Arts and Crafts Essays

Arts and Crafts Essays was an influential collection of essays on the decorative arts by the members of the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society published in 1893. The preface was written by William Morris, and the essays were mostly catalogue introductions to exhibitions organised by the society. The contributors were leading figures in their fields, and helped to shape design and handicraft in a wide variety of fields. Many of the contributors were architects.^[1]^[2]

"The Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society has availed itself from the first of both lecture and essay, as well as the display of examples. Lectures and demonstrations were given during the progress of the Exhibitions, and essays written by well-known workers in the crafts of which they treated have accompanied the catalogues. These papers have now been collected together, and revised by their authors, and appear in book form under the editorship of Mr. William Morris, whose name has been practically associated with the revival of beauty in the arts and crafts of design in many ways before our Society came into existence, and who with his co-workers may be said to have been the pioneer of our English Renascence, which it is our earnest desire to foster and perpetuate." - Walter Crane

The Essays

Of the Revival of Design and Handicraft: with Notes on the Work of the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society - Walter Crane
Textiles - William Morris
Of Decorative Painting and Design - Walter Crane
Of Wall Papers - Walter Crane
Fictiles - G.T. Robinson
Metal Work - W.A.S. Benson
Stone and Wood Carving - Somers Clarke
Furniture - Stephen Webb
Stained Glass - Somers Clarke
Table Glass - Somers Clarke
Printing - William Morris and Emery Walker
Bookbinding - T. J. Cobden-Sanderson
Of Mural Painting - Ford Madox Brown
Of Sgraffito Work - Heywood Sumner
Of Stucco and Gesso - G. T. Robinson
Of Cast Iron - W.R. Lethaby
Of Dyeing as an Art - William Morris
Of Embroidery - May Morris
Of Lace - Alan S. Cole
Of Book Illustration and Book Decoration - Reginald Blomfield
Of Designs and Working Drawings - Lewis F. Day
Furniture and the Room - Edward S. Prior
Of the Room and Furniture - Halsey Ricardo
The English Tradition - Reginald Blomfield
Carpenters' Furniture - W.R. Lethaby
Of Decorated Furniture - J.H. Pollen
Of Carving - Stephen Webb
Intarsia and Inlaid Wood-Work - T.G. Jackson
Woods and Other Materials - Stephen Webb
Of Modern Embroidery - Mary E. Turner
On Materials- May Morris
Colour - May Morris
Stitches and Mechanism - Alan S. Cole
Design - John D. Sedding
On Designing for the Art of Embroidery - Selwyn Image

References

↑ Arts and Crafts Essays (London : Rivington, Percival, & Co, 1893. https://archive.org/details/artscraftsessays00artsrich/mode/2up Accessed 22 July 2026
↑ https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Arts_and_Crafts_Essays Accessed 23 July 2026

[1] Arts and Crafts Essays (London : Rivington, Percival, & Co, 1893. https://archive.org/details/artscraftsessays00artsrich/mode/2up Accessed 22 July 2026

[2] ttps://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Arts_and_Crafts_Essays Accessed 23 July 2026

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