' in that they may

generate practices in multiple and diverse fields of activity, and they are 'structured

structures' in that they inevitably incorporate the objective social conditions of their

-

' Rem Bourdieu, me Fkid ofCuIIwaI nrduction, S.

2 Nicholas B. Dirks, Gedf Elcy, and Sherry B. Ortner, eds., CuIl~re/PowerMistory= A Reader in Contemporary Social Theory (New Jcrsy: Princeton University Pnss, 1994), 13-16.

inculcation This accounts for the Smilarity in the k b i ~ of [penoiu] f?om the same

social class . . . F M y , the dispositions of the habitus are 'stnicturïng structures' through

their ability to genente practices adjusteci to Jpecinc situatioiis." By exploring the written

accounts of the Donegai carpet industry 1 wish to apply this concept to the readers and

authors of these accounts- I will d e t d e if their prevaient 'dispositions' do apperr to

have been established through a lifetime of inculcation, gaierathg practices adjustable to a

variety of actîvities, including the purchase of a Doncgal carpet, and which d e c t thea

'objective social conditions'.

ALEXANDER MORTON & COMPANY'S DONECAL CARPET I N D u ~ Y

In extended research for this thesis, particularly favourable descriptions of the Morton

enterpnse kept reeurring in newspaper articles; more rtxxntly, similar descriptions have

appeared in the literature on the topic. A histonography of the Donegai carpet industxy

will be developed throughout this chapter, drawing on a number of sources. The primary

archival source on the topic was a series of business papers and correspondences titied

"Morton Family Papers," held at the Victoria and Albert Museum's Archive of Art and

Design. Two of the most usehi documents in this collection are an account of the industry

written by James Morton for an annuai report, based on notes in his diary, and a eulogy

for Alexander Morton by his son for the firm's Minute Book Another rich archive was the

British Museum's Newspaper Librery. Articles fkom London newspapers such as me

Times, Dai& Telegrqh, St&md, Queen, BIack & White, M d n g Advern3er. M i e ,

' Bourdieu, The Field of C u r l d Pmducion, S.

as well as severai Irish papers hcluding the Irish Ihakpenrtenni and N d o n datbg nom

18974910, are held at this library.' Interestingiy, the repetition of passages among the

articles listed indicates that many of the critics must have used press releaoes or

promotionai materiai fkom Liberty's or Morton & Co. in order to Wnte their pieccr. For

instance, a review in the Scottish Aberdeen JmmuI, 16 March 1903, coasists ofa seria

of quotes published earlier in several English newspapers. niere is little diirence of

opinion due to location or culture, which is interesthg in tmar of the receptÏon of the

carpets by the press. The result of this archivai research is a unifieci series of texts - in

content, cnticai writing and perspective.

More recent literatun about the Donegal carpets indudes Jocelyn Morton's 7hree

Generations in a Fmily Texlile Fim (1971)' Malcolm Haslam's A m and CrqFs Cmpets

(199 l), and Paul Lamour's article "Donegal Carpets" in the Irish Arts Review Yearbuok;

19904991 and his book The Arts and Crdfs Movement in ire^^ (1992). Jocelyn

Morton's book is a very favourable, uncriticai, M y account of the Morton business

venture in Donegal. The archival materiai on which it is based is held at the Victoria and

Albert Museum's Archive of Art and Design and the Scottish Records Office, Edinburgh.

Haslam discusses more practical matters such as designers, advertising, exhibitions, and

clientele of Morton & Co.3 Donegai carpet industry. Lamour's article offers a bnef

- - -

' The articles includc: 'Irish Chpet Exh'bitioh" ine Times (LondonL 9 Marc& 1903.1 1; " W h Chpets.* Daily Telegmph, 9 March 1903, 7; "The Irish Carpet Industry." Stmd'd, 9 Mmh 1903, 2; "An Exhiiition of Danegal Carpets." Queen, Tle Lady's N e w p p e r , 228 Fcbntary 1903, 347 anâ 14 March 1903,438; "A New Xrish Indwry." Bfack & WIiite, (Saturday) 21 March 1903, 8; "Dmelopiag an lrish Industry-" Morning Ahertiser, 9 March 1W3, 6; "An Exhiiition of Irish Carpas." Madme: An IIfutrated Journal of Fahion a d h i a f &en&, (Samday) 14 March 1903, 538; "Irish Carpet Exhi'bitioa" Irish Independent ondllrution, (Monday) 9 Match 1903,5,

history of the nrm's presence in Ireland with reference to the Irish A r t s and Cr*

Movement while his book daborates upon his ideas and arguments concerning the Arts

and Crafts Movement.

Woven into the foiiowing account of Morton's Donegal carpets are issues such as

ethnicity, gender, class and culn>ral appropriation Several possible methods of addrcssing

these issues wiü be presented as weü. Thus, the foliowing 'story' of the Donegal carpets is

the starting point ftom which 1 wili analyse the production and receptioa of these carpets

throughout this thesis.

EXPLORING -LAND: THE DONEGAL CARPET INDUSTRY FROM ITS INCEETION

Alexander Morton was a Scottish textile manufacturer whose business was one of the

largest in Great Bntain at the tum of the twentieth century. His h in Dmcl ScotIand

produced lace, embroidery and machine-woven carpets. In 1896, Morton noticed a carpet

in Maple's shop in London which 'seemed to him more interesting in texture' than the

usual smoothly finished Eastern carpets fiom Persia, India or i hi na' Later that year he

spotted a Belgian handloom weaver working on a carpet of sirnilar quality at the G e n d

Exhibition being held in Bnissels. His son, James, later refîected on the event: "On

[father's] retum home he mentioned it to me and 1 was also much interested, especially as

I was deep in the study of Wfiam Moms' work of the time and the character of the thing

' "Notes written in 19 16 by Jvaes Mmon - Business Descriptiong" Morton Sundair &hm. Arduve of Art and Design, Victoria ami Albert Museum, London, AAD 3/237-266 (Original notes hcld at tbe Scouish Records CMa, Edinburgh, ref. GD326/197).

had special appeal to me.* Since James and his sister, Jeanie, wcre going for a holiday to

the Continent, they agreed to vint the Brussels Exhibition. There they saw "several

d b i t s of Hand-tuAed carpets [and among them was that of the] Institut des

Franciscaines Missionaires de Rhrie, 21 Rue du Cargo, Amras (the maicers of the nig

Father had Ken in Maple's window)."' James and Jeank visited thU convent in Antwerp.

saw the rugs being d e and gathered information about the production process 'from the

very charming sister in charge'. Always a 'progressive' fîrm, Morton's was ready for new

developments and was anniaed to the idea that high quality, relatively srnail, handomade

carpets might be a valuable addition to their existing range of textiles. T b the

idormation gleaned from these trips was sufncient for Morton's to go ahead with the

proposal stemming fiom Alexander Morton's initial interest in the carpets.

Since a high labour content would be required for the production of the carpets, but

mechanical power would not, such an industry could be carried out in a tecbnically-

undeveloped, but highiy-populated, area W~th this in minci, Alexander Morton disaissed

his idea with a member of the Congesied Districts Board of ~reland.' This Board was

'called into existence' in 1891 with an annual income of £55,000 (the equivalent of

ibid.

* It is WIcly there wae comparabIe opportunitics in ScoClPnd for the dcvclopmcnt of this kind of indusîry. However, James claimecl that it "would k impraaicable to make the carpct ac Dantel [ScoUand] on account of the icarcity and expense of labour and [ht felt] that it (the Donegai carpct~] would bave to k made in districts where the= was no machint hbouf, where the workers wrrc plcntifitl and the wagcs low." The hct that tbcrc was aircady an established conncction betwm W l e manufachuers in Northenr Ireland and b t l and and the workcrs (espcdiy home-workers) in tbc amgcsted districts mi@ also havt affected Morton's choiœ.

$264,000 US, which had increased f20,OOO by 1904) for the purpose of devdoping the

poorest districts in the west of IreIand. The Congested Districts Board had been set up at

Lord Balfour's -lllStigation and fùnctioned under the direction of the Chief Secretary for

Ireland9 The Board's fiindon was to seek profitable employrnent for districts in Ireiand

which had a high dasity of popdation, but poor living conditions. The Board members

quickly realised that they could enwurage manufacturers to establish businesses in these

areas by the bait ofcheap labour.'*

Mr. Wrench, the Board member who met with Alexander Morton, was 'deiighted' with

the Donegal carpet idea and presented it to the Board on bebalf of the h. It was agreed

that the head of the Board's Textile Development Section, W. J. D. Walker of Co. D o m

would meet with the Morton fatnilyY1' From this meeting, James Morton and his brother

Guy arranged to visit the west of Ireland with W a k a to study the conditions there and

determine the best location for their new enterprise. Wrench made al1 the n e c e s q

arrangements 'tvithout delay for Guy and James to make a tour of the districts concerned,

and discuss the matter with the locals - particdarly with the priests of the various little

Roman Catholic communities, who knew so much about their flocks' problems and whose

9 Arthur James Balfour (18484930) was a British statesman and writer who was Mme Muu'stcr fiom 190245. He has bcen quoted as saying, "What was the Ireland that the Free State took over? It was tht Ireland that WC made." @. G. Boyce, aod Aian O'Day, cds., 271e Moking ofModem Irish Histoty: Revisionism and the Revisionist Controversy (New York ROZltledge, 19%)' 175.)

1 O "The Cangested D-cts Board's Exhriits," in Imland's Exhibit ut the World's Fair* St Louis, I9û4 (Catalogue), 36; Jocclyn Morton, 91; Judith Hoad, mis is Donegal Zkeed: The Traditional Techniques, the Hislow, the People behind the Famous Textile (Inver, Co. Doncgal: shoesuing Publications, 1987). 121-122.

" Jocelyn Morton, 9 1.

advice the latter were so ready to foll~w."'~ The brothers spent seved days uncovering

records of the 'sprïgging' @and-embroidery on linen or muslin) beïng done by the womea

in their homes, the wages they eamed, and the number of women workhg within a &en

radius in each district. They concluded thPt the conditions in Co. Donegal were such that

they could 'very materialiy improve them' and attain their purpose of adding the industry

of hand-tufieci carpet-making to their egsting productions. Accordhg to James, this Gp

was a "most interesting and enjoyable little tour in the disaias around Ardara, Gtenties,

KLUybegs and ~lenwlumbkilie." l3

James and Guy Morton eventudy settled on Killybegs, Co. Donegd as the best possiibk

centre for their new enterprise. It had the advantage of harbour faWlities, as well as the

promise from the parish pnest, Father Sweeny, of 300400 'girls' as workers. James

Morton had severai women from Wilton, Engiand, where a hand-tuftecl carpet tradition

was still practised, teach the proces to Darvel weavers in Scotland. It was these Sconish

weavers, in partidar Mary Lawson and Bella Clelland, who taught the Irish weavers in

Donegal. "It was in the beginning of September 1898," wrote James, 'Wnt we embarked

for Kiliybegs with al1 the elements for starting of Donegal carpet malcing - Herbert

Downton foreman weaver, the two girls [hm Darvel], Mary Lawson and Bella Clelland,

the hand tuft looms, warps, and wool beaters."" Pnor to his investigations in Irelanâ,

l2 Ibid

13 "Notes written in 1916 by James Morton - Business Descriptions," Morton Sundour Archive, Archive of Art and Design, Victoria and Albert Musaun, London, M D 3/237-266.

James had intervieweci a Mr. Etwali, whom Herbert Downton had recommended because

Etwall was a beam mg weaver and he had several daughters who w d d tufi. EvenfuaUy

Etwall and his f d y were brought ova nom Wdton and he became the 6rst residcnt

foreman at the Donegal carpet fact~ry.'~

The first factory was in a hay loft where "rook windows [were] put in and the place made

as smart and cornfortable as possible." (Figure 3) James Morton used his connedon with

Father Sweeny to enlist his workers: "1 got the parish priest to intimate at the S ~ Y

[service] that 1 would be in attendance at Coane's shop, [Killybegs] at a certain day to

receive and i n t e ~ e w girls who wanted to learn the indu-." Not oniy did Father Sweeny

'intimate' Morton's presence in Donegai, he "gave a little lecture recommending the

project."16 As a result, close to 150 women met with Morton at Coane's shop, where the^

names and addresses were taken. Accordhg to James, it was a sight never to be forgottm:

"ïhey came fkom the hills and valleys for miles around, girls with barefeet, jet black or

brilliant red hair, towsy and unkept like hill ponies and mostly shy as march hues. One

could not help being drawn to the- and the experiment was going to be full of many

kinds of interest." The stereotypes of race and gender descnied above are as

disconcerting and disturbing as the implied 'interests' of this 'benefactor'. mer several

days of "consultation and sifüng" Morton engaged a "first lot of workers" and gave a

rotation to others, dMduig the 'honocus' as much as possble among the families iad

districts."

By 1899 the industry was viable and, acmrding to Morton & Co.'s assessment, the

workers were earnùig higher wages than in any previws employment. The quality of the

product was d c i e n t l y high for it to be received enthusiastidy by some of Morton's

biggest clients - British Royalty and the Govemments of Great Brïtain, the United States,

Canada and South Atnca. A permanent factory was built in Kiliybegs and the Congesteci

Districts Board soon hanceci the building of three more in County Donegal: in Kilcar

the wool was collected and where the spinning and dyeing were done for the entire

industry. The other branches were for weaving only and theu products were brought to

the central depot in Killybegs for finishing and dispatch."

An important feature of this new industry, highiighted in moa accounts, was that it gave

great irnpetus to the rearing of sheep by the Donegal fanaers. The carpets were made

entirely of wool and it was part of the overail plan that all wool used in the manufacture

l8 Ibid Aidan Hennessy, director of the Killybeg Archive, Old Csrpt Factoiy, FuiM Road, Killybegs, Co. Donegai, remafkcd îhat aii tbc wool fiom Co- Doncgal was sent to Cork (and somttimes England) for spinning and âyeing. It was thcn bought by W o n & Co. for use in the carpet-makuig. If so, and especially if the wool was sent out of Ireland, Morton's claim tfrat it was invcsting in Co. Donegai and providing more work for its resïdcnts is truc only of the M n g - The KiUybcp Archive is an Irish Training and Ernploymcnt F+mgrammc, sponsorcd by the Killyôcgs Parish Dcvclopmcnt Association, ta collect local history for this ana. 1 klieve some of their ftnding cornes indircctly from the EU as ireland is one of its biggest recipients. Also, an attcmpt is king made to r e m the Doncgal carpet industry in the

should be spun nom the fleeze ofsheep reared in the local mountah areas. At its peak, the

industry employed approximately 500 weavers. On average. each weaver worked up to

225 fleeces m a i i y , meaning the flecces of many thousands of sheep would be coawimed

each year. As weii as good business for the sheep fanners, the carpet industry provided

employment in spinning and dyebg wwl, in addition to the actuai weaving. An average

work week was 59 hours long and paid 5s. versus the County average of 19-66. for longer

hours. According to the Grafton Gallery Exhiiition catalogue of 1903, the new hdustry

provided f 15,000 in incorne to the s!xep fgnnen, while E20,000-30.000 were uimed by

families for spinning, dyeing and weaving, making Morton's total economic contribution

to Co. Donegal approximately E40,000 a n n ~ a l i ~ . ' ~

THE MORTON FAMILY AND THE USFI PEOPLE

Alexander Morton's fust reactions to the people and place where his new industry was

developing reflect his persona. prejudices and represent a predominant view of Ireland. In

a letter to James written from KiUybegs, he recounts his impression of the ara:

You ask me if 1 iïke this place and people. The place is üke the riddlings of creation and the foks are like objects Living on them. .. . 1 cannot find anything but hard rock aad bog, and it wiU require a divine miracle to make thû place or people any better. People on such country never a n and never will have a nature like those brought up for generations on a more productive soil. ... Trying to live where it is impossible to live .. . make [the Irish] what 1 regret they are, cross and troublesome aU over the world."

original premises. Therc is an Irish govenunent wcbsite with information about this new industry and a recent commission they havt k n awarded (1999): www.irish-tradt-ic.

I9 Founding a National Indusiry: I n ~ h Carpet Exhibition, Lilrrty & Co. catalogue no. 80. Nationaï M Lamy, Victoria and Albert Musnim, London uduiition was held at Grafton Gallery by Likrty's); and "Notes written in 1916 by James Morton - Business Descriptions," Morton Sundour Archive, Arc- of Art and Design, Victoria and Alkrt Mustuni, London, AAD 3/237-266.

Jocelyn Morton, 94.

He continues by emphasising the fact thu once the industry is smled, the Irish will be

Iikely to take advantage of the Mortons: 'Whm our mil1 is up and cannot be lifteci in a day

pnest and people aiilce will let us feel how helpkss we are and 1 am afrad will [force USJ,

even &er we are so much involved, . .. to take up Our sticks and tum our back on thern."

It is only at the end of this fenghy Ietîcr that his sense of moral superiority emerges: "If

[the scheme] succeeds it will bless than [the Irish] more than they have ever h o w q and

while the risk is very great still we are doing Our duty to ûy and make it do. It will require

continued pressure and personal effort for yean to

Despite this tirade, by 1900 Alexander Morton was very attached, financially and

emotionally, to Ireland and in partîcular to Co. Donegal. Aiexander's relationship with

Ireland is rather peculiar. Despite hawig a farnily in Swtland, as well as a large estate and

business there, as early as 1903 (aged 59) he spoke of retiring to Ireland: "1 might . . . go

to Ireland for a few years and do a little f d n g and eke out rny life and . . . read and eajoy

a few months or years as they may be granted to me before 1 pass away.'" By 1909,

under the auspices of supervising the four Donegal carpet factories dong with other

business interests the nmi had in Ireland, Alexander chose to divide his time equdy

between Scotland and Ireland. He had risen above his humble beginnings as a working-

class weaver in Darvel to build a textile manufiaauring 'empire'; yet family accounts

corroborate the romantic vision of him described by the Irish writer Stephen Gwynne:

21 Ibid, 94-95.

bid. 146. Alexander Morton mis bom 9 F&niary 1û44 in Damci, Scorland.

21

"This Scottish weaver found in Donegai whot is the desire of evay man with peasant

blood in him - his way back to the land."* Eventually Alexander Morton spent al Ys t h e

in Ireland, leaving his d e and sons to manage the Swttish estate. Jocelyn Morton

explains this self-irnposed e d e as "the urge to make the desert blossorn like the rose."u

Indeed, the Scottish matlufàcturer war quite successful at hk many attempts to grow f i t

or raise cattle at 'Bruckless', his estate near Killybegs. His apple orchards were a

particular source of pride in his later years, and a cornmon feature in many of his lettas t o

James.

Another interesting aspect of his correspondences are his m u e n t remarks about bis d e .

In 1915, he wrote: Y just feel the want of ... my wXe to point out to [her the apples']

wonderful beauty." Later, he again remarked to James: "1 r d y cannot imagine any place

nearer the centre of üfe than [the orchard]. 1 miss Mother to show her the beauties. Wd it

never comer"u Despite these laments for his d e ' s Company, there is no indication he

ever considered returning to Scotland, where she clearly preferred to remain. It was only

gnidgingiy that he made the trip to Scotland to attend the celebrations for his own

Diarnond Wedding AMiversary. Apparently he was "increasingly 10th . . . to corne back to

'civilisation' and c e r e r n ~ n ~ . " ~ ~ Perhaps his wife, Jeanie Wiseman Monon, was @ad of the

time apart &er nine children with a husband who insisted on supervising every aspect of

Stephen Gwynne, imiand: ILr PIaces of Beouty, Entertainn~ent, Sport and Historie Association (London: George G. Harap & Co., 1927), 240-241.

