Talwin Morris

Talwin Morris (15 June 1865 – 29 March 1911) was a prolific book designer and decorative artist working in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, particularly known for his Glasgow Style furniture, metalwork and book designs.

Early life and career

Morris was born 15 June 1865 in Winchester, England to auctioneer Thomas Shewell Morris (1832–1877) and Harriet Chick (d.1865) of St John's Place. Talwin, from the Welsh 'tal' (tall) and 'gwyn' (white), had been the surname of his paternal great-grandmother, a quaker from Royston in Hertfordshire. His mother died from complications just 24 days after his birth, and his aunt Emily (1829-1916) moved from Reading, Berkshire to look after him.

Upon his father's death in 1877, and aged 12, he was placed in the guardianship of Emily and her brother Joseph Morris (1836–1913) in Reading, Berkshire. Possibly affected by his father's illness, Emily noted that between June 1874 and Christmas 1877 Talwin had suffered "a nervous illness... said by the medical man to have been a phase of hysteria". Chosen for a theological career by Emily, from 21 September 1880 he attended Second's House of Lancing College in West Sussex, notably playing the role of Lady Plato in John Baldwin Blackstone's farce ''A Rough Diamond'', before withdrawing from his studies in April 1882. A photographic portrait in the Lancing archives has been tentatively identified as Morris, but this attribution is unsubstantiated. He was later described however by artist Mary Newbery Sturrock (1892-1985) as "a tall pale-complexioned man, who favoured the dress of the artist of the day, in clock and wide-brimmed hat".

Between 1882 and 1885 he was articled to the architectural firm his uncle Joseph Morris ran with Spencer Slingsby Smallwood at 9 Friar Street in Reading, Berkshire, winning a prize in 1885 in the Berkshire Archaeological and Architectural Society's drawings competition. The practice specialised in church architecture, and Morris's sketchbooks from this time are full of renderings of Norman doorways, fonts and arches from the surrounding villages of Tidmarsh, Purley on Thames, Swallowfield, Silchester, Cholsey, Finchampstead and White Waltham. Today some of these sketches are held in the collection of Glasgow Museums. Following his apprenticeship, he obtained work in London between 1885 and 1890 with architect James Martin Brooks (1859-1903). Despite this training he seems not to have registered with the Royal Institute of British Architects.

In 1888 he became engaged to his second cousin Alice Marsh (1861–1955), daughter of Joseph, a miller and Justice of the Peace for Kingston upon Thames, and Ellen Grace Marsh. Alice would later go on to enjoy her own highly successful career as an author of children's books under the name Alice Talwin Morris.

From 1891 he took up post as sub art-editor under M. H. Spielmann for ''Black and White'', a new weekly magazine published by Cassell, designing many of its decorative initials and headpieces., the first of which appeared on 3 October 1891 to illustrate a review of The American by Henry James. Here Morris provides a letter T with swirling nasturtiums, though the incorporated portrait of James is not by him. Other pieces were used to decorate individual stories, or to head up the 'Books' or 'Chess' sections, and were often reused long after Morris left the magazine. By 1892 he had also designed the masthead of Cassell's ''Saturday Journal''. Around this time he was sharing rooms in Belle Vue Road, Kingston upon Thames with his second cousin, the miller and collector Ernest Marsh (1843-1945). On 21 May 1892 he and Alice finally married at St John's Parish Church in Kingston upon Thames, with his occupation listed on the marriage certificate as 'clerk'. The marriage certificate was witnessed by his aunt Emily, Ernest Marsh, and members of Alice's immediate family. They lived at 1 Field Court, Gray's Inn, London, a short walk from the offices of ''Black and White'' at 33 Bouverie Street.

Move to Glasgow

Responding to an advertisement placed in ''The Standard'' on 21 February 1893 for an Art Director for publishers Blackie and Son, he moved to Glasgow in May 1893. The advert specified "a competent draughtsman well versed in art matters, of some taste in literature, fitted to take charge of the scheming and production of book illustrations and decoration and able to carry on the correspondence concerned therewith". Whilst working for Blackie and Son, Morris continued to accept freelance commissions, such as mastheads for the popular Cassell periodical ''Magazine of Art''.

Morris soon made the acquaintance of the artists and designers associated with the Glasgow School of Art via Robert Blackie (1820-1896) who sat on the committee of the School from 1871 to 1892. Although he never attended the School, Morris soon became friends with Charles Rennie Mackintosh and his contemporaries, and his own work quickly began to incorporate Glasgow Style motifs. He is known, for example, to have visited the art studio of the sisters Frances Macdonald and Margaret Macdonald at 128 Hope Street. Around 1897 Morris wrote an unpublished manuscript (commonly considered a piece for Studio Magazine) ''Concerning the Work of Margaret Macdonald, Frances Macdonald, Charles Mackintosh and Herbert McNair: an Appreciation'' which is now held by Glasgow Museums.

Responding to an advert of 1 March in the ''Glasgow Herald'', he and Alice leased Dunglass Castle from July 1893 and began to design its interiors. Morris is also known to have been a keen collector of Martinware ceramics, a passion he shared with his cousin Ernest Marsh. Bookplates designed by Talwin and Alice at that time are generally thought to reflect the circumstances of their new home and life together. The house was sold in July 1899 to the parents of his friends Margaret and Frances Macdonald, and Morris's interiors were subsequently completely remodelled by Mackintosh. Today, Dunglass Castle sits derelict within an oil refinery and is classified as a Building at Risk.

The Morrisses moved to the newly built Torwood in Bowling, West Dunbartonshire