This carpet was among the original furnishings of the John J. Glessner House on Prairie Avenue in Chicago, which was designed by the architect Henry Hobson Richardson (1838\u20131886) and completed in 1887. The carpet was located in the hall of the house and was one of the many furnishing textiles designed by Morris and other eminent Arts and Crafts textile designers and manufacturers of the period.<\/p>\n
The design and craftsmanship of decorative objects were of the utmost importance to Morris. His dedicated interest in understanding, practicing, and mastering textile-manufacturing techniques, coupled with his belief in the benefits of beauty in everyday life, made him and his firm among the most celebrated in British history. In the 1870s Morris began designing hand-knotted and machine-made carpets. He had long been interested in historical carpets, and many could be found in his personal collection. Here Morris looked to Turkish and Persian rugs for inspiration, utilizing a layout with a central medallion set in a field of interlacing stylized flowers and foliage framed by a border of continuous palmettes.<\/p>\n","short_description":null,"dimensions":"472.3 \u00d7 333.4 cm (186 \u00d7 131 1\/4 in.)","dimensions_detail":[{"depth":null,"width":333,"height":472,"diameter":null,"clarification":null}],"medium_display":"Cotton and wool, plain weave with supplementary wrapping wefts forming \"Ghiordes knots\" cut pile","inscriptions":null,"credit_line":"Gift of Mrs. Charles F. Batchelder","catalogue_display":null,"publication_history":"Christa C. Mayer Thurman, The Department of Textiles at The Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1978), 23, fig. 28 (ill.).\n\nLinda Parry, William Morris Textiles (New York: Viking Press, 1983), 94.\n\nDoreen Booger Burke, et. al., In Pursuit of Beauty: Americans and the Aesthetic Movement, exh. cat. (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1986), 85, cat. 3.21.\n\nLinda Parry, William Morris and The Arts and Crafts Movement (New York: Portland House, 1989), pl. 81.\n\nChrista C. Mayer Thurman, Textiles in The Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1992), 104-5, 147.\n\nPamela Todd, The Arts and Crafts Companion (New York: Bulfinch Press, 2004), 203.","exhibition_history":"Cambridge, MA, Fogg Museum of Art, Harvard College Library, Harvard University, Henry Hobson Richardson and his Office, 1874: Selected Drawings, Oct. 23\u2013Dec. 8, 1974, cat.; Albany Institute of History and Art, Jan. 7\u2013Feb. 23, 1975; Washington, D.C., Renwick Gallery, the National Collection of Fine Arts, Smithsonian Institution, Mar. 21\u2013June 22, 1975 (Cambridge only).\n\nArt Institute of Chicago, Selected Textile Acquisitions since 1973, Dec. 15, 1977\u2013Mar. 26, 1978.\n\nArt Institute of Chicago, Agnes Allerton Gallery, A Selection of Fabrics from the 1880s\u20131940s from the Permanent Collection, Nov. 13, 1982\u2013Feb. 15, 1983.\n\nNew York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, In Pursuit of Beauty: Americans and the Aesthetic Movement, Oct. 23, 1986-Jan. 11, 1987.\n\nArt Institute of Chicago, Elizabeth F. Cheney and Agnes Allerton Textile Galleries, European Textile Masterpieces from Coptic Times through the 19th Century, Sept. 27, 1989\u2013Jan. 22, 1990.\n\nArt Institute of Chicago, Elizabeth F. Cheney and Agnes Allerton Textile Galleries, Textile Masterpieces from the Art Institute of Chicago's Collection, Feb. 17\u2013May 2, 1993.