24 Jocelyn Morton, 147.

2s Nd, 148.

26 ML, 152.

their upbrïnghg, particulaily conceming issues of health, while escaping to his business

interests when it became tedious (Figure 4). Jocelyn Morton claims there was no

estrangement between the couple; theu daily correspondence k q t them in constant touch

with one another and Alexander Morton ofien wished she wodd join him. However,

'Mother' was '10th to ait hersdf off from family fiiends and an ever-growing famüy of

grandchildren. So 'Mother' stayed at the family home and "looked forward to the spdls

that her pioneering husband coufd spare to visit ber? Rather than following a neglcctnil

husband, Jeanie Wiseman Morton chose to remain in Scotland and lead a lie of her own

making, relatively fke fiom her 'pioneering' husband's intaference. Whatever the cause,

Alexander's isolation Erom his family resulted in a nch correspondence on rnatten of evexy

conceni, which forms the basis of much of my research.

Due to his father's interest in Ireland, James made less muent visits to Donegai,

concentrating instead on the design, colouring and marketing of the carpets. The industry

grew quickly and by 1904 Morton & Co.3 turnover in Donegai carpets alone was over

£20,000, while in 1906 the fim was producing carpets valued at £25,000 and employing

between 500 and 600 women. It mua be noted, however, that a portion of these figures

was produced in Carlisle, England where the Mortons had erected looms for 80-100

women under the supervision of Herbert Downton, who came to Carlisle in 1900. Writkg

in 1913, James remarked that "the chief increase in [the Carpet] Department in ment

years has been in the Canadian market,

were about Pl 000, in the year 1913 jua

27 Ibid

and whereas the exports to that quarter in 1909

ended the r e m s to Canada . . . have been about

f 10,000."~ He aedits this last 'boom' with his and an associate's visit to Canada in the

autumn of 1910. Clearly by this the, Donegal carpets were successfiil international

commodities.

A COMPARISON: ALICE HART'S DONECAL INDUSTRIAL FUND

At this point, 1 wish to recaunt another story of an enterprise established in Co. Donegal

just pnor to Morton & Co.% Donegd carpets - Aîice Hm's Donegal Industrial Fund. The

instance of Alice Hart in written histories of Co. Donegal is quite dinerent fiom that of

Morton & Co. By offerhg this counterpart to the Morton story, it is my intention to

firther highiigbt the extent to which historians successfbUy manipulate matenal to address

issues which concern them (and ofien their particular audience as weii).

Weaving and associateci skills had been widely taught in Co. Donegal since the

establishment of the Donegal Industrial Fund by Aiice Hart in 1883. Hat and her husbd,

Ernest, visited Ca. Donegai shody aAer the a m ' s second f ~ n e (1879-83). The extrerne

poverty in the region prompted Hart to make a public appeal for money to meet the

immediate needs of the population and provide seeds for the next harvest - the Donegal

Famine Fund. Once the initial emergency was over, Aiice Hart decided to revive the

cottage industries of the area and established the Donegal Industrial Fund. The Fund was

bilied as benefiting the "workers of Ire1and'' through orders placed at "the Establishment"

" James makes a rather ironie typo w k n discushg th* trip in tbc finn records, wriiing ibnt this suacss in the Canadian market is "the d t of the gmloitation of tbe tcnitoxy ma& by -. . myscif in tht autwnn of 1910." "Notes made in 1913 on somc of my activities in AM- & Co- - James Morton," M~ROII

which b%as opened for their w e l f ~ e . " ~ The Harts invested ES000 in the Fund o v a the

next few years and soon it was one of the most s u c c d phüanthropic ventures of the

1880s in ~reland?

The development of 'Kells Embroidery' was a particululy successfùl project of Alice

Hart's Fund, awarded the gold medal at the International Inventions Exh'bition (1885) in

London. Hart origuiated the embroidery as a way of applying the existing skiils of the

women in Ireland to the demand for embroidered articles for domestic use. In the 'Kells

Embroidery', dyed polished flax threads, rnanufactured in Ireland, were worked on various

linens in designs denved fiom iiiurninated books of the seventh and eighth cenîuries, most

notably me Book of KelLF. Hart intendecl the new embroidery to be inexpensive and

washable, and applicable to a variety of domestic and decorafve purposes (curtains, table

Linen, dresse^).^' By 1886 she had established Donegal House in London, where m u e n t

Sundour Archive, Archive of Art and Design, VictorÎa and A k r t Museum, London, AAD 3/158-3/236- 1991 (complete records held at tbc Scottish Reu~rds Ofncx. Edinburgh, rd. GD 3261194)-

" Tracts on Socid and I n d ~ r i a f Questions. 187748: Thc Cottage Industries of hdaond. with an Account of rhe Work ofthe Dunegal IndustnstnaI F d by Mrs. Entest Hart, Being a Puper reod before fhe Sociely ofAr& on Wednesdoy. M i II*, 1887 (London: Hamilton, Adams L Co., 1887). 1.1 am gratcfiil to Dr. Janice Helland for briaging this valuable source to my attention.

'O See Paul Lamour, The Don@ Industrial Fun<S" in Irish Arts RNrcv Yearbook 199(F1991,128-133; Paul Larmour, The Arts md Crufi Movement in I r e l d (Belfast: Friar Bush Press. 1992); and The Magazine of Arr (December 1887): xi, (Ianmy 1889): xv, (August 1894): xlü.

3 1 Here are several ncwspaper rcvitws of the Kclls Embroidery, as listed in Nice Hart's Tracts on Sbcial and Industrial Questions. 187748: The Cdtage liidustries of I r e lad "Beautifùl desip. striking &ects." (Morning Post); "Remarkably chcap, artistic in Lhorough in woriaanship." (Builder); "Strikingly beautifid." (Mmchesfer Guardim); "Exquisite worhnanship; pcrfect art cmbmidcries of cvcry kind. For economy camparc with any rcccnt production? (The Ekho); "Remarl<able striking and artistjcCW (Queen ). Paul Lannour, The Arts attd Cru* Mmtement in Irefund (Whsi: Friar Bush Press, 1992).

exhibitions of the Fund's products were held and INIi g d s were dd.* The Fuad dso

exhibited with the Arts and Crafts Society of Ireland and the Irish Decorative Arts

Association. In 1887, Hut was given a government grant of El000 for teaching purposes,

allowing her to open technical schools for instruction in weaving, dyehg, lace-making and

embroidery. Nice Hart's project was managed on =und econornic principles, despite

being philanthropie in nature, with ail profits devoted to fbrthering technical teaching-

When the Harts retired to the English country in 1896, the Mortons had just begun

investigating the possibility of developing their carpet industry in Donegal. By this tirne,

the Donegal Industriai Fund had ceased operating. As such, there appears to have been

very littie overlap between the two organisations. In spite of this, Malcolm Haslarn claLN

that when the Mortons arrived in the county and offend the weavers bigher wages, Alice

Hart "may well have felt she was being ~~sta~exi.''~~ Ifaslam's carefiil representation of the

situation (without many references to exact dates) belittles Hart's contribution to the

region by depicting the Mortons as more generous employers whose involvement in the

area wounded the pnde of this phüanthropic 'lady'. He suggeas that perhaps Nia Hart

had been initated by the assistance the local Roman Catholic clergy had given James

Morton in recruiting labour, and "no doubt she had been niriher disconcerted by the

intrusion of cornmon 'trade' into what she evidentiy regardai as her private fief, iun dong

paternalistic ine es."^' He pomays Hart as a middle-class philanthropist with leisure time to

32 Donegai Industrial Fund, Donegai Hous+ 43. Wigmore SL, London. W.

" Haslam, 99.

34 Ibid.

spare; a woman nJing her organisation with an iron fist, with condescendhg intentions

and easily upset by cornpetition, thus eliminating the possibilïty that h a efEorts ruade a

valuable contribution to the region's econornic status. Hsslam places h a M y within the

confines of traditional nineteenth-century gaider roles for middle-cJass women: the

ferninine seifîessness of pWanthropy which belies h a self-interest in the project as a means

of satisfjing her moral conscience; uditted to the ngoun of the public sphere ( M e ) yet

controfiîng and manipdative w i i the acceptable limits of the private sphm

( p h i l a n t h r ~ ~ ~ ) . ~ ~

In contrast to Haslam's representation of Hart, the Magananne of A n (1894) wrote of ha:

'For very many years this kindly and energetic lady bas busied herself with projects for the

amelioration of the condition of the Irish peasantry - passing through the rural districts of

Ireland, opening communications with the weavers and organising means for bringing the

beautifil products of their diligence before the British public."36 The ChaÏrman of the

Society of Arts felt that Aiice Hart was "no ordinary person, but a woman of unusual

intelligence and education . . . having received a scientSc and medical education both in

Paris and London." He also beiieved it was the 'bounden duty' ofevery person to support

Hart's 'scheme' which was ''actually saving the l h s of many poor people in Irek~nd.''~'

" Io- Bowke, H d a n d y ro Housewijêry: Women. Econoniic Change. md Xousework in ImIand, 1890-1914 (Mord: Clarendon Press, 1993), S.

B e Magazine o j A n (Augurt 1894): xüi.

37 Mice Wart, Trac& on Sociaf and lnduslrial Questions- 1877-88: ?Re Cottage I~âÙstries of Imfand, 9.

27

These accounts of Hart, by contemporary joumds and people who actudy h e w ha ,

should be considered more seriously than the apparently misinformeci opinion fonnulated

by Haslam.

The instance of Aüce Hart in literature about the industries in Co. Donegal suggests that

the favourable p m s coverage and especialiy the historicaf writhg (as recently as 1992) of

the Donegal carpet enterprise might be due in part to its h k s with the public spke of

trade and manufactwing. The substantid difference of opinion between Haslam's text and

the other excerpts listed demonstrates how easiiy events cm be misconstnied or

manipulated to coincide with a pdcuiar bias.

The social context of an industry is therefore extremely imporîant to establish. For

example, Mce Hart's relationship with the Xrish people she worked with is very différent

nom that of the Mottons. Keeping in mind Alexander Morton's fint impressions of his

new workers, Alice Hart's reaction to the Irish people is quite a contrat: "The good

opinion I fomed of the Donegai peasantry when 1 first went among them in the period of

their distress, has been confhed by more intimate knowledge in ad1 absequent dealings

with them." She quotes Justice 07Hagan's thoughts on the Irish as 'honest, veracious and

industrious people' and daims she entirely endones this point of view: "so honest have 1

found these peasants, that it has in the end proved unnecessary to adopt an elaborate

system of checks."" In the Morton case, it is aiso worth noting J a w s Morton's reaction

to an attempted strike, in July 1900, by weavers demnding higher wages: "'Do you intend

this for a saike' asked we [James and his siblings] 'AU we have to tell you [is] that any girl

[who] goes out that door will never be dowed back whatever influence is brought to bear

on us' and we gave them 5 minutes to start work or lave the place for good. T k y ail

returned to work. This might have been a very nasty picture."3g Apparently, Alice Hut

wasn't the ody one who regarded Donegal as a persona1 fiddom, under cornplete control.

Morton's Donegal clientele, or the consumers of Donegal carpets, included British

Royalty, the Arts and Crafts dealer Liberty & Co., and several Canadian banks. Carpets

were made for the Prime Minister of Great Bntain's residence, the Govemor General of

Canada's residence and the US White House. As weU, t h 9 had showrooms in London,

Dublin, Toronto, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Melbourne (Australia), and

Christchurch (New ~ e a l a n d ) . ~

The popular reception ofDonegal carpets, which Morton & Co. hoped for, depended on

several conditions. Taste, current trends such as Orientalism, and art movements each

affected patronage. As such, the production of the carpets catered to the demands of the

39 "Addresses of carpet wcavers at Wilton," Morton Sundour Archive, Archive of Art and Design, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, M D 3/371. The remit of this SVike is not auprisiag givcn Judith Hoad's remarks on the workïng conditions of Co- Donegai at the time: "The labour-force ... was glad of any cash income to drag it above the poverty line. A mut of brcad is bettcr than no bread at ail. Far from king kept at the bread-line by low incomes, the low incornes of the fin; work available elcvated the population into the brai-linc! Always people are gratcfui for tmploymcnt in a wunty still notorious for the lack of i ~ " (121-122)

40 Sronfe Hisforic Donegal C q t s (Bmchure c. 18919, Nationai Art Lïôrary, Victoria and Albert Museum, London

cultural marketplace. At the second exhi'bition of the Arts and Cr& Society of Irehd,

November 1899, Morton k Co.3 hand-tufted Donegal carpets were introduced to the

Irish art market. Morton's new carpet industry based in Irelaad catered to the popular

Western taste for ail thgs Oriental and to the socialin ideals of the Ar& and C d b

Movement. The designs of the eariy carpets were Eastern-inspireci, although eventually aa

Arts and CraAs floral design came to predominate. As the factory d e d into its Irish

surroundings, a Celtic motif was taken up by the Morton designers4' James Morton's

cousin, Gavin Morton, was in charge of the firrn's design department and the designs

reflected the family interests and marketing strategies. Many f h s had this type of intemal

design department, only commissioning designs fiom outside artists on occasion For

example, James's fascination with W~lliam Moms's ideologies translatecl itseff into designs

for the Donegal carpets. James indoctrinated his wusin with the ideals he admirecl and

soon Gavin Morton was commissioning design work f?om the leading artïsts of the Ar&

and Crafts ~overnent.'~

The Irish location of the industry was often emphasised in reviews of the carpet

exhibitions - the 6 r s t aspect mentioned in rnany accounts. Cntics reviewing the 1903

Gr& on Gallery exhibition of Donegal carpet s repeatedl y congratulated the Mortons for

attempting to help a poor district of Ireland: the Irish Idependent explained the industry

was developed ''with a view to extending the handtufted carpet industry in the West of

Ireland"; while the London paper, nie Ti- rernarked that "any addition to the

--

dl Malcolm Haslam, ''Vigour of the h tc r f i Donegai Carpcts,= IUU 57 ( J w 199 1): 107-1 13.

42 Ibid., 95-96.

industries of so poor a country as the West of Ireland is proiseworthy.''a M e r reviews

fucussed on Liberty's involvement in the promotion of the industry: the reviewer for the

'Lady's Newspaper' Queen felt that 5 was "in accordamce with their principles of

supporthg and dweloping the industries of our own counw* that Liberty's held tbis

exhibition, while the foliowing month rernarking upon the employment the Uidusby

provided for "a large number ofwomen and girls, who have shown great aptitude for the

w ~ r k . ' ' ~ Another woman's journal, M-e, aiso highlighted the b e n a s this uidustry

brought to women in Ireland: "Al1 who are anxious to encourage home industries should

make a point of paying an early visit to this exhibitio~~"~' Other writers wen not quite as

well informed: wrïting about Queen Alexandra's visit to Ireeland and viewing of the

carpets, the journalist for the English paper Dai& Teiegraph cited the home of the new

enterprise as Darvel, Co. ~one~al . ' Aithough the aspect of the industry emphasised

varied according to the interests of the paper (women's joumals were often interested in

home industries and work for women, for instance), the general impression of the indust~~

in the reviews and articles is very favourable. One writer even declared "it should be not

only our pleasure, but our duty to go and see these Irish carpets, and not oniy see them,

but buy them for Our houses.""

43 Irish Independent andNation, (Monday) 9 March 1903,J; The Times (London), 9 March 1903, 11.

" Queen, 28 February 1903,347; and 14 Miuch 1903,438.

45 "An Exhiiition of Irish Carpets," Madame: An llIustrateed Journal of Fashion and Social Events, Wndon) 14 March 1903,538.

'' Dai& Telegraph, 9 Méuch 1903.7. Daml is the t o m in Scccland w h a t Alexander Morton first -cd working as a weaver and h m which he latcr devclopcd bis tcxîiic manufiicniring business. Killybegs, Co. Donegal is what the writer should have statcd.

" "A New Irish Industr~,~ Black and White, mndon) 2 1 March 1903.8.

The role of the press in the widespread acceptance and promotion of the Donegd eaipas

was crucial. By virtue of background, training, and education, or tiimiliarity with emerging

theones of design, critics played an integral role witbin the design proces, senhg as both

its starting point and its summation Providing "inspiration at the beginnllrg and passing

judgement upon finished products at the en4 critics functioned as important intermediaries

between theory and practice."u In this case, James Morton's attempt at placing hio

industry within the scope of the Arts and Crafts Movement would succeed only if the

cntics accepteci his intentions, outlined in the promotional material. And they did, oftm

highiighting the hand-crafted nature of the work and the workers' pleasant surroundings.

The Mortons recognised the power of the educated consumer as a critic whose pwchase

directly iduenced decisions made by designers and craftsmen, dong with those of

manufacturers and merchants. Criticism informed every stage of the design process, nom

conception and implementation to completion and distribution, utilisation, and ultimately

evaluation. The role of critics as arbiters of taste finctioned at every stage of production,

fiom abstract idea to fully r d s e d product."

A significant remark made by Jocelyn Morton explaineci that the carpets could be made to

order for the patron, including size, shape, and design. This implicates the client Li the

48 Beverly K Brandt, "One Who Has Seen More and Knows More: Th Design Critic and ibe AM a d Crafts," in The Substance of Style: Perspectives on rhe American Arts and Crafls Movement, ed Bert Denker (Winterthur, Delaware: Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Muscwn, 19%), 117.

49 Ibid., 122 and 141.

design process and in the constructcd meanings, politicai or other, resulting in the carpet.

James Morton d e s of4'hearty coliaborations to produce the most disthguished type of

design and co lou~gs for this new IndustryUStrY" He explains that whüe he wss "travehg

much about brought back ideas for design and wlour and many of the things [used] in

Tapestries proved useful [for carpets as weli]." In the first six or seven yean of the

Donegal carpet business, there was no design "put into [the] ranges of Donegal that

[James] did not collaborate [on], either suggesting the design, colouring or helphg to

colour it aftenvarâs and generally discussing the quality and style in which t should be put

on the market."" Thus, the cntic, the producer and the consumer were impiicated in the

design process of a Donegal carpet. Ultimately, however, it was the consumer who

dictated the success or failure of a design. It was the consumer's habitus, cultural

cornpetence, and the producer's ability to cater to it, which decided the fate of each carpet

on the market.

Bnan Spooner claims the West received Oriental carpets divorced fiorn their socid

context and, in its desire for authenticity, tried to reconstruct this context. He notes that

the weaver is embedded in a complex system of social relations and the dealer must

cultivate the market." In its role as dealer, Morton & Co. reconstructed the weavers of

50 -Notes wrïtten in 1916 by James Morton - Business Descripti~ns,~ Morton S d o u r Archive, Archive of Art and Design, Viaoria and Albert Museum, London, AAD 3/237-266.

'' Bnan Spaoner, "Weaven and Deaiers: The Authenticity of an Orientai Capet," in nle Social Li/c of Things: Commodities in Cultural Perspective, ad Ajun Appadurai (New York: Cambridge Unintsity Piess, 1986), 195-234.

