Designer Biography

William Frend De Morgan

Born: 1839

Died: 1917

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From 1861 De Morgan was involved with the production and design of stained glass. In 1869 he noticed that the yellow stain of silver that he used in his glass making, when over fired frequently showed an iridescence similar to that of lusters of Deruta ceramics in Gubbio, Italy.  He decided to see if he could replicate the effect on the surface of a glazed Dutch tile.  Encouraged by Morris he began to concentrate on ceramics, designing tiles for his firm, alongside Simeon Solomon and Albert Moore, his contemporaries at the Academy Schools. His Orange House pottery at Cheyne Row in Chelsea started production in 1873; in 1882 he moved with Morris to Merton Abbey. He worked at the Sands End Pottery in Fulham from 1888-98 in partnership with the architect Halsey Ricardo. He continued the Sands End Pottery until 1907 when he turned to writing novels; his partners from 1898, Charles and Fred Passenger and Frank Iles, kept the pottery in production until 1911. De Morgan made a significant contribution to the Art Pottery movement, he was the first in modern English pottery to reproduce the exquisite blues and greens of old Persian ware and he rediscovered the silver and copper lustre’s of ancient Hispano-Moresque and Italian Majolica. Among his contemporaries in this field he most admired the work of the Frenchman Clement Massier and the Cantagalli workshop in Florence.