Audio: St George Cabinet by William Morris

NARRATOR: In 1906 the V& A received this advice about the cabinet you see in front of you:

LETTER: There will be sold tomorrow at Christies a very interesting cabinet painted by William Morris after his own designs with the story of St George and the Dragon. I saw a former colleague of Morris's to-day and he thought the museum should purchase it. It would be a valuable link in the history of English furniture as being from the hand of Morris himself.

NARRATOR: Acting on this advice, the Museum bought the cabinet for 66 pounds and 3 shillings. However, when it was first exhibited over forty years before, a critic from a leading journal was less complimentary:

REPORTER: The chest is hardly better made than an ordinary egg-chest or packing case… . The paintings are harmonious in colour we admit but frightfully ill-drawn… . No position could be more awkward than that of the valiant knight lifting the lady from the grass. It is the grossest exaggeration…

NARRATOR: Though the chest was being shown in an exhibition of current work, it was viewed as being very outdated:

REPORTER: The chest would suit a family which might suddenly be awakened after a sleep of four centuries and which was content to pay enormous prices suitably to furnish a barn. All are thoroughly medieval but they are not more adapted to the wants of living men than medieval armour would be to modern warfare. They would be all very well suited as curiosities in a museum but they are fit for nothing else.

NARRATOR: Today the cabinet is seen as a central piece in the V& A's collection and an exceptional example of Morris' early style. It shows his youthful desires to be a painter, but of greater importance are the colours and patterns he used. These indicate a growing interest in design that was to develop to the full over the next thirty years.