Donegal for their wnsumers, tfanslating their social wntext h to a more presentable and

iatriguing one. An example of this is the Donegal Showcards mtitled "off to Work" and

"Irish Camels" (sketches done in 1899kards produced c.1905), which were aiso used as

images for the company's brochure Some H i s t w c Donegai ~ c a p e i s . ~ "0n to Work"

depicts a girl wrapped in a shawl walking down a country path, barefoot, in a long skh,

with her hair flying in the wind. "Irish Camels" depicts a senes of carts pulled by donkeys

filled with huge parcels addresseci to dealers in Canada, South e c a , Scottand, ïieIand

and Bntain. The sun is just disappearing behind the mountains across the water as the

caravan makes its way down a path to a dock where a stem boat awaits. The Irish

workers, the Eastern carpet-malang tradition, and Celtic imagery all were manipulatecl by

the carpet manufadurer so that the produa would fit the consumer's notion of good taste.

That is, the produa would wnform to the patrons' limited knowledge of ail aspects of

production. In the case of Donegal carpets, the worken were stripped of their social

context and re-placed within a new discourse of Morton & Co.3 creation.

Further exarnples of this manipulation abound in the press coverage of the period. These

accounts highlight the inteliigence of the Irish worker, attracting the readers of Celria (a

journal afnliated with a Celtic Association) to the industry's products: "Effons are being

made to tum the native clevemess of the Donegal pesant to good and practid account";

"This native cleverness of the people is a point so dwelt on by the promotea of the

S2 uDonegal Carpets Showcardsy" Morton Sundour Archive, Archive of Art and Design, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, AAD 4/1061-1062-1063; and S m e Historic Donegd ca~prs (Brochure c. 1898), National Art Library, Vktona and Albert Museum, London.

scheme, Messrs. Moreton [sic] of Dawel, that that aspect of the case linla the commercial

side with the aïms of the Celtic Association"; "The Messrs. Moreton [sicl of Darvel ..-

whila traveIling in beland were po stnick by the quiches~ and adaptabüity of the western

peasant that they decided to start a branch of theu business in ~onegai."" By compuison,

another account of the same industry in an Engiish paper, presents the Irish in quite a

different light: "With a keen and patriotic insight, it was for them [the Mortons] to

discover among the simple peasantry, scratchhg the bare hasides for food and digging in

the bog for fuel to boil the pot, rninds in constant touch with nature, ideas fresh and clear,

the response between brain and hger instant as a flash, and a creative power which bas

given to raw wooi a highiy interchangeable value. After dl, the wealth of the country lies

in the brain of her people."" The last rernark is idonned by the popular doctrine of

political economy and implies the intelligence of the Scot, Morton, in his deveiopment of

this industry which 'rescued' the Irish from their unhappy lot. This excerpt is one of the

many press accounts with such blatant social stereotyping.

The Mortons' successfùl integration of thek industry into the Arts and Crafts Movement,

so popular at the time, fùrther demonstrates this ability t o reconstmct the reality of the

workers and the industry. In this instance, the emphasis is on the individuality of the work.

the hand-crafted nature of the product, and its association to 'renowned' artists. Through

their promotion as a hand-crafted art-industry, the Donegal carpets found a ready place in

the Arts and Cr&s exhibitions of the tirne, such as those of the Engiish Arts and Crafis

" Louisa E. Farquharson, 'A New Celtic Art," CeItio (April1903): 58-9.

"Developing an Irish Industry," Moming Advertiser, 9 h h ~ h 1903.6.

Society in 1899 and 1903. the Arts and Cratts Society of hland in 1899, the Glasgow

International- Exhibition of 1902, the World's Fair at St Louis in 1904 and the Dublin

Intemational Exhibition of 1907. The greatest publicity in the eariy years was aîtracted by

the exhibition held by Liberty's in Mtrch 1903 at the Graiton W e r y in Bond Street. The

exhibition featured over one hundnd Donegal carpets which had been made at Morton's

exclusiveiy for Liberty's fiom designs by 'weU known artists' (whose m e s are not

mentioned) supplied by Liberty & Co. There were, as a rnailt of this exht'binon, several

prestigious orders made for Donegal carpets." The history of this exhibition situates

Donegai carpets precisely the Arts and Crafts Movement.

The association of Donegal carpets with the North Amencan Arts and Crafts Movement

through patronage, particularly Gustav Stickley's appreciation of the- indicates the broad

geographic extent of theïr effective promotion. Guaav Stickley, an advocate of the Arts

and Crafks Movement in the US, sold Donegal carpets at his 'Craftsman' showrooms on

West 34" Street, New York, and Boylston Street, Boston. The promotional message in

Stickley's catalogue was "more restrained [than the Morton showroom in New York]; a

straightforward description of the rugs was given and the information imparted that they

r ,r% were 'made in Ireland after the designs of Voysey and his school .

Founding a National Industhy Irish Corpl Exhibition. LikRy & Co. catalogue n>. 80. Natiod M Library, Victoria and Albert Muscum, London-

% Nicola Gordon Bowc. "The Scuçh for Vcrnacuiar Expression: The Aris and Crab Movcmcnts in America and Ireland," in Tiie Substance of Style: Perspectives OR the Ame~ican Ar& and Ga@ Movement, ed. Bert Denkcr (Delaware: Hcnty Francis du Pont Wintcxthw M ~ u m , 19%). 15.

Press accounts secureci this connedon to the Movement, due in part to the nmi's

association with the prestigïous Arts and Crafts promoters' Li'berty & Co. Louisa

Farquharson, writing for Ce&, quoted Liberty's as conside~g "that these hand-made

carpets &od an excellent example of that artistic individualism which obtains only whac

pure handicrattsmanship is ernployed in contradistinction to the monotonous pertéction

and regularity of a machine production, and particulariy so when the technical skiii of the

worker is aided by artist advisen in the use of colour~."~~ This same passage was quoted a

month earlier in M . e . As weU, the writer for the Stanhd noted these Arts and C M s

ideals when remarking that "the individuality of the worker plays an important part in the

manufacture, and adds to the artistic quality of the finished article.""

POLITICAL, HISTORICIU AND SOCUL OMISSIONS

In the same way as Alice Hart's contributions to Co. Donegd are overlooked in Haslam's

account of the region's industries, the turmoil of Irish political and religious history is

often glossed over as well." The concept of the Irish as a separate race 'justined' the

colonial treatment it received from the British. The Famine (184549) and subsequent

" Farquharson, 59. This qwte û also useô in -An exhibition of Irish Caipets," Madame. (Sahudy) 14 March 1903, 538.

58 Standard, 9 Miirch 1403.2,

59 For a discussion of same of the major events and the issues involved, see: D. G. Boyce, The Irish Question and Brïrish Pofiticsw 1868-1996 (New York St Masth's Press Inc, 19%); DI G. Boyce, and Alan O'Day, eds., Tiie Making of Modern Irish Hisrory: Revisionism and the Revisioaist Conhwrsy (New York: Routledgc, 1996); Wrgarct KciIeher, The Feminization of Fontine: Ejcp'essions of the hexpressible? (Durham: Dukt University Ptcss, 1997); James Loughlïn, Gfadstone. Home Rule und the Ulster Question. 11882-93 (New Jtrsy: Humanitics Press IntemationaI, 1987); Nichoias Manscrgh, The Irish Question, 1840-1921 (London: Gcorge Allen & Unwin, 1975); Chris Morash, and Richard Hayes, eds., 'FearjX Reoliriesw New Perspectives on the Faine (Portiand: Irish Academic Press, 1996); Rulh Taillon, men History was made , me Wonren of 1916 (Beifast: Bcyond the Pale Publications, 19%).

diaspora of the so-called 'Irish race' contribute to the Irish subalteni experience. The land

clearances, depopulation and consolidation of land holdings into the bands of fewa

fanners, who thus became more p o w e f i with littie violence, are examples of Ireland's

purported colonial past.

National education was another instrument of empire implemented in Ireland. The role of

teachers was being transformed: they were no longer "fiee-moving entrepr~~~euf~ of

diverse background and experience who ventured to set up schools in response to popilar

demand. They had becorne, instead, paid ~rvants in an expanding state apparatus.'a The

national school provided occupational opportunity and financial security, especially for

many women, but it did so under conditions that required an unquestioning acceptane of

an authontarian and patrianhd structure- The national school teacher was subject to

irnmediate and muent surveülance by a clergyman manager and less fiequently, by a

goverment inspector. The school thus became the usual way of promoting an individual's

inclusion in a 'national civic and religious culture'." Though central to the project of

universal schooling, the female teacher was not rewarded on a basis similar to that of her

male counterpart and fiom the beginning of national education her pay reflected the

traditionally lower status of f e d e education and the generally prevailhg merence

60 John Logan, "The Dimensions of Gcnder in NinettenthICcnhuy Schooling" in Gender Perspectives in Nineteerith-Centwy Ireland: Public and Private Sphems, aiscds. Margaht Kcllehcr and James H. Murphy (Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 1997). 49,

'' Ibid

between male and f e d e incornes? The paradox of nineteenth-century school rdorm in

Ireland was that despite the apparent promise that it would weaken the barriers deriving

fiom class, reiigion or race, it beuune instead "an instrument that promoted a knowiedge

of the immutability of those forceda

These broader political trends (of ethnie marginalisation and gender segregation) are

important factors contniuting to the cuIhira1 wmpetence of the Donegal carpet consumtf

and therefore mua be acknowledged in this discussion. Their omission in press accounts

and, more importantly, in historical writing reveals the continued existence and

propagation of stereotypes toward Ireland and the Irish-

CONCLUSION

ExaMning the literature about the Donegal carpet industry, related events and people, is

meant to elucidate Bourdieu's proposition that art and its producen do not dst

independently of a complex institutional hmework which authonses, enables, and

legitimises them. The idealised notions of the weaver as poor women involved in gainiiil

employment, the factory that helped an entire community regain its dignity, the Oriental

motifs and techniques, the revivai of a Celtic national heritage al1 became part of the

dealer's lore surrounding Donegai carpets. And, it is this lore which has been manipulated

to appeal to Morton & Co.3 target market's habiîus, or culturd cornpetence.

" Logan, 48. In the 1830s female s a * r y Imis wu+ set at 75% of <hosc païd to males. By the end of the century female tates stood at 80636 of th- paid to male counterparts. While womtn acoounted for 55Yo of teachers in 1900, they held but 28% of the school principalships, in cach case as a sole teacher.

Pierre Bourdieu bas argued that M e is determined by s e c social conditions, such as

education level, social clas, race and gender. He has shown that dominant groups retain

their positions of power and enhance their status by spedic mechanisms, oae of is

to invent the aesthetic category as a universal entity.' Cheryl Buckley has elaborated on

this by connrming that exclusive definitions of good and bad taste are constructeci and

serve to isolate design products 60m the material and ideological conditiom of production

and con~um~tion.~ Through an analysis of the formation of taste in nineteenth-century

society, this chapter wiii relocate Morton & Cos's Donegal carpets within these

conditions.

The Mortons chose to appeal to the art market of nineteenthcentury Britain, Ireland and

North Amenca through the production of their Donegal carpets. The family's own

situation, as weaithy, Protestant Scottish landowners with business interests in Ireland and

Britain, situates them within the dominant class of nineteenth-century Irish society. The

marketing, design and production of the Donegai carpets were rnethods used by the

' Chexyl Buddey, "Made in Patriarchy: Toward a Fcrnwst Analysis of Womea and Design," in Design Discourse: Hisrory~eory/Criticism, ed Victor Margolin (Chicago: The Univemty of Chicago Press, 1989), 26 1. See also Pierre Bourdieu, "The Axistoctacy of Cuiturc,b Media, Cul- and Sociew 2 (1980): 225-254.

Buckley, 260.

Mortons to retain their dominant position in society. By understandimg its target market's

notion of 'good taste', Morton's could cnate a product suitable to these c01lsumers.

Thus an analysis of the design transitions in the carpets will illustrate the socially-

constnicted nature of 'good taste'.

Accordimg ta Bourdieu, any art perception involves a conscious or unconsc5ous

deciphering operation3 He cIaims that an act of deciphering is possible and effective oaly

whea "the cultural code which makes the act of deciphering possible is immediately and

completely mastered by the observer (in the form of cultivateci ability or inclination) and

merges with the cultural code which has rendered the work perceived possible."l In this

chapter, I wish to explore the cultural codes mastered by the prospective Donegal carpet

consumers which merged with those in the carpets, making this product a popular cultural

commodity.

Since education level and social class play a pivotal role in the social formation of taste

described by Bourdieu, it is necessary to situate the Donegal carpet patrons within

nineteenth-century society. Equaiiy important are the weavers, spinners, dyers and fiumers

of County Donegal who are easily forgotten in archival research. Theirs are seldom-heard

voices within a barrage of marketing slogans aimed at perpetuating the stereotypes of the

working classes held by Morton's upper-dass clientele. These absent voices have been

extremely d f ia i l t to trace and, to highlight concems about this underlying aspect of the

Morton enterprise, 1 wiii examuie women's situation in nineteenth-century Ireland;

accounts of a workers' strike at the Donegal factory. the personal references to specific

workers in James Morton's papas; and newspaper reports, fiom Bntain, Ireiand and

North Arnerica, of the weavers' role in the creation of the carpets.

THE SOCIAL AND POLITICAL SE'ITXNG OF THE DONECAL CARPET INDUST'RY

niroughout the nineteenth century, the population of IreIand was unwenly divideci

between three major religious denomuiatioas: Catholics (75-80°/.), Angiicans (fiom the

Church of England, 10-15%) and Presbyterians (many of whom had ties to Scotland, 10-

15%). The Presbyterian population was heavily wncentrated in Ulster (Co. Antrim,

Armagh, Down, Londonderry), where 96% of its members lived, whüe Irish Anglicans

were more dispened and Catholics forrned the majonty of the population in the rest of

~reland.~

There were also important social distinctions between the members of these three religious

denorninations In aîI parts of Ireland, Anglicans were heavily over-represented among the

land-owning class, where they made up the major@ of aibstantial proprietors. They were

also heavily over-represented in the professions and at the upper levels of financiai and

commercial life. In Wlster, however, though Anglicans made up the rnajonty of landed

proprietors, below that level they d e d economic and social dominance to the

5 Sean Connolly, Religion and SOciefy in Nine~eenth-Centuty Ireland (ireland: Dundalgan Press, 1987). 3-5.

Presbyterians. In the countryside, Presbyterians held larger and m o n profitable farms than

any other reiigious group, and were less Wrely to be found among the ranks of the landiess

labourers. Similarly in the t o m they were over-represented among skilled workers and

in middle class occupations Ulster Catholics were a ~~bstantially disadvantaged group,

overwhelrningly concentrated at the bottom of the social scale, among the cotters,

labourers and smallholders of the countryside and the unskilled and casuai workers of the

towns. The Catholic middle cIass was small a d its memberohip d o h t e d by groups of

limited prestige and weafth6 In the rest of Ireland there was a more wbstantid Catholic

middle class, although Catholics were still under-represented in proportion to their totai

numbers. Catholics in the early nineteenth century owned approxhately one-third of the

total middle class wealth in Ireland.'

The Famine (184549), and the continued heavy emigration in the decades that foUowed,

transfomed the social structure of Ireland, sweeping away large numbers of the rural poor

while Ieaving the fimnbg population relatively untouched The tenant fmer had

increasingly becorne the dominant figure in the Irish countryside by the time the Mortons

anived.' Still most tenants held their f m s by the year and landlords could, in theory,

6 For example, publicans and butchers, gcneral dealers and teacbers (Comolly, 3-5.).

7 In 186 1, the census report indicatcs that 92% of those unable to rtad in Ireland werc Catholics, 5% wcrt Anglicans and less than 3% wcrc Pmsbytcrians (Connoiiy, 3-5.).

increase their rents every year and evict them on only six months' notice? Rents, ewn

relatively moderate ones, absorbed 25-40./. of tenants' incornes. Clearly rent increases

could have a considerable &kct on the distribution of incornes in rural society. Most of

the land in Ireland was held in M y large estates; fewer than 800 landlords owned halfof

the country in 1876. l0

England's imperid agenda in Ireland is inusvateci by these religious and social divisions.

Iocelyn Morton writes, "in rnatters of religion the family were by tradition firm supporters

of the Church [of Scotland] and regular ch~rchgoers."~' Thus their religious beliefis

coupled with their business and land holdings in Ireland, made the Morton f d y part of

the Protestant elite desctibed above. To fùlly understand their position in Ireland, British

society must also be discussed.

One year pnor to the start of Morton's Donegal carpet industry in Ireiand. Queen

Victoria's Diamond Jubilee (1897) was the occasion of much celebration of the British

Empire. Both parliamentary parties used it as an occasion to glorify Britain's world-wide

- -

9 Landlords, men after the land act of 1870, managed their estates un&r a legal system which gave them complete fieedom of contract (F, S- L. Lyons, and R A J. Hawkins, eds., Irefmd U~der ihe Union: Varieties of Tension (Toronto: C h n d o n Press, 1980), 176).

'O Lyons and Hawkins, 176. Whik f d n g on ireland's situation, 1 am dm wcll awarc that aimilar situations, though perhaps l e s extreme, clristed in Scotland and England at this thetimc For a cornparison of the situations in Scotiand and ireland, set L. M. Cullen, and T. C. Srnout, eds., Conpurative Aspects of Scottish and Irish Economic and Social History (Edinburgh: John Donald Pubtishen, nd).

" Jocelyn Morton, 44.

empire.'* This event, wupied with British campaigns in Afnca unda milit~ry men W<ê

Kitchener, marked the apex of British imperid power.13 This was also reflected in the

British Parliament, where Consematives were conamed with maintahhg their nation as

the world's foremost power, while L~krals emphasised guihg colonial peoples to seff-

govemment and otber 'blessings' of British saciety. Leaders of both parties were firmly

resolved not to be content with what Britain 'possessed' and to compte actively for the

Atncan and Asian lands which were 'up for grabs'." In this assessrnent of British de,

Ireland can be considered part of what Britain aiready 'possessed'. Irish self-government

was debated in Parliament and the 'Irish Question' was fiequentiy raised - apparently

Ireland was benefiting fkom the 'blessings of British society'. However, Unpenaiism in

nineteenth-centuxy society was "disnissed, debated and contested as an issue of the day,

present in evevdqy activities and diverse forms of cultural production - not just those that

were ' obviously' imPerialist." lS

The Morton enterprise is an example of these less obvious imperidid endeavours, as

iUustrated by their patronage. Donegal carpets were cornmissioned by Royalty (for the

Royal Yacht, Windsor Cade, and Buckingham Palace) and the Bntish govemment (the

l2 The nm, parliamentary parties ttferred to arc Libaal and Unionkt (which is thc ofMial title of the Consenmtives).

l3 Felix G i l k c Tite End of the Europan E h , 1890 to the fiesent. 3rd ed. (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1984), 40.

