The Wardle Pattern Books at the Whitworth Art Gallery The group of Wardle pattern books in the Whitworth Art Gallery are famed for their

association with the designs of William Morris (Thomas Wardle and William Morris) and

Liberty’s (Wardle & Co. and Liberty). But they also contain abundant information about

Wardle’s own work, and about English printed textile design in general during the Arts and

Crafts period. There are eleven books in the group, of which ten relate to Hencroft Works in

Leek, where Thomas Wardle set up textile printing in 1875, continuing until its closure in

1908. The remaining book covers work carried on by the subsequent family firm at Pale

Meadow in Bridgnorth from 1908 to 1930 (Wardle Family Companies). When these books,

along with related textile samples, were presented to the Gallery in 1962, they were the only

such design records remaining with the successor firm. However, they are not a complete

set, but only about half of the original sequence for Hencroft Works. Nonetheless, they

provide a broad sampling of production that can be supplemented by other documentary

records.

The pattern books can be classed under four headings:

1. Trials and work commissioned by Morris & Company between 1875 and 1884 This is a group of five books that cover much of the developmental work for William Morris’s

first fifteen printed textile patterns and their colourings.

Volume Pattern book

sequence Dates covered Whitworth

reference number Pages

Vol. 1 ~900-1067 July-October 1875 Volume missing --- Vol. 2 1068-1319 November 1875-May 1876 T.14003 119 Vol. 3 1320-1576 June-December 1876 Volume missing --- Vol. 4 1577-1738 January-August 1877 T.14004 92 Vol. 5 1736-1973 August 1877-October 1878 T.14005 118 Vol. 6 [1974-1988]

1989-2355 [November 1878 missing] Dec 1878-Nov 1882

T.14006 187

Vol. 7 2356-2498 November 1882-May 1884 T.14013 73

Block printed golding from John Welsh, Clayton Vale

These books hold samples taken from ‘fents’, which were the ends

saved from printed or dyed cloth to be used for comparing with

subsequent work. The fents include trials of new colours and cloths,

approved standards used for matching, and samples kept as a record of

each separate batch or order filled. The pattern books functioned both

as a method of communication, and a system of quality control. Morris

would have held the corresponding fents from which the samples were

cut. Thus he could order a particular colour and pattern by reference to

its number, and when the new batch arrived, he could compare it to his

fent to see that it was sufficiently close to the standard. This system of

working was common throughout the British textile industry and is still used today.

Included in Volume 6 are a few items produced by other manufacturers that might have

formed part of a discussion between Morris and Wardle, or may have been simply

haphazardly filed. Clayton Vale printworks in Manchester, then run by Wood & Wright, is

identified as the source of one sample (T.14006, p.83).

2. Commissioned and in-house block prints between 1880 and 1907 This group includes a pair of books that detail the earliest block-printed patterns of Thomas

Wardle and Company in the 1880s, alongside important commissions, such as work for

Liberty’s (Thomas Wardle and Liberty). A third book records hand-blocked, and some

machine-printed, patterns dated 1903 to 1907 when Bernard Wardle and Thomas Wardle

junior managed the firm. This includes work for Liberty’s, Donald Brothers and Morris &

Company.

Volume Pattern

sequence Dates covered Whitworth

reference number Pages

Vol. 1 1-107 1880-1883 T.14007 216 Vol. 2 108-202 1884-1889 T.14008 192 Vol. 8 701-785

763A-785A 1903-1907 T.14010 169

These books were used to record information about hand-blocks held by the company, in a

readily accessible format. Wooden printing blocks were usually stored on racks adjoining the

printing workshop, where the humidity of the working atmosphere kept them from cracking.

The sets needed for each pattern were stacked together identified by the pattern number

painted on the side of each block. The block record books allowed the manager to have at

hand all the information needed about any particular pattern, particularly the current pattern

name and number, how many blocks were in the set, who owned the blocks, and if the

pattern was contracted to a particular company. The books could be used to check the stock

from time to time, to note any blocks returned or those no longer useful; the marks of several

inventories can be seen in the

Wardle block books. The books

from the 1880s often give additional

specifications of how the blocks

were to be printed, and the range of

cloths suitable (The research value

of textile business archives).

Block-printed patterns were typically

recorded by prints proofed on paper.

Using paper was cheaper and Renish Border, block print proof on paper with notes on blocks and fabrics on adjacent page

quicker than sampling on cloth, while also providing a format more easily stored in a book.

Proofs showing the full repeat were made for registering copyright in a pattern, or for

recording how a complex set of blocks was intended to fit together. However, for the record

books, only a portion of the proof was used, enough to visually identify the design and the

number of colours.

3. Machine-printed patterns from Hencroft Works, 1892 to 1908 This group is complete, consisting of two books used to detail a range of work printed with

engraved rollers by machine from the time of the introduction of machine printing at Hencroft

to the close of the works.

Volume Pattern

sequence Dates covered Whitworth

reference number Pages

No.1 209-882 1892-1906 T.14009 200 ‘M’ 255-1007 1906-1908 T.14012 96

Wardle’s machine printing operation was small, but this allowed the firm to offer an expanded

range to customers, including silk garment fabrics. Machine printing on silk was a specialist

process practised by only a few printers. Printing rollers,

because of their heavy weight, were stored near the

workshop, but pattern books allowed the manager to keep

track of the stock of patterns available. Since printing rollers

contained a valuable quantity of copper, they were recycled

if further orders of a particular pattern were not expected,

and the corresponding pages of the book annotated. The

first machine-printing book contains 115 numbered patterns.

The second book was begun when the first book was filled

up, carrying over the records of around thirty patterns still in

stock, with seven new patterns added in the course of use.

Proofing of printing rollers had to be done on cloth, but

cotton was used to save the expensive silk for production itself. Thus the books may contain

either a piece of the proofed fabric or a printed silk sample. Both hand-block and machine

patterns were numbered by Wardle’s in one sequence.

Roller-print on silk. A note below the sample states that the roller was ‘returned to Mr Welch’

4. A notebook of print paste recipes for hand-block work undertaken by Bernard Wardle and Company, mainly for Morris & Company, between 1909 and 1930 Volume Pattern

sequence Dates covered Whitworth

reference number Pages

Vol. 1 By pattern name

September 1909-1915 plus additions to 1930

T.14011 66

Bernard Wardle introduced to the company more accurate methods of colour mixing learned

during his apprenticeship in Alsace, including metric measurements. This notebook logs the

recipes used to colour Morris patterns in the period when the original collaborators were no

longer alive. Changes of recipe could be occasioned by the availability of new dyestuffs, the

decision to re-colour a pattern, shortages of supply (during the First World War), or the

varying strength of colour thickeners. New recipes were noted in the book, sometimes on

slips of paper pinned to the appropriate page.

by Dr Philip Sykas