\n\nArt Institute of Chicago, Morris and Company: The Business of Beauty<\/a>, Dec. 18, 2021\u2013June 13, 2022, no cat.","provenance_text":"Frances Glessner ((1848-1932; born Sarah Frances Macbeth; also Mrs. John J. Glessner) and John J. Glessner (1843-1936), Chicago, from Apr. 1887 [according to information provided by Mrs. Charles F. Batchelder, Aug. 18, 1977; in curatorial file. Purchased at Marshall Field\u2019s, Chicago, Apr. 16, 1887 and installed in main hall of Glessner House, Prairie Street, Chicago; recorded in Mrs. Glessner\u2019s personal dairy and photographed in situ from 1887 through 1936]; by descent to their daughter, Francis Glessner Lee (1878-1962), Bethlehem, NH; by descent to her daughter, Martha Batchelder (born 1906; born Martha Lee; also Mrs. Charles F. Batchelder), Milton, MA [Incoming receipt RX9965, Dec. 30, 1974; copy in curatorial object file]; given to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1974.","edition":null,"publishing_verification_level":"Web Everything","internal_department_id":4,"fiscal_year":1975,"fiscal_year_deaccession":null,"is_public_domain":true,"is_zoomable":true,"max_zoom_window_size":-1,"copyright_notice":null,"has_multimedia_resources":false,"has_educational_resources":false,"has_advanced_imaging":false,"colorfulness":40.8226,"color":{"h":39,"l":31,"s":35,"percentage":0.1829454009169312,"population":913},"latitude":null,"longitude":null,"latlon":null,"is_on_view":false,"on_loan_display":null,"gallery_title":null,"gallery_id":null,"nomisma_id":null,"artwork_type_title":"Textile","artwork_type_id":5,"department_title":"Textiles","department_id":"PC-14","artist_id":35845,"artist_title":"William Morris","alt_artist_ids":[60146,86315],"artist_ids":[35845,60146,86315],"artist_titles":["William Morris","Morris & Co.","Merton Abbey Works"],"category_ids":["PC-14"],"category_titles":["Textiles"],"term_titles":["cotton (textile)","plain weaving","textile","Arts and Crafts Movement","weaving - carpet","ghiordes knots","wool (textile)","Chicago","british","19th century","British Arts and Crafts Movement","floral","natural dye"],"style_id":"TM-7569","style_title":"Arts and Crafts Movement","alt_style_ids":["TM-14197","TM-13203","TM-14957"],"style_ids":["TM-7569","TM-14197","TM-13203","TM-14957"],"style_titles":["Arts and Crafts Movement","british","19th century","British Arts and Crafts Movement"],"classification_id":"TM-69","classification_title":"textile","alt_classification_ids":["TM-1369"],"classification_ids":["TM-69","TM-1369"],"classification_titles":["textile","weaving - carpet"],"subject_id":null,"alt_subject_ids":["TM-12075","TM-12217"],"subject_ids":["TM-12075","TM-12217"],"subject_titles":["Chicago","floral"],"material_id":"TM-2578","alt_material_ids":["TM-2581","TM-3407"],"material_ids":["TM-2578","TM-2581","TM-3407"],"material_titles":["cotton (textile)","wool (textile)","natural dye"],"technique_id":"TM-10513","alt_technique_ids":["TM-10591"],"technique_ids":["TM-10513","TM-10591"],"technique_titles":["plain weaving","ghiordes knots"],"theme_titles":[],"image_id":"75c9cedb-c001-c22e-cf6c-8bc764e0e638","alt_image_ids":[],"document_ids":[],"sound_ids":[],"video_ids":[],"text_ids":[],"section_ids":[],"section_titles":[],"site_ids":[],"suggest_autocomplete_all":[{"input":["1974.524"],"contexts":{"groupings":["accession"]}},{"input":["\"Swan House\" Carpet"],"weight":1576,"contexts":{"groupings":["title"]}}],"source_updated_at":"2026-06-26T17:20:28-05:00","updated_at":"2026-10-05T23:21:01-05:00","timestamp":"2026-10-19T06:43:12-05:00"},"info":{"license_text":"The `description` field in this response is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Generic License (CC-By) and the Terms and Conditions of artic.edu. All other data in this response is licensed under a Creative Commons Zero (CC0) 1.0 designation and the Terms and Conditions of artic.edu.","license_links":["https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/zero\/1.0\/","https:\/\/www.artic.edu\/terms"],"version":"1.16"},"config":{"iiif_url":"https:\/\/www.artic.edu\/iiif\/2","website_url":"https:\/\/www.artic.edu"}}