" Lewis, 13. Lems cita as w n p l e s of this: colonial politics/proctss, empire buiiding, military campaigns in A f n a She claiais the reasons for protesting imperiaiist or colonialist measwts ranged fiam

Prime Minister's house at 10 Downing Street). Most hterestjng, how- ue the

commissions for British colonial representatives' homes and other buildings associateci

with British d e in the colonies; for example, the Vice-Regal Lodge in Dublin, the

Govemor General of Cada's residence, and the South Aûican Pariiament ou ses.'^

A FASHION FOR ALL TEINGS ORIENTAL

Given the celebration of empire in Britain at this tirne and the market Morton's caterd to,

it is not surprising that the early designs of Donegal carpets were closely related to theu

Eastern counterparts (Figure 5). Aecording to Malcolm Haslarn and Paul Lamour, the

weaving of Donegal carpets was cafned out by hand, based on the same p ~ C i p k ?

established in the East for centuries. These carpets were in structure and methoci

essentially the same as those of Turkey and ~ersia!' Among his papers held at the Victoria

and Albert Museum, James Morton had swatches of material fiom Eastern countries

labelled 'Persian', indicating that he was f d a r with the Eastern product and its

construction. There are aiso several correspondences b w e e n James Morton and people

involved in carpet-making in Eastern eountries. The following excerpt is fkom a series of

letters dated d e r James Morton had ceased operating the Donegai carpet industry.

Nevertheless, it offers some indication of how he developed business, created designs and

constructed a marketing strategy for a new product:

- - - . - -

the moral to the tconomic. Howevcr, in a footn~tc, sk cites Edward Said who daims that these protests rarely considered the subjected pcoples fiilly human or capable of sesgovcmmcnt (44).

' Sonte Hisioric Donegaf Carpers (Bmcharc c. 1898). National Art Library, Victoria and Amat M- London.

l7 See Haslam, Arts and Cru@ Cwpeîs; and Larmour, uDonc@ CorpCWn

Real Indian Weavq: Previous to the war I (James] haci ben in correspondence with Dr. NesfieId, who has charge of the work of a great many of the pn'sorts in certain sections of India He is brother-in-1aw to a pasanal friend and takes very special interest in good work for pr*onat. 1 thought if we could scnd out our Sundour yarns and he could have thmi nude in fino mgs m Indio we couid purchase production and ma& a special featzwe of if- 1 bad one or two lots sent out and had some very nice sample bits back and matter was just a s m * n g shape when war broke out and Dr- Nesfield is now with the anny. When war is over L hop he will pay us a visit and that it will lead to this industry being started at once." [itaücs sdded]

Reina Lewis has remarked that "iî is not so much that 'imperid culture' developed to

promote impenaiism, but that, as a pervasive econornic, social, political and ailairal

formation, the imperial project could not but influence how people thought, behaved and

~reated."'~ Creating in and for a culture marked by imperialism, the Mortons were no

exception. They were undoubteâly aware of the Vctonan fiscination with the Orient and

chose their designs to reflect aspects of this inaiguhg producf the Oriental cupet.

Although the Eastern techniques were copied and the designs employed simüar f o m and

colour selection as those of the East, early Donegal carpets were using the feîhion for the

Orient as a marketing strategy ratha than trying to accurately recreate a Persian design

(Figure 6):' LOS is clear fkom James Morton's 'Wotes on some of my activities in Morton

'' "James Morton's notes for his programme for (bc development of the Sundour Carpa Indusüy," Morton Sundour Archivc, Archive of Art and Design, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, AAD 31224 (19 16).

" An example of the cvcr changing nature of the carpet dcsigns and compleie disregard for accuracy is the Nuas carpet (c. 1907) w m n for Li'bcrty's. This carpet was later renamcd tht Youghal and later stiU the KiMarney (The Studio (Junc 1907)). In this instance, it is clear tbat the -tien h m Pcrsian styles to the more fashionabfc CcIîic o m was made in accordancc with popular tastc- Anothcr example of this is a green carpet designed by Gavin Morton c.1899. Green and blacL wcrt not used in Pcrsian mgs @articrilarjy in Pakistan) because the cotours had religious agniticanct to the people malring rhenr (Seminar on Oriental carpcts at Dix Miiles Villages, Pointe Claire, Quck, November 1998).

& Co." where he refm to the development of another type of carpet d e d Caledon,

produced in Damel, Scotland pnor ta Donegais:

[The finn] produced carpets designal to mirnic Indian carpcts 1 had seen This was such a selling point that 1 asked a niend of the f&Iy, an old I n c h Civil semant and candidate for Puüament at the tirne, what the word for goat hak was and useci it as the name ofthe carpets made to look like Indian ones - Salm al"."

This cultural appropriation and manipulation for commercial benefit is also evident in

newspaper descriptions of Don& carpas, where the carpets are commody refend to as

considerable 'rivals' to their Eastern counterparts. In most of these accounts the author

concludes that the Donegal 'pastiche-~ersians'~ are the better quaiity product. nKse

carpets could be wnsidered, in Edward Said's tems, as yet another representation of the

Orient produced by Orientalisrn, "not [a] simple reflection of a m e anterior reality, but [a]

composite image which came to define the nature of the Orient and the Oriental as

irredeemably diEerent and always inferior to the est."" By attributing 'lack' ta the

Eastern product, Morton's, their patrons, and the critics justifieci 'speaking for someone

else' which Rey Chow refen to as ''violence as representation."24

21 "Notes made in 1913 on some of my activities in A M & Ca - James Morton," Morton Sundour Archive, Archive of Art and Design, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, AAD 3/158-176.

HaSIam, Arts and Crafls Carpcts, 8.

') Lewis, 16. Lewis cxplains E d d Said's usc of the tam 'Oncnulmn' as folloarr: "Ratha than accepc the term as one that designates an arta of ncutral scholarly urirtisc (be it Oriental languages, Iitcranut, customs), Said argues that Oricntalism was and is a discourse in which the Wesî's knowledges about the Orient are inextricably bound up with its domination wer it. .. . Said is able to consider how Oncntalism's cIaSSifications of the East as dincrrnt and idcrior lcgitimised Wtstcrn intervention and mie."

24 Rey Chow, 14.

Clearly one aspect of the Donegai patrons' culturally-transmitted cornpetence and

aesthetic (habitus) is the notion of empire-building and a sense of superiority toward the

British Empire's colonial peoples, authorising Morton's use of these colonies' culniral

produas. Retumhg to Bourdieu's theory, it is apparent the Mortons were led, by

competition with other producen and by the specsc interests linked to their position, to

produce distinct products which would meet the different cultural interests of their

consumers' dass condition, thereby offering them a real possibility of king satisfied-

Since, according to Bourdieu, a work of art only exias to the extent that it is perceived,

Le. deciphered, this possibility of being satisfied is an important factor in the success of the

Donegal product.25 The Irish carpet industry's success demonstrates that Morton's

clientele possessed the means of appropriating and deciphering the cultural codes in a

Donegal carpet.

THE ARTS AM> C m s MOVEMENT (18504920)

By 1900, in order to secure their place in the cultural markets of Britain, Ireland and

North Amenca, Morton & Co. added floral designs in the Arts and Crafls style to their

repertoire (Figure 7). Ushg designers associated with the Arts and Crafts Movement, such

as C. F. A Voysey, Sidney Mawson and George Walton, and highlighting the destitute

condition of the people of County Donegal and the hand-crafled nature of their carpet

production, Morton's successfùlly integrated their product into the Arts and Crafts

Movement. This connection is romanticised in their New York catalogue:

Bourdieu, The Field of Cultural Production, 227-23 1 .

As [William] Moms wu the "child of Ruskinn and of the mediaevaiists o v a whose güttering, dusky parchments he pored in lis early M o r d days - so the Mortons were 60m the kginning of the great Art movement, near kin to Moms in their masnificent fealty to fPth in a nmire converîing the stolid dnidgery of mere toi1 and labour into the joy of labour's reward in dequate Art t e m ~ . ~

The iate nineteenth century in Britain was marked by social tefom movements intended to

better the situation of the poor and the working classes in society? Social settlement

houses, such as Hemietta and Samuel Barnett's T o y n k Hall (1884) and Mary Wad's

Passmore Edwards Settiement (1890), were meant to close the gap between the social

classes by having college-educated people, oAen single women, provide saviws for the

working classes and the poor. These Settlements were commîtteci to adult education and

youth work (such as play centres and classrooms for children with disabilities), as weli as

housing, health and ecanomic development for the working classes." Other refonn

movements included the Kyrle Society, founded in 1878 by Miranda Hill, aimed et

improving the social conditions of the poor through music, entertainment, decoration of

public halls and the altivation of smd open spaces. W ' s sister, Octavia, was dso

convinced of the need to prexrve public open spaces, 'open-air sitting rooms for the

poor', and was instrumental in the development of the National Tma. Hill also joined the

" "Rugs dk Carpets - Rich Novcltics and Bcautirul S(andardr - Channing New Decorative Fabria in Unfadable Colours" in Sundour and Donegai Catalogte (New York Witcambe, Mcûeachin & Co., c.1900), 5; held in the Morton Sundour Archive, Archive of Art and Design, Victoria and Albert Museum, Landon, M D 41666 (1978).

'' Tensions ktween imperialisis and domaiic ceformers werc shaipned by Britain's confiia with the Boer republics in Souîh Afnca (1899). (Gilbert, 44 and Wciner, 132.)

2% A. Biggs, and A Macariney, Toynbee HaII: Tlie Firsf Hundked Yeam (tondon: Routledge and mgan Paul, 1984); J. Suthtriand, Mi Kumphry W d hinent Victorian, Pn-Eminent Eüivcudian (Odotd: Odord University Press, 1990); Eilan Boris, Art md Lubor (19s); Deborah Weincr, Architecture and Social R e m (1994)-

Comrnons Prese~ation Society to help oewe access to the co~ntryside for those living in

urban, industrial environments."

The Arts and CraAs Movement also played a sipifiant role in this social refonn. Foundd

by theorists, architects and designers in Victorian Britain, most notably Waam Morris,

the Movement was onginally concemeci with the refonn of design and taste in Britah

However, Arts and Craffs refonn won meant a change in workùig conditions ratha than

simply design aesthetics?' As the harsh working conditions in which many cultural goods

were produced became evident, the Movement's proponents advocated an alternative

mode of production. Instead of the harshness of late-nîneteenth-century industrialism.

these reformers wished to create a working environment which would foster spiritual

hannony through the work process and change that very proceu and its products? In this

system, the workers were expected to rnake beautifid, fiinctional objects for everyday use

in any home. Belief in the restorative power of edsrnanship and the search for a 'simple

Iife' Ied many leaders of the Movement to establish workshops in idyliic. nirol

surroundings where art was promoted as a way of We. From this socialist foundation came

" Deborah Weiner, Archirecfure and Social Reform (1994); C. Waters, British Skiafisis (1990).

See Eileen Boris, '"Dmms of Bmtbcrhood and Bguty*: ïhc Soàal ldeas of the Arts ami Craftr Movement," in 'Ine Art rhot is Li/e *: me Ar& and Crafls Movement in America, 2875-1920, cd. Wwidy Kaplan (Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1987).

'' Elizabeth Cummiirg, anâ Wcndy Kapfan, ïnc Ar& and Cr4- Mmement (London: Thmaa and Hudson, 1991), 7-9. For an informative discussion of the Movemcnt in Irtfand a d Soouand sec Elizakth Cumming, and Niwh Gordon Bowe, me Arts rrnd Crajts Movements in Dublin and Edinburgh, 1885- 1925 (Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 199%).

four main principles of the Arts and Crafts Movement - joy in labour, design unity,

individuaiism and regionahm. 32

William Morris' Arts and Crafts ideology was echoed in maoy accaunts of the Donegd

carpet industry. Excerpts fiom the 1903 Liberty's catalogue Fa«dng a National

Ihdustry: Irish C q t Exhibition, identify in the Morton enterprise several key tenets of

the Arts and CraAs Movement - the carpet's handrnade qualityr "The charm of these

carpets when finished is largely denved fiom the very fact that being hand-made they have

that artistic quaiity of individuality which no power loom can give"; the individuality of

design and the joy the workers denved fiom the labour: "There is interest, variety and

pleasure in the work, and it is such that individual skiil and workmanship corne largely into

play"; and the Movement's opposition to the effects of industrialisation: "In Ireland there

are but few teeming d i e s and but Little material wealth, there is sirnplicity of life; her

children have escaped the sordid, deadening effect of machine work; [and they live] in

more constant touch with nature."33 The extremely hard work involved in the hand

production of carpets (and most other Arts and Crafts products) is considered a joy in

these uninfomed remarks. The Victorian tendency to romanticise the pastoral is also

clearly operating in this instance.

32 Ibid.

33 Founding a National Indcstry: Irish Carpet Exhibition, Liberty & Co. catalogue no- 80, National Art Library, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, Euhiiition "held at the Grafton Gallery, Bond Street, London, W., Saturday March the 7th to Friday 13th 1903, inclusive. Organised by Messrs Liberty with a view to extend the hand-rufted carpet industry in the West of Ireland."

Many newspaper articles contain similar passages about the Donegal carpet enterprise. For

instance. Gustav Stickley ran an article expressing this same viewpoint in his 1901 issue of

Ine Craftman: "The impetus of this industry, the methods therein employed, and even the

name given to the fabrics are due to Wdiam or ris."^^ Such acwunts further established

Morton's Donegal carpets within the Arts and Craffs Movement. The recognised name

and prestige of the Movement, or its 'symbolic capital,'35 was invested in the Donegal

carpet enterprise, making it a succesdiif infernationuI operation

WORKERS, DESIGNERS AND JAMES MORTON

In the written accounts of the Donegal carpet industcy, there is a voice missing - that of

the Irish workers. The praise accorded to the Mortons for their use of Arts and Crafts

designs and designers overlooks the possibility that the weavers may have contributed to

these d e ~ i ~ n s . ~ ~ It is very difficult to fiIl the gaps left by these accounts and some would

argue dangerous to try" Still, by explonng women's place in nineteenth-centuiy Irish

34 Irene Sargent, "A New Irish Indusuy," The Craflsnian 1, no. 3 (Dccember 1901): 31-39.

35 Pierre Bourdieu, The Field of Culrural Production, 7: "Spibolic capiial &ers to the degree of accumulated prestige, œlebrity, consecratioa or honour and is founded on a dialectic of knowledge (connaissance) and recognition (reconnaissance)."

36 There is evidence, however, that 'workers' could become 'designers' in some textile industries. See James Srnyth, "Ye never got a spell to think abmt it.' Young Women and Employment in the Inter-War Period: A Case Study of a Textile Village," in The FVorld is If1 Divided: Wonien 's Work in Scotland in the Nineteenth und Early Twentieth Centuries, eds. Eleanor Gordon, and Esther Bceitenbach (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press* 1990). 95-1 16.

" Rey Chowv, in IViing Diaspora, presents a convincing argument: "But what kind of argument is it to say that the subalteni's 'voice' can be fouad in the ambivalence of the imperialist's speech? It is an argument which ultimately &es it unnecessary to corne to terxns with the subaltem sinœ she has alreaây 'spoken,' as it were, in the system's gaps. AU we would need to do would be to continue to study - to deconstnict - the rich and ambivalent language of the imperialist! ... Instead, a radical alternative can be conceiveci only wlien we recognise the essentiai untransIatabiMy fmm the subaltem discourse ta

society, examining references to the workers in James Morton's wrîtings and explainhg

the design process involved in carpet-making, a more complete picture may be presented

without proposing to speak for someone.

Timothy Foley has described nineteenth-century Irish women as follows:

Women [were], by nature sensitive, altruistic, self-giving, in the words of Charles Kingsley, "bom for others," vimially Christlike in their self-abnegation, unfitted to the outdoor rigours of the public sphere and [needing] the "protection" afEorded by the enclosing domestic cucle, though this fortress was increasingly seen by many women as a prison. Women were the keepers of tradition, the exemplars of morality as traditionally defined, the disinfecthg element in a morally dissolute s~ciety.~'

Although the women involved in Morton's Donegal carpet enterprise were working

beyond the 'protective' reach of the dornestic circle, the firm's marketing strategy

promoted these hand-made carpets as traditional, re-situating them within the realm of the

domestic. Thus Morton's removed these women from the 'rigours of the public sphere', in

which they worked, by defining them and referring to them as 'keepers of tradition'.

This re-placing of the women workers within the scope of the domestic sphere undermines

their position as legitimate worken. The constant references to them as 'girls' in the firm's

archives co&s this. Still, there is evidence that these 'girls' taught other workers and

could have been involved at the design level. James Morton's notes on the Donegai carpet

imperialist discourse. . .. The subaiteni cannot speak not because there are not activities in which we can Iocate a subiitem mode of tife/cuiture/subjectivity, but because ,.. 'speaking' itseif betongs to an aiready wvelldefined structure and history of domination" (35-36)

38 Timothy P. Foley, "Public Sphere and Domestic Circle: Gender and Political Economy in Nineteenth- Cenhtry Ireland," in Gender Perspectives in Nineteenth-lentury Ireland Public and Private Spheres, eds. Margaret Kelleher and James K Murphy (Dublin: Irish Acadernic Press, 1997), 2 1.

enterprise held at the Scottish Records Office identïfjr two women actively involved in the

development of the Donegal industry. Bella CleUand and Mary Lawson were taught by a

Wilton weaver, Herbert Downton, and then sent to Ireland to 'act as teachers' there.3g

According to one report, many of the 'girls' Morton hired remained with the finn for

many years, ofken unti1 they were married. Despite this apparent loyalty, there were

problems with the workforce. James Morton's account of an attempted strike is a

reminder of how the gender roles described above played out in the workplace:

There was considerable ditnculty in getting [the worken] to get the speed UD. 1 have many records fiom that t h e of devices to get up the pace: day and week exarninations, prkes for best loom, best girl and cornparison between same girls at one visit and another. At the end of March 1899 we had perhaps 40 girls, and some outsiders were evidently trying to make them dissatisfied with wages. One moming they refused to start and after 1 had s h o w them that they were even now, at a new industry, eaming 3 or 4 times what they ever earned before and in far shorter days, and stated very emphatically that if they were not every girl of them started in an hour's time, the doors would be locked and they would never see the looms again - they sat down quietiy to work and nothing more was heard o f it."

He continues to downplay the event by explaining that "when these M e troubles with

workers arose those at home thought we should stop the thing before we got firrther

involved, but personally I rather enjoyed the romance of it and urged that we mustn't go

" "Notes wvritten in 1916 by James Mo- - Business Descriptions," Morton Sundour Archive, Archive of Art and Design, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, AAD 3/237-266; "Biographical note on Alesander Morton, written for the firm's Minute Book by James Morton, 1924," Morton Sundour Archive, Archive of Art and Design, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, AAD 3/43 1-434.

