Maker/Retailer Biography

Jeffrey & Co

Dates: 1836-1930

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Wallpaper manufacturers in Islington, founded as Jeffrey, Wise and Co.  By 1840 the firm had introduced roller printing of paper on the principle previously employed for the printing of calico. In 1864 the firm was engaged by William Morris to print the Morris firm's first wallpapers. In 1866 Metford Warner (1843-1930) joined as a junior partner, and it was due to his adventurous design policy that C.L. Eastlake, William Burges, E. W. Godwin, L.F. Day, B.J. Talbert and C.F.A. Voysey were associated with the firm, which also printed designs by Owen Jones for Jackson & Graham and by A.H. Mackmurdo for the Century Guild. In 1871 Warner became the sole proprietor of the company. The much publicized 'combination papers', with integrated designs for dado, filling and frieze were devised for the company by the Ipswich architect Brightwen Binyon. Other designs by H. W. Batley, Heywood Sumner, Henry Wilson, G. A. Audsley, W.J. Neatby and George Walton were also printed. A series of tri partite papers by Walter Crane gained two gold medals at the 1876 Philadelphia Exhibition. Many more prizes followed, among others at Paris in 1878, 1889 and 1900, and at Chicago in 1893. Metford Warner continued to direct the company with his sons until the I920s; in 1930 Jeffrey & Co. was absorbed by Arthur Sanderson.