Collecting
To many, the name William Morris means little more than wallpaper. But Morris was not just a Victorian designer of flowery furnishings, he was a political radical, and a leading figure in the Arts and Crafts movement. Anthony Bernbaum, who runs the specialist gallery The Peartree Collection, takes up the story: ‘It's important to understand that early Arts and Crafts was a social and political movement and not just an aesthetic. It was a reaction to the Industrial Revolution, and all the shoddy products being mass-produced by machines. People like William Morris wanted to give the worker back control and