JO Ibid. Judith Hoad explains the extreme poverty of Co- Donegal meant that during the infancy of the trade union movement in industrialid areas of Britain, mas exploitation took place in Donegal: "But wvas it ex~ioitation? Everyone worked with the ptofit motive to the forefiont Ale.uander Morton came from Scotland to esiablish his carpet factories solely because he could employ cheap labour and thereby keep the cost ofproduction down. But the wotking conditions were good and the income, small as it was, enabled the families of the girls he employed, to buy basic necessities which brought better health and nutrition to them As a resuIt unions have still hardly a toe-hold in DonegaI County. The well+stabIished firms that had been founded in the wake of the Congested Districts Board saw to that M o s t a œntury Iater there are still textile companies with no union representation, but the workers tend to stay al1 their wvorking lives in the one campany until the cornpany talces on the charmer of a sort of exiended family." [my emphasis] (Hoad, 12 1.122.)

back simply because [our new venture] had met a squal~."~ This description demonsttatcs

the Jack of cornmitment the Mortons had to the area. Jmes Morton would transplant or

case operations altogether rather than consider the demands of his worker~." His

assumption that it was 'outsiders' who instigated the otrike dernonstrates Morton's gaida

biases. He cannot imagine that his 'girls' orchestrateci a saike to better their own situation

or that these workers were capable of thinking for themselves. Regardles of what Morton

may have thought, the women continueci to demonstrate their dissatisfaction Morton

recounts that "one afternoon Etwall [the resident foreman, dismisseci several girls] for îate

corning in and the whole crew gave ... their notice to lave. The girls have no regard for

punctuality and are a bad example of indxerence and lightness of Irish girls. Etwaii

hhself has no nerve, feckless as a rash.'" Morton was obviously upset by his workers'

tack of respect for his rules and his foreman's lack of authority in handling the situation.

Though these incidents do not explain why the workers were unhappy, they demonstrate

Morton's treatment of his worken and are usefùl to compare with cntics' and

commentators' descriptions of the induary.

" "Notes written in 1916 by James Morton - Business Descriptions," Morton Sundout Archive, Atchivc of Art and Design, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, AAD 312370266. Examples of a wtavcr's wage: Edward Parsons (10 Weavcr's Guild Terrace, Wilton) eanied 30s. wbik his two -cd daughters cach made 8s. John Stokes (1 Weaver's Guild Terrace, Wilton), a 47-year4d wcaveq earned 25s- with "no off time paid," his 2 'boys' (aged 24 and 7 ytars) made 23s. while his 5 'girls' (a@ 18, 16, 14, 13, and 9 years) could eani fram 8 ta 12s.

42 Unfortunately, this kùrd of attitude ail1 plagues the textile industiy- Rectntly for instance, Levi Strauss moved h m Texas to Honduras, w M r Nike moved to South East A s k

"Addresses of carpet weavtrs at Wilton," Morton S u n d w Archive, Archive of An and Design, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, AAD 3/37 1.

The weavers' role in the desigas of the carpets is another interesthg aspect of the Donegai

carpet production processOCeSS It is particularly interestkg when the Arts and Craffs designs

are analyseci. The prestige aJsociated with the Arts and Cnfts Movement eclipsed any

potential achowledgement of less fmous contributors to the designs. As Ruskin wrote:

"drawing may be taught by tuton but design only by heaven? Yet manufacturem found

that only designers with an intimate howledge of the production techniques suppliecf

designs which were praaicabl+ and so they were reluctant to cummission outsiders. The

difnculty for the individuai Arts and Crafls designers was to discover the intrïcacies of

carpet production and to master its s@al demands, for without that knowledge th&

designs would be useless. It is also unlikely that many weavers went on to become

designers since the con alone might have dissuadeci rnany.4s A senes of articles, entitled

"Elementary Notes on Carpet Designing" (1 882), lists the equipment required:

The beginner will need design paper . . . ordinary charmai paper . . . soft sketching charcoal, medium sofl No. 1 Faber pencils, a piece of India rubber, a foot nile; two bottles, a large one for water, and a smailer one for thick gum water; some pure gum-arabic powdered fine, a good-size notebook, a pen-Me; and, hally, a qusrier of a pound each of vennilion, ivory black, flake white, middle chrome green, lemon chrome, deep orange chrome, neueider green, Vandyke brown, bumt sienna, carmine, indigo and cobalt blue, the ordinary dry colours for "gouache" painting. ... There will also be necessary a foldimg mirror with two leaves about fifteen inches in width and seven in height, a steel paiette-Me and one of horn, a glass slab for grinàiing colon on; a sponge, and several each of No. 4 and No. 6 came1 hair or sable bmshes, and some tracing and impression paper."

44 E. T. Cook, and Alexander W e d d e m eds., The Works of John Ruskin, vol. XV (London: n-p-, 1904), 344, quoted in Haslam, Arts ond CruFÇ Ccupe~s, 13.

46 Frank Forts, "Ekmentary Notes on Caip< Designingn Art Interchmge (1882). quotcd in Haslam, Arts anà C ' s Grpets, 3 3-34.

Although the weavers would be intimately awan ofthe procases, they would be unlikely

to aEord the materiais necessuy to amplete a design. Stiil, there were some critics who

felt a manufàcturer should nwture any potcntll talent within thtir organisation. The

women workers' handwork responsible for the production of these carpets, was viewed

as having artistic mait in an articie of the JbmauI a d Proceecdrngs of the A m md Cr@

Society of Ireland:

The ody advice one would fcel emboldaied to proffer Norton & Co. m th& venture in Ireland] is, 'Tay your designas well" and, at the sarne time, ascertain, in respect of the lesser goods, whether you have not amongst your workers some who have a n a d gifl for design. Seek to develop this gently, and you wiii soon find you are not ody bringing up a series of mechanical workers, but of artists, some of whom may eventually prove a credit to you."

This excerpt demonstrates that, while Morton's may or may not have heeded this advice,

there were people in a position of authority who felt that workers could add more than

simply labour to the value of a carpet. Nthough this discussion is fnstrating since fia-

hand accounts by workers are rare, it does provide a contact for the weavers in Donegai.

The weaven' contribution ta design can only be s p d a t e û , whereas James Morton's

involvement in design can be demonstrated by bis relationships with designers. Morton's

conneaion to the Arts and Cr&s Movement illuminates his dealings with identifiable

designers, since many were leading artists of the Movement. A correspondence between

James Morton and the designer C. F. A Voysey, records the development of a business

relationship, even fn«idship, and its sad deterioration. These letters aiso illustrate how

acutely aware this designer was of trends and public taste. Voysey's poignant

" Journal and Pmceedings oJlhC Arts and Cm/)S k i e w of fiefand 1, no. 3 (190 1): 1954.

refl ect the realities of a designer of 'world renown' (Figures 8-9). On 17 Apd 191 8,

Voysey wrote to Morton ofbeiig "within rneasufable distance of the workhouse. Can you

keep me by giving me anyttiing to do? 1 should indeed be thpokfiü if you could help me to

keep afloat-" Threc days lata, h wrote to Morton thanking him for f25, payment in

advance for work comrnis~ioned.~ La ta still, Voysey again wrote for assistance Born

Morton:

good fortune to My dear Morton,

About this time last ye ar 1 had the seii you £50 worth of designs. 1s it possible 1 wonder tbat you would corne and s e t my new ones or allow me to bring them to you. 1 am in terrible low water and distracted by financial worry. I have not as much as f6û le@.

No one will commission an archite* of 72.1 hope you and al1 yours are very well.

With kindest regards to Mrs. Morton and yowd From yours very sincerei y,

C. F. A Voysey

By 15 June 1929, his tone was bitter: "P.S.: the Council of the RIBA have unanimously

elected me a full fellow. A compliment which will not prevent me fiom starving." In

another example of his displeasure with the art world and general public he wrote, on 28

June 1929: "Public taste at present makes me feel my designs are not worih the paper they

are drawn o n It is a sad business to have lived too long and still keep on living."49

Although these letters have an unhappy tone, the relationship between the two men is sa

amicable. Morton appears to have helped the designer on several occasions, even

'' "Comspondencc with C. F. A Voyxy," Morton Sunâour Archive, Archive of Art and Design, Victoria and Albert Mweum, London, AAD 4/410-450 (1978).

investigating a copyright problem Voysey was having with another firrn. However, the

letters become quite hostile in the following exchange:

18 A p d 1931 I did not wrïte to you after the Msit which 1 paid to you with my son,

because 1 felt so grieved, not to say disgusted, at the attitude you seemed to assume. 1 had expected it to be a pleasant visit, esHaliy introducing my son to you for the first time as he had bown of you ever since he was a child. W e are really not nquinng any designs such as you have ready, and after your attitude, 1 seerned to fed no obligation in taking the matter niriher.

James Morton

20 Aprii 193 1 You have only youmlf to thank. At your 1st Msit you had not a word of

prise for my work and &er 1 had shown you between 40 and 50 designs, you asked if I could not show you somethhg fiesh! It is a grievous pity your son was present to witness such treatment of a designer.

C. F. A. Voysey

This is an interesting set of letters as it demonstrates the relationship between the designer

and the businessman. It reflects the diaerences berneen the two points of view, especially

concerning a design. A contract between Voysey and Morton fbrther illustrates the

business side of their relationship. In it, Voysey must produce "ten sufiiciently original

designs to Maiton a year for which he wiil be paid f2O/desip." If there is a dispute

between the parties about the originality of the design, they must bring the designs to the

President of the Royal Academy of Art whose decision will be finaLS0 In another series of

letters between Morton and the designer, George Walton, it is clear that Morton took an

active role in design creation. On 12 July 1928. Walton writes that he was very interested

in the contents of Morton's letter regarding "the huid tufieci Donegal Carpets and I am

applying myself to changing designs on the lines you suggest. It opens up new ideas and 1

shall do my best to carry them through successnilly." Morton replies later that summer,

after receiving Waiton's designs: '4 think this is a very good m e t character, and has the

elements of very interesthg floor ~overin~."'~

In this exchange, Walton's letter in particular illustrates the collaborative nature of his

design work for Morton & Co. The range of designs Waiton produced for Morton's is

remarkable, and shows his earnest effort to arrive at a style which would meet with the

firrn's approval (Figures 10-12). He appears to have had difficulty adjusting his designs to

the strict requirements of carpet weaving. Morton's involvement in Waiton's design

development could have more to do with this technical aspect of designing than with the

artistic aspects of it. Still, Morton continued to accept his designs and even paid him a

retainer fee. Apparently, those who knew him well could not bear to see Walton fail on

hard timesSs2 As his long-time fnend, Voysey remarked: "May one who has known George

Walton for forty years intimately be allowed to teni@ to his lovable nature. He could not

Say an unkind word about any man. . . . He was the most gentle of men with strong feelings

always under control."" Given this characterisation of Walton, it is not surprising that his

letters to Morton never became bitter and that Morton's relationship with the designer

remained fiiendly even during difficult times.

" "Correspondence with George Walton," Monon Sundour Archive, Archive of Art and ~esign, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, AAD 4/455-5 15 (1978).

" Karen Moon, George Wafton: Designer andArchitecf (0.ord: white Cockdale Puôiishing, 1993), 169- 173.

53 Voysey testimonial to Walton, 1933 (RIBA), quoted in Moon, 169.

'A NEW NATIONAL imu!mR~'

Despite the industry's acceptame Uito the Arts and Crafts Movement, there were somc

who felt that Morton's had an opportunity to develop a unique national iadustry Born the

Donegai carpets rather than following Persian precedent or Arts and Crafts guidelines. For

example, a reviewer for the Jmmd d Praceedings of the Arts anâ Crqfs Society of

Irelmd wrote:

[This Donegal carpet is] obviously an attempt to vie &th a Turkey carpet, which it successfûiiy does, comparing weil (we fancy) in the matter of prie; stiil it would seem better ta keep the fmous Donegal industry as Irish as possible. Why not a sharnrock bordeflS4

Though billed in a 1910 Liberty's catalogue as "Irish Hand-woven carpets. . . . Products of

a peasant industxy equal in quality to the Turkey carpets of old world renown," the carpets

did have Celtic motifs incorporated into their designs as early as 1902. The f i t racorded

example of a Donegal carpet bearing a Celtic design was one carried out for the

Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction for theV otnces at the Cork

Exhibition of 1902.'~

The Liberty catalogues do acknowledge this design transition. In a section entitied "The

Revival of Celtic Art," the catalogue writer proclaims: "amid those inspiring hilts, the

inherent qudities of the Celt wül again assert h s e l v e s ; the high standard of ancient

Celtic Civilisation will be recalled, and a new Celtic Art d l interpret it, as beautifid and

Y Journal and Proceedings of the Arts and Crafts Society o/lnand 1. no. 3 (190 1): 1954.

55 Artisfic Carpets Produced on British Loomr, Librty & Co. catalogue no. 171 (1910). National Art Library, and Albert Museum, hndon

distinctively Nationai as any its past History records."" Indeed, Morton's designers did

interpret historical symbols and artwork in order to develop a distinctly 'Celtic' style of

carpet design (Figure 13). These designs originated in much the same way as Ake Hart's

'Kells Embroidery' dici, by borrowing from historical sources. The most popular design

source was the Bmk of Kef&, a 1a-y decorated series of gospel manuscripts produced

between the seventh and Nmh centuries (Figures 14-15). Despite some question regardkg

the Irish nature of its production, the book was seen (and continues to be seen) as the

symbol of a flounshing Irish art and culture. In this discussion of Donegal carpet designs,

how the histoncal Book of KeIIs became intertwined with Irish history, legend and

nationdism is more important than the facts of its production.

At the tum of the twentieth century, the 'Irish Revival' was affecthg ail areas of cultural

production (literature, music and the visual arts) and the Book of Kells was viewed as an

inspiring syrnbol of Irish nationdism and creativity- Nicola Gordon Bowe explains that

unlike England, Ireland had no indusaiai revolution to react against. In Ireland, in

common with other impoverished, agriculturally-based nations seeking home d e and

vemacular expression, the roots of culture and identity, and a growing spirit of national

consciousness, were given substance by archaeological and antiquarian research in the

nineteenth century. She concludes that this research provided a vocabulaxy for politics,

literature, the revivai of the Irish language, dress, music, theatre, architecture and the

" Founding a National Industry: Irish Cmprl Exhibition, Likrty & Co. catalogue no. 80. National M Library, Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

applied arts." Nationality in art became a matter that was repeatedly praised by critics and

commentators although only occasionally by artias themdves. To what degree Irish

designers should reiy on Celtic ornamental details to achieve a national character in th&

work was a matter of opinion but the need for some kuid of 'national' character in Irish art

and design seems to have been cornmody understooddss Morton & Co. was not immune

to this cultural trend, as seen in their Celtic-style carpet designs. Still, at a t h e when

Irehd's union with Britain was being questioned and Home ~ u l e ' ~ was reswfacing in the

political arena, it seems surpriskg that a Protestant Sconish manufacturer would be eager

to promote an Irish national art. in order to reconcile these seemingly incompatible

components at work in the same industry, Le. Irish nationalism and Scottish business

interests, it is important to investigate Irish nationalism and English notions of Ireland.

The perception of the Irish as infenor to the English was a wrnmonly-held opinion in

nineteenth-centwy British society. In 1 869, Sydney Smith, a ' fnendly' British observer

wrote that the Inshrnan had many 'good' qualities:

He is brave, witty, generous, cloquent, hospitable, and open-hearted; but he is vain, ostentatious, extravagant, and fond of display - light in counsel - deficient in

57 Nicola Gordon Bo*, T h e Xrish Arts and Craf'is Movement (1886-1925); in Irish A m Review Yearbook, 199&1991,175.

58 Paul Larmour, me Arts and Crafls Movement in liefand, 126.

59 The issue of ïrish seff-governent in the forai of home d e was a prominent feature of late-nineteenth- century Irish political debates. Irish Horne Rule bas becn d e f ï ï as Wht rcstoration to Irctand of representative govenunent in accordancc with the constitutionally c x p d will of a majority of the people, and carrieci out by a ministry consu'tutionaiiy rcsponsiiiie to those whom they govcrn." (O'Day, 142) Because of the uneven distn'bution of weahh in ireland, majority ruie was not always seen as Uu bcsî method of governïng Ireland, hcnœ the dcbate- For an informative discussion of Home Rule, sec AIan O'Day, "Home Rule and îhc Historians," in me Making of Modem Irish History, eds- D. George Boyce and Alan O'Day (New York: Routiadge, 19%), 141-162; and James hghIin, Gladstone, Home Rule and fhe Ulster Question, 1882-93 (New Jcrscy: Humanitics Prcss International, 1987)-

perseverance - without skin in private or public economy - an enjoyer, not an acquira - one who despises the slow and patient viraies - who wants the superstructure without the foundation - the result without the previous operation - the oak without the acom and the three hundred years of expectation. The Irish are irascible, prone to debt, and to fiight, and very impatient of the restraints of law. Such a people are not likely to keep eyes steadily upon the main chance, üke the Scotch or the utc ch."

The compliments at the beginning aside, the Unpression of the Irish lefi by this diatribe is

not a parîicularly fàvourable one. Another example of this colonial attitude toward the

Irish is the Archbishop Richard Whately's categorisation of the Irish native laquage as a

"Ianguage of ~ava~es."~' These commentaries fonn part of the nineteenth-century debate

surrounding Ireland's place as a colony or an intrinsic part of the United Kingdom -

whether England was a 'mother country' or a 'sister kingdom'.

In response to the question of ireland's 'anomalous position' within the British Empire,

Henry L. Jephson, in 1876, claimed that it was 'an incontrovertible fact' that among the

numerous dependencies of the British crown there was not one that stood in the same

relation to Great Britain as Ireland. He argued that Ireland was not a colony, despite being

governed by a govemor-general as colonies were, since it did not have a house of

representatives as colonies do. Jephson felt that because Ireland was govemed by a

deputy, it could not be regarded as an integral part of the United Kingdom, even though

Irish representatives were sent to the Imperia1 Parliament. Jephson arrogantly concludeci

60 Sydney Smith, The Works CI,ondon, 1869). 355. quoted in Timothy Foley, and Thomas A. Boylan, Political Econow and Colonial Ireland= Tlie Propagation and Ideological Function of Ekonomic Discourse in the Nineteenth Century (New York: RouUadge, 1992). 118.

61 R Whately, EIements of Rhetoric. 7* cd. undon: ap., 1870). 170, quotcd in Foly and Boylan, 128.

his remarks about Ireland by stating that the only conclusive answer was "that Irdand has

been thoroughly and completely United to Great Britain, and thst consequently no higher

priviîeges remain to be -teci to ber?

Timothy Foley situates lephson's commeats within a discourse which held that both

Roman Catholicism and irishness made for economic backwardness. Central to bis view

was the perceived "morai antipathy to economic ratiodty [and] opposition ta

individualism" of the ~rish." It is this unusual situation of Ireland, as part of the West yet

suiTering f?om similar forms of h@al domination Unposeci on non-Western countries

colonised by Great Britain, which provides an opportunity for the application of

postcoloniai theory.

In Wn'ting Diaspora, Rey Chow defines the notion of a 'field' as analogous to the notion

of 'hegemony', in the sense that its fornation involves the rise to dominance of a group

that is able to diaise its culture to ali levels of society. She explains that margins, or

boundarïes, always accompany this notion of a field. In this analysis, Ireland can be seen as

a margin soon to be incurporated as new property." In fact, as the social privileges

associated with the various religious groups in Ireland attest to, Protestant colonisers had

effectively incorporateci this particular margin.

" H L. Jephson, "Irish SiMute Law Rcfonn," Jo~rnaI of the Statisticai and Social Inguiry Scier). of Ireland 7 (1876-9): 376-385, quotecl in Foley and Baylan, 136-147,

" Foley and Boylan, 147.

6-1 Chow, 15-16.

National eduution was but one of the many twls used to -se British Protestant

cdîure to all levels of society in Ireland. Education played a crucial role in the pacification

of Ireland and in combathg Irish dissension in the nineteenth centuxy. According to Foley,

education, fonnal and informat, set out not ody to improve Irish knowledge but, in eff-

to change what was pencived as the Irish 'chuacter'. Natioaal education's goal was to

provide an ordered, rational discourse, prornoting affection for England and the

established Ch&. It was perceiveci as an instrument of national advancement whiie, at

the same time, an organ of empire?

These nineteenth-century opinions of the 'Irish character' form the background to this

discussion of the Morton enterprise. This social context suggests three interconnecteci

possibilities which might explain the Celtic designs of the Donegal carpets. First,

identwng the patrons of these particular carpets could explain Morton's acceptance of

traditional Celtic symbols in their designs. It might be as simple as supply and demand; the

patrons, in this case the Irish Govenunent and Liberty's, wished to have Celtic imagery in

their carpets so Morton made them to order. Stili, this does not explain why the patrons

chose to have Celtic symbols incorporated in their carpets.

Assuming there is no poIitica1 motivation behind these commissions, a second alternative

is to look to the nineteenth-century d o c t ~ e of political economy for an explanation."

65 Foley and Boylan, 1 16.

' Timothy Foly describe ninactnthccnniry political economy as bang "ptcccivcd as a naturai science, its laws the laws of nature, which wcre not only seen as @en anâ unchanging, but as vvtuafly and utteriy nithles in their application,"(Folcy, "Public Spkrt and Domestic Circlc," 2 1 .)

Timothy Foley claims that within this climate of l"ssez-Jaire emnomics, protectionism

was sometirnes aiiowed to operate in the specinc, strategic wntext of enabling

'backward', agricultural countries to modernise. Operathg on the sune stereotypes of

national character, Irish nationaiists argued that Irelaad "wuas a 'local' exception to

universalist economic laws, wu by nature more domestic and femùline, and being both

'young' and female was in double need of protection fkom the harsh winds of fra vade

and laissez-fai~e.~ He concludes that it was this perceived 'deliacy' of the 'ferninine'

Celts which served to distance and disqualify them fiom politicai power. Keeping this in

mind, Morton & CO.'S designs could be viewed as promoting this notion of the ferninine,

backward Celt, recalling symbols of an idealised past. For as Fintan Cullen quotes in

Visual PoIi~icsr me Representutiorz of lreland' "if the Celts stay quaint they will also stay

put."68 In this analysis, there is wnsistency between Irish nationafism and Morton's

economic goals.

The third possibüity is to use postwlonial theory to understand how Ireland was treated as

a colony of the British Empire. Fintan Cullen explains that "IreIand was an area on which

the centre - that is London - could impose its imaginative perceptions."69 One of these

perceptions was of the Irish as a race distinct fiom the British. This racial distinction of the

Celts can be seen in advertising, reviews, and promotional mataial for the Donegal carpet

67 Foley, "Public Spherc and Domestic Circlc," 21-22,

68 Fintan CuUen, Visual Poiilics: The Representation of Ireland (Cork: Cork U N V C ~ S ~ ~ ~ press, 1997). 135.

Ibid, 118.

industry. Yet some titles, like Fourtding a Natioml I & ~ , h p l y a certain levd of Irish

propnetorship and wntrol o v a this industry. However, in thk case, 'national' does not

refer to political agency acquired by the Irish and represented in the revival of traditional

Celtic imagery. It is not meant to forediadow the emergence of a subversive anti-colonul

nationalism in Ireland, which would ultimately replace the British state to which it was

0~~0~ed.'~ Nor is it a reference to nationalist causes üke Home Rule and the dissolution of

the Union. Rather, it was used to highiight the 'Irishness' of the Morton product In the

same way as they used Persian designs, the Mortons effêctively appropnated Irish cultural

symbols and used them to represent their version of Ireland.

The idealised notions of the Donegal weavers as poor women involved in galnfi.11

employment, the Morton factory helping an entire community regain its dignity in the m e

spirit of the Arts and Cr& Movement, the Oriental motifs and techniques used, and the

revivd of Celtic traditions in order to create a national industry al1 became part of the

dealer's lore surrounding Donegal carpets. Identifying some of the design transitions

which ocnirred in Donegai carpets and relating them to the socid, political and historical

context of their production, demonstrates how taste is sociaiIy construaed. The Mortons

were very astute bushessmen who cruited a 'taste' for their product by identifying their

target market's habitus and promoting the Donegal carpet to fit the demands of this

culturally transmitted aesthetic cornpetence. nie Mortons encoded their product, the

'O For an anaiysïs of IrÏsh uationalism barcd on Gramsci's pruain that a Usubaltem force a r h as anti- colonial nationalism ... always aims at becomiog tbe Statc," sec Colin Graham, "Subalternity and Gender, Problems of Post-Colonial Irishness," Journui of Gender Studies 5, no. 3 (19%): 368.

Donegal carpet, so theu prospedve clients would have the means of appropnathg it -4

consequently, the means of assigning value to it. An Amencan writer claimed in 1901:

"The ment of the Donegal carpets is inherent The r d article has that dignity wbich

cornes Erom the human thought inwoven and ingrained in the threads and coloun: an

indefinite quality which never fds to v n s t and hold the educated eye."" Indeed, as long

as Morton's promoted these 'inherent qualities', the Donegd carpets were sure to

continue capturing the attention of this ro-called educated eye.

11 Sargent, 34-39.

In Liberty's 1903 exhibition, Fowidng a NatiorzaI Iid'ustry: Irish Carpet Bibilion, the

designer of a Donegai carpet titlcd ï k PeIim was listed as "Mn. G. F. Watts''. The

reviewer for the Irish Inrte@enf md Ndon m t e that this hearth mg, design& by

Mary Seton Watts, "attracted much attention, the design being symbolicaI."l Thîs sudden

breach of the unial anonymity accorded to Morton's designers, in both the press acmunts

and exhibition catalogue, caught my attention (Figure 16).

Morton's acaunulated prestige by associating its product with popular trends such as the

Arts and Crafts Movement and the Celtic ReMval. This chapter examines how Morton's

affiliation with Liberty's aiso increased the finn's symbotic capital and explores why

Liberty's chose ta highlight this particular designer, Mary Seton Watts, and how tlns

rnight have benefited them economidy (Figure 17). By investigating this anomaly in both

Morton's and Liberty's marketing strategies, 1 too wish to highüght this gifted designer

2 and her art production-

1 Irish Independent md Nation, 9 March 1903'5. This carpt was commissioned and designed by Mary

Seton Watts as a giA for "iwo butifiil young p p l e who will one day ... have one of the lovciicst homes in Scotland - Lord and Lady Balanes" This design is the only work she did for Morton's. CLctter fium M. S. Watts to Jamcs Morton datad 15/3/1901, Refièmees to Designen, CtaAsmtn, Architccts, etc. appeariag in James Morton's Diaries, mt&ooks and g e d conrspondtncc," Monon Sundour Archin, Archive of Art and Design, Victoria and Alka Museum, London, AAD 3/3-23)

' Ocher accourt& of Mniy %on Waîîs (1849-1938) hlirlu Melanie Unwin, Woman's WoiL?: Gender and Authorshïp, the Watts' Chapcl and the Hom Arts and Idusvies Association" (MA Thesis in the

Piene Bourdieu identifies ~ b o l i c capital as "econornic or political capital that is

disavowed, misrecognid and thaeby recogniseci, hence legitimate, a 'credit' which,

under certain conditions, and aiways in the long run, guarantees 'economic' The

only legitimate accumulation, for the author, cntic or art dealer, consists in "making a

name for oneself, a known, recognised name, a capital of consecration implying a power

to consecrate objects and therefore give value, and to appropriate profits fiom this

~ ~ e r a t i o n . " ~ For those people who live on the sale of cultural seMces to a clientele, the

accumulation of economic capital merges with the accumulation of symbolic capital.

According to Bourdieu, the acquisition of a reputation for cornpetence and an image of

respectability and honourability can be easily converted into "political positions as a local

or national mfabie."' Certainiy Liberty's, during the late nineteenth century, was a

'national notable' and the firm's decision to exhibit Donegai carpets increased the prestige

of Morton & Co. dong with the desirability of their product. Following Bourdieu's

theory, Liberty's invested its symbolic capital in the Morton enterprise through the

promotion of Donegal carpets in the form of exhibitions and catalogues. At the sarne time,

Morton & Co. was accumulating a capital of consecration by employing leading Arts and

Histoxy of Design, Royal College of Art, Victoria and AIben Museum, London, 1997); Unwin claims there were nvo other books king writien at the rime of ber thesis, by Joan Esch of the University of New Hampshire and the following catalogue: Vetoaiça Franklin Gould, Mary Seton Watts (1849-1938): Unsung Heroine of the Art Nouveau (n-p.: Veronica Franklin Gould for The Watts Gallexy, 1998).

3 Bourdieu, The Field of Cultural Production, 75.

5 Bourdieu, Distinction, 291.

Crafks designers. Although these designers wae not acknowiedged in the catalogue,

exhibition reviews in the press ofien establish a connecbon between Morton's and the

Movement by listing these designers- In this way, Morton & Co. aquired the prestige

associated with these designers without f o d y recognising them, thereby maintainhg

the fimi's individuality and origkdity. By not assigning individual d t to theK

designers, thus avoiding the need to share the capital accrueci through this association,

Morton's was able to increr~e its product's cultural d u e thugh the kested symbalic

capital of both Liberty's and the Arts and Crafks designers.

As their product's value iacreased through these associations so did the Morton name,

eventudy resulting in an increase of Morton & Co.'s power to consectate. These

associations benefited al1 the parties involved, since popular produds sold by Liberty's

increased the 6x111's prestige and advanceci its recognised name among the people buying

these cultural goods. Aiso, the designers employed by Morton's could use theV

association to both the Donegai carpets and Liberty's as a means of inaimng further

commissions. In the end, al1 participants profiteci nom this arcular invesîment in symbolic

capital.

But specifically, what was the symbolic capital associated with the name 'Ws. G. F.

Watts" which would explain why her name was included in the Liberty's catalogue of

1903?

Hm HUSBAND - G. F. WATTS

Liberty's identification of Mary Seton Watts by her husband's name indicates his

significancc to the fim5 and possibly to Morton & Co. as well (Figure 18). Through h a

marriage to the British syrnbolist painter and Royal Acadernician, Mnry Seton Watts (née

Fraser-Tytier) acquired fùrther symbolic capital, i.e. an alnady estaôlished and recogniscd

6 name, a capital of consecration- The designer used her rnarried name consistentIy, in her

books, her art work and charitable activities. In dokg so May Seton Watts used this

newly-acquired capital to give value to her works.

Although beneficial in most instances, using her husband's name did not always apped to

Mary Seton Watts. As she grew in prestige as an artist in h a own right, being associateci

with an artist as popdar as G. F. Watts could be detrimental to her own work.

overshadowing it. At the beginning of their married life she wrote: "Mead of my work, 1

focus on m. It will take me a little while yet to get over king under the shadow of his

great work."' Added to his popular public reputation was Watts's own self-image. Pamela

Gerrïsh Nunn cites Watts as "an artist-master . . . who in his seKportraits renderd hirnseif

as Poussin and Titian, in bis dress evoked a Venetian senator or Renaissance fiar, and

6 George Frederick Watts (1817-1904) was an cstablisùcd painter in the ninctœnth an- most nated for

his painting Hope (1884). Othu woks by Watts include l ' Faine , Death Cmwning Innocence and Choosing (of Eiïen Terry). A fcw rcmarks by Hu@ MacMillan gin some indication of tht tstcxm in which Watts was hcld His bodc is part of a series which "aims at bringing together the hes of men of genius and charader, who, in Maaini's phrase, arc 'God's boni intuprcttrs' ... [watts's] name is becoming to an incrcasingly large public, what it bas long becn to ail who c m for truc art, the name of an honoured teacher and ricvctcd maser." (Hu@ MacMilfan, Tirc fi*-Work of Geoge Fmderick Watts, R A. (New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., 1906), v-k)

eventualiy gion'ed in the tiîle 'England's ~ichelangelo'"' Many of hiS niends admired and

even idolised him, but clearly G. P. Watts held himselfin very high esteem as weU and this

could not have ban ecuy foc his wifc to fontend with StiU, in her book about h a

husband's üfe. Mary Seton Watts fondly rrcollects that a f k her family moved to London

following her fhtherPs death in 188 1. "the opportunity of seeing Signor [as Watts prefmed

to be called] came much more ofteq and as a humble student of art as well as one paying

homage, . . . these opportmities were to me prinless. Any attempt 1 then made to d e an

impression of a visit to him - of what he said or of what he was - always feu so short of

the inspiring moments they were intended to presewe, that the pages were usuaiiy tom out

of the locked and sacred book, and 1 copied instead the words of some master in language

to express what I ~ a n t e d . " ~ In 1 883 she wrote that her initial fear of Watts was gone and

that she felt only reverence for his "getiius for understanding al1 the liîtle things of life."1°

Despite this constant admiration, Mary Seton Watts appears to have taken her husband's

'genius' in stride. and though she remaineci in awe of his talent, she felt equal to the task

of being his wife:" "Before our marriage he had constantly wamed me that I had made

8 Parnela Gerrish Nunn, Problem Pictures: Women and Men in Victoria Painting (Vermont: Ashgate

Publishing Company, 1995), 6.

9 M q Seton Watts, George Frederick Wattk TIie Annuls of an Artist 's Lqe, vol, 2 (tondon: MaMiilan

and Co., 1912), 53. niis book is commonly rdened to as Annafs in published and archival material which is how 1 will refer to it in the text

1 O Watts, 54.

I I Something men Terry, his fint wifk, could not manage. G. F. Watts had betn previously marricd to the

actress when shc was SCvMtccn and hc was forty-smn ycars old. Upon discussing the possiiility of maniage to a fiend, k was told she was too young to marry and too 014 to adopt. Ap~arcntly he considered adopting her More he finally cbose to many her. The fact that he later adopted a young girl, Lilian Chapman (agd 13) leans many unanswcrabIe questions for the hsearcher. Unfortunatcly, Watts's

myself an ideal that was not himseIf- Some eighteen rnonths aAenivards he asked me if 1

had not found out tbat he was very dinerent fiom what 1 acpected. I answered, 'Only in

being much l e s irritable than 1 thought you would k'."'*

Mer meeting through their mutuil fiend, photographer Jdia Cameron, O. F. Watts and

Mary Fraser-Tytier developed a long-standing niendohip. Chaperoned by her sister

Christina, her first visit to his studio in Little HoUand House set the tone of th&

relationship. As she descn'bed it. the two wornen waited outside his studio where the

notice ''1 must beg not to be disairbed till after two o'clock." hung on the door which soon

swung open and "Signor came forward to mat us . . . the beard was only slightly touched

with grey, his hair quite brown very fine in quality, and brushed back fiom the forehead .. .

I remember the painta much more distinctiy than his work; but he nevertheless xr

distinctly suggested to me the days of chivalry that I beîieve I should not have been

surpriseci it: on another visit, 1 had found hlln ail clad in shining armour."13 The communai

living arrangements organiseci by Carneron's sister, Sarah Prinsep, at Littie Holland House

"fiinctioned as a centre of artistic culture and cultivated unwnventionality" and it was

14 within this community that Mary Fraser-Tytler came to know G. F. Watts. This home.

- - -- - - -

interest in marrying and adopting young girls is fiu bcyond the scope of this tbesis. (Wi1.d Bfunt, England's Michelangelo (London: Hamish Hamilton, 1975), 174; Lilian Chapman is refèrrcd to at lcngth in Mary Seton Watts's Last Wi11 and Testament, Probatc held at Samerset House, London-

12 Watts, 205.

14 Jan Marsh, Pre-Raphaelite Sisterhood (New York: Quartct Bodcs, 1985), 1 52.

containing "diiy üghted, richiy colound rooms with dark passages openhg into l o e

15 studios, [always bad a table] spread with boundless welcome." Although rnnankrrd in

her A d as the birthplace of h a romance with h a husbaad, another h t e r r d l d "at

Little Holland House, instead ofdressing for dinner, you undnss ... somehow in the v a y

delighffil atrnosphere of this house 1 secm to perceive a sligbt element of loo~eness."'~

Watts had an entourage of admirers, mostiy beautifid youog women, and was somewhat

ostracised by Society because of his fded marriage to the seventeen-year-old Ellai Tetry-

Despite this and their thirty-three year age difference, Mary Fraser-Tytler chose to s p d

17 the rest of her life with him d e r many yean of tutelage and fnendship. Although the

marriage appeared to be a happy one, especially amrding to her letters and writing, there

are critics who assume this was a marriage of convenience, particularly for the elderly

Watts. Her 1938 obituary in Ine Times explained that Mary Seton Watts might have made

a name for herself in portraiture or sculpture, but having corne under the iduence of

Watts as a student, she ailowed herself to be completely dominated by his personaliw, and

when in 1886, at the age of 69, he asked for her to become his wife, "she did not hesitate

to undertake the responsib'ity and the burden. For in her sincere afEection for her idd, a

burden it was." The critic goes on to state that "the wooing itself was comparatively void

of sentiment."'* Still, the length of the mmiage (18 years) and the happy rerniniscences of

16 George du Maurier fkom Thc Young du Mrnrier, cd. D. du Maurier, 1951, 113-1 19, quoted in M a r 4

379.

17 They were d c d on Sanitday, 20 Novcmbcr 1886 (Census and Public Records ma, London).

18 "M. Watts: Wïdow of the Great Art&," Tlic Times, (London) 7 Scptemkr 1938.14,

both contradia this reading of their relationdiip. Regardles. th& collaboration was a

successful one and according to Richard lefferies, cmtor of the Watts Pictwe Gallery, it

offered Mary Seton Watts the fieedom to punue intaests requiring fjnancial backing, in

particular the developments of h a Pottas' Art ûuild. *

When Watts's public image is understood, it is clear why Liberty's might wish to associate

their produet with his name. However, many of the other designers codssioned by

Morton & Co. had equaiiy impressive reputations among Liberty's and Morton's clientele.

yet their names are absent. Though certainly a factor in Mary Seton Watts's

acknowledgement, it is uniikely that her connection with Watts was the sole reason for her

special status in the 1903 exhibition.

BER OWN INTERESTS - THE HOME ARTS AND INDUSTRIES ASSOCUTION

Mary Seton Watts's own accomptishrnents, especially with the Home Arts and Industries

Association (HAIA), cocould also have been significant for Liberty's and Morton & Co. In

1 884, she introduced Watts to the HAIA and the couple remaineci ardent supporters of the

Association throughout theû lives? Under the patronage of Lard and Lady Brownlow,

19 In conversation wiih Richard JeEeries, Summer 1998, Watts Picturc Gallcy at the Uary Seton Watts

centenw exhr'bition, Mùry Seton Wat~s: Unsung Hemine of îhe Art Noweuu. 1 wish to thaalc Mr. Jefferies for takùig tbe timc to spcak with me about her work and 18e d d g my specidiy guidcd tour of the exhi'bition 1 am espccially grateful to Janet McLtan and Richard Jdierits for king so generous about my purchase of the catalogue-

10 In 1884, Mary Won Watts was spcnding two cvcnings a WbJC at a club in Whitechaptl teaching

a clay modelling class. Accordhg to ha, the goal was to "give tbc litdr, who wcn chidy shoeblacks, an interesthg hou or two, and to amuse in thcm tht luiowledgc of the plcasurc of making something in th&

the Association was fomed by Eglantyne Tebb in the mid-1880s.~' In the Magazine of AH

in 1885, Jebb wrote that the Assoc*ation's primary purpose was to recuncile the pleasunr

of the rich with the nads of the poor. She claimed the Association began with individuais

throughout England holding classes in the evenhgs and on Saturday aftemoons "for

22 teaching handwork of a recreative descneScnption to w o r h g [people]." According to Jebb,

voluntary teaching and unconditional aid to those who held these classes for worlaag

people were the 'special features' of the organisation. Many prominent and taiented

women trained as voluntary teachers, including the Princes o f Wales who ran a

woodcarving class. These schools were supposed to be rooted in the home-life and

surroundings of the people and Jebb claimed the HALA would "gladly welcome assistance

fiom al1 those who have the same object at h e a r t . ~ ~ Other airns of the Association

included: ensuring England became the home of art through the enjoyment of beauty, and

the ability to make beautîfbl objects avaifable to the mass of the people and not the few,

making the home the centre of interest and attraction; reducing the exodus of workers

fiom country to town; reviving local village industrie+ and holding classes where

voluntary teachers would give instruction in arts and handicrafts, covering both design and

24 execution to artisans and labourers. Jebb &tes that the delight of m a h g something

- -- --

leisure time. The mmment now known as the HAM, of whkh 1 ... was a member, was Young and Signor entered keeniy into my intchsis." (Waüs, 58.)

21 Gould, 28. Mary Seton Watts dcdicated her book, The Word in Pattern, to Eglantync Jebb.

22 E.L. Jebb, The Home Arts and Industries Association," Magozine ofArt (1885): 294.

23 Ibid, 295.

24 Ibid, 294-298; and Unwia, 44.

which has "calleci forth the f Ù l exercise of all [a pason's] powers is, in these days of

divided and subdivided labour, seldom felt by the [worker]." She believed the Association

should aim to help these workers lead happier lives and have "lighter hearîs, tidier

children, cleaner cottages, and a betta moral toae aU In 1895 the Wattses nude

a substantial donation of El050 to the HAIA in order to establish the Watts Wowment

26 Fund and by 190 1 they were both vice-presidents of the HAM (there were 4 1 in total).

Books about G. F. Watts usually mention his involvement, through his wife, in the HAIA

but ofken under the pretext of her findimg a new outlet for her creative abiliw whik

supporteci financialiy by his painting: "Though Mary was dedicating her life to her

'Signor', the anis in her could not long remain suppressed. In the early y w s of her

mamage it found its principal outlet in the HAIA, an activity in which her husbmd ~ o o n

becarne involved. . . . Watts and Mary contriiuted money in their customary generosity,

Watts painting two ad hoc portraits to raise a thousand pounds. . . . Mary's interest was

chiefly in the aesthetic side of the work; Watts also stresseci its rnorai value? In typical

fashion, this writer assumes it was Watts who introduced the political or moral element

into their interest since his d e was more concemed with the aesthetics of it. Mary Seton

Watts's obituaxy in nie k e s makes reference to this as well: "Politically Mrs. Watts was

a Liberal and had been a suffi-a@st, but she cared little for society and took no part in

27 BIunt 222, Som atber books on the axtist includc: W. Loftus Ham, Wam, 1817-1904 (New York:

Frederick A Stokes Co., n.d) anâ G. K- ChCsterton, G.E Watts. London: M d DuekWorth & m., 1975-

public life, preferring to ümit her many imerests within her own environment of home

arts."'' Despite this it could be argued that it was thragh her involvement in the HAIA

that she expressed her political ideals. Lynne Walker claims that the Arts and CraAs

Movement provideci women with alternative roles, institutions and structures which they

29 then used as active agents in their own history. 1 would argue that the HALA went even

fbrther in this regard. Both organisations allowed women an altemative to the commercial

systern which excluded them and offered them the role of designer-makers which many of

30 them used to acquire financiai independence and personal filfilment.

The Home Arts and Industries Association allowed Mary Seton Watts the Ereedorn to be

political within her prescribed role as woman and wife in nineteenth-century society. This

role is outlined in the article "Artist and Wife7* tiom the Magazine of Art: "Women are

content, as a nile, to be complementary creatures. . .. To appreciate neglected genius, to

encourage genius in its temporary failures, to foster it in its struggles, and to enjoy its

successes, is a mission which the Young, generous and sentimental ferninine heart is

inclined to dream over as the happiest of human de~tinies."~' Nunn explains that, starting

in 1880, a distinct backlash against the femde artist manifested itself, in the discourse of

28 "Mrs. Watts: Widow of the Great Artist," The Times, (London) 7 September 1938, 14.

29 Lynne Walker, "The Arts and Crafts Altemative," in A Viewpom the Interior: Fernitrism. Women and

Design, eds. Judy Attfield and Pat Kirkham (London: The Women's Press, 1989), 165. For an alternative discussion of women's d e s in the Movemeat see Anthea Calkn's article in the same h i c : "Se-wal Division of Labour in the Arts and Crafts Movement" (1 5 1-1 64).

3 1 John Oldcastie, "Artist and Wife," Magazine ofArt (188 1 ) : 478.

art as much as in individual works. She daims the Magazine of Ar t was one of the most

active agents of this resurgence of male domination in British art. Commenthg on the role

of the arîist's d e she writes "it is telling ofthe rnood of this decade, in partidar, that the

artist's wife should be predicated not simply as the husband artist's complement, but

rather his cornplementary other."* In spite of her restricted role as 'artist's Me', Mary

Seton Watts manages to move beyond the boudaries of this ideology by pursuing her

interests, both ad& and political, without upsetting the deiïcate balance she was

expected to maintain. Her high-profile involvernent with the HAIA, an association

supported by royaity and with similar goals to the Arts and Crafts Movement but more

successfûl in their application, could have made her name a valuable commodity for

Liberty's and Morton & Co.

HER PHILANTHROPY - NEGOTIATING 6 S ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ SPHERES' SUCCESSFULLY

Through her phiIanthropy, Mary Seton Watts eEectively negotiated her way within and

across the 'separate ~ ~ h e r e s ' ~ ~ idealised in the nineteenth century. Martha Vicinus daims

33 Linda Kerber quotes Alexis de Tocqueville on the concept of separate spheres in marriage: "When ,..

young women rnarried ... the ineuorable opinion of the public carefirlly circumscribes her within the narrow circle of domestic interest and duties and forbids her to step beyond it" Kerber claims that de Tocqueville in this sentenœ "provideci the physical image (the circle) and the interpcetation (that it was a Iimiting boundq on choices) that would continue to characterize the metaphor [of separate spheres]." She continues by explainhg that the phrase 'separate spheres* is a metaphor for complex power relations in social and mnomic contex*. (Linâa Kehr , "Separate Spheres, FemaIe Worlds, Womads Place: The Rhetoric of Women's History," The Journal ofAmerican History 75, no. 1 (June 1988): 10, 28.) However, as Margaret Kelleher aptiy notes, "the doctrine of spheres, while a culniral and rhetorical construction, %vas no less powerful for its fictive basis. In a cenhiry of complex and changing power relations, key confiicts, negotiations and resolutions occured dong and between gender ïines." (Margaret Kelleher, and James H, Murphy, eds., Gender Perspectives in Nineteenth-Century fiefand: Public and Private Spheres (Portland, Oregon: Irish Academic Press, 1997), 17.) Feminist writers continue to deconstruct the ideology of the 'separate spheres.' See for example, Amanda Vickery, "Golden Age to Separate Spheres?

that philanthropy was traditionally women's partidar concern and, during the nineteenth

century, its definition was broadened to include virtually every major social problem. She

argues that it was nom this narrow base of "women's special duties and obligations that

women in the nineteenth century came to expand their fields of action and their personal

horizons."34 This is certainiy tnie in Mary Seton Watts's case' the most prominent

example being her design and construction o f a momiary chapel for the cemetery in

35 Compton, Surrey. In order to improve G. F. Watts's failing healtb, the couple moved to

Compton, Surrey and built an estate, Limnerslease (1 890-9 1). By 1894, Mary Seton Watts

had proposed to the Compton Parish Council the design for a mortuary chapel, to be

completed by workers in the town under her instruction. The Council accepted her

proposal and the result was the Watts Mortuary Chapel which was eventuaily dedicated by

36 the Bishop of Winchester on July 1, 1898 (Figures 19-2 1).

A Revietv of the Categories and Chronology of English Women's History," Historical Journa/ 36, no. 3 (1993): 383-414.

34 Ma& Vicinus, ed., A CYidening Sphere: Changing Roles of Ecforian Women (Bloomington: Indiana

University Press, 1977), x. Still as Melanie Unwin rightly points out, despite the HAIA's central role in the dissemination of the Arts and Cra.f?s ideology, it is rarely mentioned in written histories of either craft or design. She daims the H . s lack of recognition "lies not with the absence of its products from national collections, but also in its amateur nature and the predominantly female profile of its organisation." (Unwin, 6344.)

35 See Unwin for a more complete discussion of the Compton Mortuary Chapel and Mary Seton Watts's

resuiting activities with the HAIA,

Through the process of building this chapei, Mary Seton Watts established the Potten'

Art Guild as a branch of the HAIA-~I In 1899 she exhibiteci the chape1 altar with the Home

Arts and Industries Association at the Royal Albert Hall, but it was not untii after ber

husband's death in 1904 that the Guild was officidy named. Soon afte;, the Potters' Art

Guild was winning awards at HAIA exhibitions (Figure 2 ~ ) . ~ * Interestingly, by making

almost no reference to the architecturai design of the Chapel building, but simultaneously

referring to herseIf as the building's designer, Mary Seton Watts ensured her position was

not viewed as encroaching on the masculine profession of architecture, which would place

her in a politically radical role. Instead she aligned herselÇ through her Potten' Art Guild,

39 with the craft of decoration, a traditional site of femininity. Regardless, Mary Seton

Watts's work on the Compton Chapel demonstrates her leadership, organisational and

artistic abilities as well as her determination. Though she avoided 'encroaching on the

masculine', she did not allow herself to be restricted by it. Instead, she pursued her

interests in spite of their gendered associations, while being sure to represent herself

within the accepted noms of feminine behaviour. The Chapel's success and enthusiastic

37 Mary Seton Watts esplaineci that it wvas in the 'spint of co~operation* that slie organisai her Guild

whose unglazed terracotta (maidy giuden vases and pots) was the product of the Compton village industry. The Surrey Advertiser and County Times e.qlained that "she saw in ber Potters* Art Guild] a means of keeping men near their birthplace and at work upon something which was cüffiint fmm ordinary commercial enterprise. Through many Yeats, to her each was a friend and not so much a work man" (Surrey Advertiseer and Counfy %es (Saturday) 10 September 1938, 10-1 1; "Letter from U S. Watts to James Morton dated 3/12/1900, References to Designers, Cfaftsmen, Architects, etc. appearing in James Morton's Diaries, notebooks and general correspondenœ," Morton Sundour Archive, Archive of Art and Design, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, AAD 3/390-423.)

38 The Compton Potters' Art Guild won the RHS silver rnedal for tenacotta in 1906 and the Home Arts

Gold cross in 1910 (Gould, 15-16),

reception by the town of Compton and at the HAIA exhibitions (as early as 1899) seaireci

40 for Mary Seton Watts a name in her own nght. And the continuai success of her

Potters' Art Guild, the offshoot of the Chspel project, confirmed her abilities."

HER DESIGN - THE PEUW

Mary Seton Watts's design for the Donegal carpet, The Peiicmt, is another example of this

type of shiAing between the spheres (Figures 24-25). As mentioned earlier (Chapter 2),

the designers employed by Morton & Co. were seldom identified and those who were had

connections to the Arts and Cr&s Movement and were male. There were other women

who designed for Morton & Co., but none were acknowledged in the same manner as

42 Mary Seton Watts. Yet her position as a designer, a traditionally male role, was

tempered by her choice of design.

The creative voices of many dserent people, involved at many different Ievels of

production of a Donegal carpet, were oflen incorporated into the final product. The

JO "The Watts Mortuary Chape1 is a creation of genius, unique in England."(BIunt, 224) Considenng

earlier quotes from this source oonceniing Mary Seton Watts's abilitics and interests (see note 27 for instance) this a remarkable compliment.

4 1 In 1907, The Studio wrote: "The E.uhiiition of the WA, held armually at the Albert Hall, cannot fail to

create interest, though for those who h o p to find much work posscssing artistic merit the eshibition is usually disappointing . . . Among the work which could be seen the display of Ruskin pottery (Mi. Howson Taylor) was the most important, while the Compton Schooi, under the direaion of Mrs. G. F. Watts, showed some good e.xamples of t e m a t t a ware." The Studio 41, no. 17 1 (June 1907): 65, In view of this unkind opinion of the HAIA in general, the Compton Pottery's favourable, though tempered, mention is rather signirtcant.

42 For esample, the Glasgow designer and teacher Jessie Newbery (Figure 23). 1 thank Dr- Janice Helland

for bringing rhis to my attention.

Donegal weavers were expeded to foiiow a pattern set out for them by a designer and

were never recognised, at least not in archival material, as adding any creativity to the

carpets.

Cheryl Buckiey's theory of design suggests a method for analysing the symbolism and

ferninine voice in Mary Seton Watts's carpet design. Buckley daims women's cultural

codes are produced within the context of patriarchy. Their expectations, needs, and

desires as "both designers and consumes are constructed within a patriarchy which

prescribes a subservient and dependent role to ~ o r n e n . " ~ ~ Mary Seton Watts was well-

educated and researched her designs carefùlly, whether for a mg, a pattem book (such as

her The Word it, Pattern), or her terracotta wares. Raised by her grandparents at Aldoune

Castle, their Highland estate near Inverness, she began her education with a govemess

followed by several years studying in Europe (Dresden and Rome). She attended the

44 South Kensington Art Training School when she was in her early twenties. By 1872 she

was studying at The Slade, established as a "declared training ground for fine artists,

unusual in being the first such public fine art school to admit women on equal terms as

,,45 men. She also studied privately with a professor, the sculptor Aimée-Jules Dalou, after

43 Buckley, 260.

44 Watts, 53-9 1; "Mrs. Watts: Widow of the Great Artist," The Thes, (Wednesday) 7 September 1938, 14;

The Surrey Aàvertiser and Courq Times. (Saturday) 10 September 1938, 10-1 1. Aldourie Cade dates back to 1626 and was enlargeci in 1850 by her grandfather, WiIliam Fraser-Tytier. Mary Seton Watts's family Iiad strong ties to the region, her graadfather was the SheriBI-Deputy for forty-two years. The family also had ties to the Iiterary elite of Scotlanâ, such as Sir Walter Scott, Burns, and later Tennyson (Godd, 18-19).

45 Pamela Gemsh Nunn, Victorian CVonien Artists (London: Women's Press, 1987). 50.

which she became Watts's student- Upon manying Watts in 1886, Mary Seton Watts

studied anatomy, photography and geso dur0 with various members of her husband's

(6 Arts and Crafts cucle. The Magazine of An's cntic wrote of women's education in

1881: "It is the fault of the education of ladies that they redise so Little what goes to make

proficiency in decorative art. . . . Their tirne has been spent in acquiring accomplishments

which accomplish nothing."" Unlike the 'ladies' referred to in this article, Mary Seton

Watts's education served her well and allowed her to estabtish her pottery as a viable

product on the market.

Much of the writing portrays Mary Seton Watts as marrying 'late in life' (at the age of

48 36). Since many well-educated women did not marry at d l , or did so when they were

older, this assurnption is not necessady accurate. Still, though not perhaps true in Mary

Seton Watts's circle, this portrayal does offer some insight into possible attitudes held

49 toward her by society in general. Regardless, her early unmarried years permitted the

46 Henry Moore, WJ Stillman, Fredenc Hollyer, and Osmund Weeks, Walter Crane's assistant (Gould,

32).

47 Lewis F. Day, Magcuine ofArt (1881), quoted in Bernard Denvir, The Lare Victorians Art, Design and

Society, 1852- 191 0 (New York: Longman Group, 19%6), 208.

48 Middle class women at this tirne manied on average at age 25, which was at most one to three years

older than the age of the general fernale population at mamage, which ranged between 20 and 24 (Patricia Braaca, Silent Sisterhood: Middle C/m Women in the Victorian Horne (Pittsburgh: Carnegie- Mellon University Press, 1975), 5).

19 For esample, Martha Vicinus claims "the unmarried woman was an important source of humour in

music halls and in operettas. .., No longer innocent and ignorant, it was obscene and comic in performances that a middle-aged wornan shouîd stiil want znarrïage - or any man would want her." (Martha Vicinus, ed, SuBr and Be Stiff: Monten in the Victorian Age (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1973), .xk)

designer to take her education seriously and gave her the opportunity to expand it

thoroughly. As weil, her curiosity and desire to learn contributed a great deal to her design

work: " M q [Seton Watts's] imaginative schemes in gesso and temcotta bas-relief were

infomed by extensive research into ancient religions and civilisations, .. . a gesso ceiling

scheme at Limnerslease was to have included twelve panels representing Egypt, Judaism,

Brahminism, Buddhism, Assyria, and Christianity' Persia, Scandinavia, Rome, Greece,

China and Central ~rnenca."" In her Amais, Mary Seton Watts recounts k i n g interested

in and trying to leam ancient symbolism, with the approval of her husband: "He liked the

little concrete signs I found especially when comected with the religious aspirations of

the race to which they belonged. He called it a language which expressed the highest ideas

of man, and thought it a fine study, much beyond the acquirement of antiquarian

knowledge; as much so as the art that has something to reveal is beyond the art which is a

mere fringe of ~ r n a r n e n t . ~ ~ ~

Buckley's assumption that women's designs are informed by patriarchy is confirmed in

The Pelican. In a lengthy letter to the weavers who would tufi the carpet, Mary Seton

Watts explains each symbol used in her design. This was unusual for a designer to do and

indicates her desire to help 'educate' the workers - allowing them to take pride in the final

product and joy in their labour. Her written explanation is often repeated in press accounts

of the carpet and used to promote the industry, for it was symbolism which appealed to

50 Gould, 42.

5 1 Watts, 243.

the taste of the target market: "[The carpet] included syrnbols such as the hearth, the

syrnbol of the house; the heart, symbol of love; the cross, of expansion; the dragons,

caretakers; light and dark chequers, the sign of watchtiilness; and also birds at the four

52 corners, representative of the pelican feeding her young in distress, with her own blood."

As Buckley points out, the codes of design used by the designer are produced within

patriarchy to express the needs of the dominant group and an, therefore, male codes. She

claims that to legitimise this process of cuItural coding, the "language of design is

presented as a universal tmth . . . and inevitably, these definitions also serve the interests of

the dominant group, which attempts to disguise its interests with [this] mask of

53 universality." Thus in her study of ancient symbolism, Mary Seton Watts was encoding

her design with 'male codes' established through her own education and the accepted

notions of good taste in her society. Although she performed the traditionally male role of

designing a carpet, the design created by Mary Seton Watts refleds her immersion in the

dominant group of her society, i.e. upper middle class, male, and British. Her design

appears to conform to stereotypes which saw women's art production as an extension of

the maker's femininity, reùiforcùig the connection between biology and creativity.

However, it could aiso be argued that, at the same time, women such as Mary Seton

52 "Carpet Making in Ireland," The Gael, June 1903, 188. Interestingly, although not mentioned in her

letter to the weavers, the symbol of the pelican feeüïng her young in her nest is also on the crest of the Stewart clan. Traditionally, the Seton clan was known for its loyaity and fim attachent to the Stewart dynasty; at one time offering assistance to Mary Stuart (Queen of Scots) and losing titles and exqensive estates as a result. As well, the National Collection of Scotland contains a portrait of Mary Stuart purchased from the Fraser-Tytler family. Clearly there are many possible comections between the Stewart and Seton clans, the Fraser-Tytier name, and the symbol of a pelican used by Mary Seton Watts in this carpet. Unforhinately, 1 have not been able to confirrn these links within the scope of this thesis.

Watts "worked against the ideological grain by using craft fui her case carpet design and

pottery], not as amateur pursuits but as an area in which they could practice as

professionals."54 Though Mary Seton Watts was uiught between gender roles, she SM

managed to create her own space in which to produce art.

BER ETHNICITY- CELTICISM

Mary Seton Watts's Celtic-inspired designs for the terrawtta work on the Compton

Chapel reflect her position as a Scottish woman within English society, in between two

worlds. Her thoughts on the Chapel design reveal her intentions: "In trying to revive in

some degree that living quality which was in al1 decoration when patterns had meaning,

the character of our own Celtic art - ancient British, Irish and Scotch as it is - has been

followed, and many of the symbols are taken corn carved Stones and crosses, or nom

those rare and exquisite illuminations on vellum, now the treasures of national museums

and libraries, but once the most sacred possessions of the Celts, who with devoted labour

loved thus to make beautifil their manoscript book of the ~ o s ~ e l s . " ' ~ This privileging of

Celtic ancestry in both decoration and desire, at a time when Scotland was being re-

invented as both a tounst attraction and, politically and economicdly, an extension of

England could be considered indicative of a form of nationalism by Mary Seton Watts, as

56 a displaced Scot.

54 Walker, 170-7 1.

55 MacMillan, 63.

56 Unwin, 32; and Watts (VOL 1), 5,

Mary Seton Watts met the Scottish artist Margaret Macdonald and the Irish artist Phoebe

Traquair (who iived and produced most of her art in Edinburgh) and was well aware of

Scottish initiatives in art at this time. In a letter dated 15 March 1901, she also praised

James Morton for attempting to design Celtic style mgs: "How glad 1 am that you are

going to Cam, forward the Celtic Art ... it is Our own - not just copying. There is no

vitaiity in c ~ ~ ~ i n ~ . " ~ ' ClearIy she aligned henelfwith the popular Celtic Revival occurrïng

in her native Scotland, as weil as IreIand- As a 'Celt' herseif, Mary Seton Watts's claims

to this heritage could be considered 'legitimate' and would have increased her power to

consecrate such objects.

A series of letters between James Morton and Mary Seton Watts beginning with her

design for The Pelican carpet and continuing through their mutual interest in the HAIA, in

particular her Potters' Art Guild, indicate their initial business relationship soon developed

into a tnendship. Her reference to James Morton as her 'Knight of Commerce', whose

work embodied the chivalrous in trade, is one of the many compliments she lavished upon

58 him in her letters. It is from these letters that Mary Seton Watts's comection to the

Donegal industry is firmly established. By way of thanks for a m g delivered to her by

57 "Letter from M. S. Watts to James Morton dated 15/3/1901," Morton Sundour Archive, Archive of Art

and Design, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, AAD 3/390-423,

58 "Letter from M. S. Watts to James Morton dated 28/4/1929, Conespondence with Mrs. G. F. Watts

mainiy in her widowhood @est 1904) on management of her Potiers' Art Guild," Morton Sundour Archive, Archive of Art and Design, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, AAD 4/5 17-5 19,

Morton, she offers to have her husband sketch him as a gift to his ftture d e , a work in

oil which was eventuaiiy presented to Mrs. Morton by the Wattses as a wedding gift

(Figure 26)." An entry in James Morton's diary confirms this Wendship. He and his sister

visited the Compton Pottery and James writes "it was nice to see the people and the work

again. Mrs. Watts was much older, but quiet and fine as ever." His visit was not business-

related, as he explains "there was nothing they Mary Seton Watts and her business

manager, Mr. Nicol] wanted me to do especially, but simply to have a talk and be told of

the deve~o~ments."~ Another example of their close business t-elationship is Mr. Nicot

himself, recornrnended to Mary Seton Watts by James as a favour when she became too

61 old to manage affairs herself. Mary Seton Watts's special place in the 1903 exhibition of

Morton's Donegal carpets could be due in pan to their fnendship, as a mark of his respect

for her.

CONCLUSION

There are numerous ways in which Mary Seton Watts accumulated enough symbolic

capital to be included and identified in the Liberty's 1903 exhibition catalogue - an

exception to common practices. The name "Mrs. G. F. Watts" brings to mind her artist

59 "Letter from M. S. Watts to James Morton dated 10/12/19ûû, Correspondence with MIS. G. F. Watts

mainly in her widowhood," Morton Sundour Archive, Archive of Art and Design, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, AAD 4/5 17-5 19.

60 "James Morton diary entry datai 30/3/1920," Morton Sundour Archive, Archive of Art and Design,

Victoria and Albert Museum, London, M D 3/390-423.

61 "Correspondence between U S. Watts and James Morton," Morton Sundour Archive, Archive of Art

and Design, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, AAD 3/390-423 and AAD 4/5 17-5 19.

husband, his paintings and politics. Certainiy through her marriage to this artist Mary

Seton Watts acquired considerable symbolic capital. It seems unlikely, however, to be the

sole reason she was identifieci by Liberty's. The reputations and recognised names of

several other leading designers employtd by Morton & Co. undermine this possibility. By

exploring Mary Seton Watts's own art production and design expertise, her philanthropic

ski11 with the HAIA and Potters' Ar& Guild, and James Morton's fiiendship and respect for

her, her own power to consecrate and give value to her work becornes evident. The

reasons for Liberty's decision to achowledge this particular designer can only be

speculated, but by understanding ho w Liberty's, Morton's, and the Wattses achieved their

various levels of prestige and capitals of consecration, 1 hope to have established a method

for such speculation. As weii, by exarnining Mary Seton Watts's personal symbolic capital,

1 have brought to light some of the art production of one woman designer, neglected in

most art histories.

The purpose of this study has becn to offer s social histov of Alexander Morton &

Company's Donegal carpets - their production and patronage. At their most popular, the

tum-of-the-century Donegal carpets received extensive press average and the

quintessential late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century taste-maker, Liberty's, praised

Morton's endeavour in Ireland in their exhibition cataiogues. In more recent accounts, the

Morton industry has been depicted as 'saving' an entire Irish county fkom poverty and

destitution. This literature about the Donegal carpets makes the Morton enterprise -und

'too good to be true', which is the reason 1 began to investigate this topic.

The most interesting aspect of Morton's venture in Ireland is the way these carpets were

promoted as artistic products. The Donegal carpets appealed to upper- and middle-class

consumers in Britain, Ireland, Nonh America, Australia, New Zealand, and South Afnca.

Prominent designers in the Arts and Crafts Movement created designs for these carpets

which were also accepted as part of the visual a r t s of the Celtic Revival in Ireland. The

Donegal carpet's success can be explained using Pierre Bourdieu's theory conceming the

social formation of taste. Identifying the complex institutional hmework, which

authorised and legitirnised the Donegal carpet as an artistic product, has been central to

this project since, according to Bourdieu, art and its producen do not exist outside of this

framework In this study of Morton's Donegal carpets, 1 have tested the validity of thrœ

aspects of Bourdieu's theory. kbilus, cuitural codes, and symblic capital.

As an introduction to the topic, the 'story' of Morton's Donegal carpets prescnted

through archival material, press accounts and histoncal writing, bas revealed several issues

involved in this enterprise, such as ethnicity, gender, class and cultural appropriation.

Examinhg how this product was manipulateci by the press, promoters and historiaru

demonstrates how the Donegal carpet story was wrïtten to appeal to a certain hubitus,

that of the prospective Donegal carpet consumer.

The design transitions endorsed by Morton & Co. demonstrate this point visuaily. The

cultural codes embedded in the carpets relate to the habitus of Morton's clients. In this

study, 1 have attempted to locate the Donegal carpets within the matenal and ideological

conditions of consumption and production doing so, 1 hope to have addressed the

concems raised in my re-telling of the Donegal carpet story.

Findy, the case study of Mary Seton Watts tested Bourdieu's concept of symbolic capital.

Since artistic practice is situated practice, i.e. set in a given wntext, Mary Seton Watts's

art production demonstrates the concept of symbolic capital. An exploration of h a art

reveds how this designer mediated aesthetic codes as weil as ideological, social and

material processes and institutions.' In addition, 1 have tried to demonstrate how Liberty's

1 Janet Wolff. The Sacial Production ofArt (New York: New York University Pms, 1993), 137.

and Morton & Co. couM have kcreased their symbofc capitai, and ultirnately their

economic capitai, by association to Mary Seton Watts.

Research into Morton & Co. and its historical context reveals many omissions in both

contemporary and recent Iiterahire about Donegai carpets. Rather than attempting to füi

the gaps of previous accounts, this history of Morton & Co.3 Donegal carpets is meant to

establish one usenil method for exploring issues imrolved in the production of these

carpets, such as ethnicity, gender, class and cultural appropriation.

Within this discussion of taste, Bourdieu's concepts of hobiius, cultural codes, and

symbolic capitai have been appiied to explain the popularity of Donegai carpets in the art

market of the nineteenth century. The instance of Alexander Morton & Company's

Donegal carpets confirms Bourdieu's premise that taste is not a universai aesthetic or

cultural practice but, rather, is socially constructed through a lifelong process of absorbing

a social order.

MORTON SUMK)UR ARCHIVE, ARCHIVE OF ART AM) DESIGN Victoria and Albert Museum (London)

A&esses of catpet weavers ut Wirlfom AAD 3/37 1.

BiogrqhicuZ Note on A l d e r Morton, WrYnn for the Firn 's Mimte Boak by Jmes Morton, 1924. AAD 3/43 1-434.

Blafk ond Whire Photographs of Des~~gnsfiom 1890 on. AAD 4/1065- 1 107.

Catalogue of Some Textiles in Morzon 's Collection. AAD 4/2 17.

Correspondence with C. F. A. Voysey. M D 414 10-454 - 1 978.

Corre~ondence with Designers AAD 4/54 1 5 50.

Corre~pordence with George Waftorrr AAD 4/455-5 1 5 - 1978.

J m s Morîon Notehok Ji& 1903-December 1903. AAD 3/372-373.

Letterfrom M S. W i t s to Jmes Morton &ted 28/4/1929. Correpndence with Mrs. G. F. Watts in k r Wi&whood 1904) on Management of her Pot fers' Art GuiZd AAD 4/5 16-540.

Letter Jiom M. S. Watts tu Jmes Morton &ted 15/3/1POl, References to Designers,, Crapsmen. Archilec~s~ etc. Appeming in Jmes Morton 's Dianes, Notebooks und General C o r r e ~ ~ n c e . AAD 3/390-423.

Notes d e in 1913 on sonte of my activities in AM. & Co. - Jmes MOrfo~t, AAD 3/158-3/2361991 (complete records held at the Scottish Records Ofnce, Edmburgh, ref GD 326/194).

Notes written in 1916 by Jmes M-n - Business Descriptions. AAD 3/237-266 (Originai notes held at the Scottish Records Ofnce, Edinburgb, ref GD3261197).

P rice List: Cmpets and Rugs. Aleraiuder M o ~ o n Sons & Co. AAD 41662.

''Rugs & Carpets - Rich Novelties and Beautifiil Standards - CChumg New Decomtive Fabrics in Unfadable Colours." In S d m and Donegai Catd~gue. New York: Witcombe, McGeachin & Co., c. 1900. AAD 4/666 - 1978,

NATIONAL ART LIBRARY Victoria and Albert Museum (London)

Ariisric CaipeB Produced on British Looms, Liberty & Co. catalogue no. 171, 1910. Special Coilection pressmark LC 17 1.

Mibition of Modem Celtic Art (ut the Gr@on GaIIery, M d 1903). Special Collection pressmark 200.B. 180.

Founding a National Ina7Ùstt-y.- Ikish Cmpet Exhbition, Liberty & Co. catalogue no. 80. Special Collection pressmark LC 80.

M o r m Family Correspondence. Special Coliedon pressmark 86.PP. 13.

Morton, James. Fubrics: AaWesses of Designers and Sources of Design and the Lik (ïlecember 1929-0ctober 1931). S pecial Coliection pressrnark 86.HEL25.

Sargent, Irene. "A New Irish Industry." The Craftsman 1, no. 3 (December 190 1): 34-39.

Some Hisforic Donegal Crnpets (Brochure c. 1898). General Coliection pressmark 147. A 31.

Two Design Record Book - Kep by Sir Jmes Morton between 1900-1905. Special Collection pressmark 86IH.27.

Victoria and Albert Museum: nte Mortom: Three Generizîions of Textile Creation, 7 Jme-15 July 1973 (Exhibition dogue) . General Collection pressmark 77.L.

Watts, Mary Seton. n e Word in Pattern- General Collection pressrnark 1 1.F.28.

Kiiiybegs Archive, Old Carpet Factory, Fintra Road, KiUybegs, Co. Donegal Intemet: www.irish-trade.ie.

CENSUS AND PUBLIC RECORDS OFFICE

Mary Fraser Tytler and George Fredecick Watts m a g e certincate: District of Epsom vol. 2% p.28.

Mary Seton Watts's Last WIN and Testament, Probate held at Somerset House, London

NEW SPAPERS

"Developing an Irish Industry." Moming Adbertiser, 9 March lgO3,6.

"An Exhibition of Donegal Carpets." Queen. The Lady's Nëwspaper, 28 Febmary-14 March 1903,347 and 438.

"An Exhibition of Irish Carpets." Morknne: An IIIustrated J m I of Farhon and &cial Evenrs, (Saturday) 14 March l903,53 8.

Hardie, Martin. "Japanese Art." Queen, The Lady 's Newspclper, 1 8 Iune 19 10, 1 100.

"Irish Carpets." Dai& Telegraph, 9 March 1903, 7.

"Irish Carpet Exhibition." Irish Indepn&nt and Nation, (Monday) 9 March 1 903, 5.

"Irish Carpet Exhibition-" me Times (London), 9 March 1903, 1 1.

"The Irish Carpet Industry." SI-d, 9 March 1903,2.

"A New Irish Industry." BIack dt Whire, (Saturday) 2 1 March 1903, 8.

Sumey Advertiser d Cmnty &es. (Saturday) 10 September 193 8, 10- 1 1.

"Mrs. Watts: Widow of the Great Amst." Th4 Times, 7 September 1938, 14.

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Fieure 1 Edmund Evans, Aladdh; or The Wonder/ul Lump, 1875. Wood-engraving pubtished by George RoutIedge & Sons, Londan, Glasgow, New York (27 s 23.5 cm) [Catalogue item no. 198, Sato and Watanabe, Japan cznd Britain, 130) "An Arabian fantasy is here represented in an emaordinary juxtaposition of 'esotic' images from fapan, China and other Oriental countries. This page shows an Arabic pritcess dressed in a kimono and 'geta' (Japanese sandals), attended by Japanese maids and African servants wlio are holding a Japanese fan and parasol, wlule Aladdin, watching the princess behind tlie door, is dressed in Chinese style. The architectural details show Japanese motifs in the lacquer screen of tlie doors and in painted tiles. A vase wvith hydrangea is seen in the foreground in tlie Japanese manner."

Fimre 2 Charles Rickctts (1866-1931), Codume for the Mikado, c. 1926. [Catalogue item no. 215: Sato and Watanabe, Japan ancf Britain, 133 1

Fimire 3 Spinning and carpet wcaving at Morton's first premisfs in Killybcgs, County Done@ [Haslarn, Arts and Crafrs Carpets, 951

Fimire 4 Morton Family Photograph: back row - William, Alesander (Alec), James, Gavin (Guy); front row - Mary, Maggie, Jeanie, AIesander (senior), Agnes, Jeanie (senior), Kelen (Nellie). [Jocelyn Morton, Three Generarions, 751

Fimire 5 Eady Donegal earpet closely modelled after an Eastern esample, design attributed to Gavin Morton, date unavailable. mslam, Arts and CraBs Carpets. 1031

Fieure 6 Donegd carpet designed by Gwin Morton and G. K. Robertson, c. 1899. [Haslam, Arts and Cra/rs Curpets, 971

Fipure 8 The Donnemura, Donegal carpet designed by C. F. A. Voysey, eshibitcd at Liberty's in 1903. ~ s l a m , Arrs and Crafls Carpers, 1221

F i a r c 9 The Glenmure, Donegal carpet designed by C. F. A. Voysey, exhibited at Liberty's in 1903. waslam, Arts and Cra/rs Carpefs, 1001

Figure 10 Drawing for a design by George Walton, c. 1899. Ffoon, George bl'alton, 100 J

Fimire 11 George Walton, detail of stcncilled linen uscd on the friezc in the morning m m of the Elm Bank, 1898. (Moon, George JValfon, 691

Fieiïre 12 Peony and Li&, textile design by George Walton for Morton & Co., September 1927. Noon, George bvalton, 1711

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Fieure 13 The Ardnture, Doncgnl carpet woven fo~I,ibcrty9s c 1903. The design is an adaptation [rom the Book of Kel/s. m l a m , Arts and Crafls Corpets, 130-3 1 1

Fimre 14 Folio 128v of the Book of K e f k Symbols of the four evangelists. [Bernard Meehan, The Book of Kells: An IIlustrated Introduction to the Manuscripî in Trinity College Dublin (London: niames & Hudson, 1994), JO]

Fieure 15 Folio 27v of the Book of Kelk Symbols of the four evangelists. weelian, The Book of Kelfs, 81

Fimire 16 Founding a N&o~al fndusfry - Irish C a r - . Photograph of Liberty's exhibition of DonegaI carpets (with garden pottery fiom the Potters' Art Guild) at the Grafton GalIei)., London, 1903. [ G d b Mary Seron Fi'cltts, 1 21

Fieure 17 Selfpumit , Mary Seton Fraser-Tytler. Oil on canvas, 1881 (68 s 55.2 cm). [Gould, Adnry Seton Watts, 271

Figure 18 Mary Seton Watts and G. F. Watts in a reading alcove designed by Mary Seton Watts, Limnerslease, 1893. [Gould, Mary &ton Watts, 401

Fimire 19 The Watts Mortuary Chapel, Compton, Surrey, 1894-98, [Gould, Mary Seton jhtts, 451

Fiwre 20 Spirit of Hope Frieze, Watts Chapel, 1896-98- [Goulb hfaty Seron JVatts, IG]

Fimire 21 SpEt of Trutk, detail, Watts Chapel, date unavailable. [Gould ikfnry Seton IVatrs, 4771

Fiaure 22 Terracotta garden pottery, Potters' Art Guild, 1898-1902. [Catalogue item nos. 8 1-83, 86, 87. 90, Gouid, Mary Seton Flfarrs, 5 11

Figure 25 Detail of pelican on carpet reverse. [Gould. h(ary Selon CVarts, 531