Help to Conserve & Reinstate the Tapestries
Dr Kathy Haslam FSA in front of the tapestry showing Samson and the Philistines
One of the Manor’s most important spaces is the Tapestry Room, with its 17th-century Dutch tapestries, a rare survival of its Manor’s pre-Morris interiors. Originally a bedroom, the Tapestry Room acquired an added significance when William Morris and Dante Gabriel Rossetti took on the joint tenancy of Kelmscott Manor in 1871.
Morris loved these rare wall-hangings mellowed by age, declaring that they gave the Tapestry Room ‘an air of romance which nothing else would quite do’. He gravitated there, using it as both workspace and sitting room. It was tapestries such as these that inspired him to learn the technique himself and set about reinventing it.
The Society of Antiquaries is committed to returning the Tapestry Room to its original arrangement, as it was when Frederick Evans photographed the interiors of Kelmscott Manor in 1896. We have commissioned a conservation assessment of the tapestries and their condition is extremely weak, with numerous holes and losses, including distortions and tensions in the woven structure. The Society is planning to reinstate the tapestries in their historical configuration with the partition to the adjoining Bachelor’s Bedroom reinstated, so that visitors can experience the room as it was in the 18th and 19th centuries.
We need to raise £300,000 to conserve the tapestries in sequence and re-hang them configured as they were during the Turner and Morris families’ time.
‘The importance of returning the Tapestry Room to its original state cannot be overstated. William Morris used the room as his principal workspace as did, later, his daughter May. We hope that you will support our campaign.’
Martin Levy FSA, Chairman of the Kelmscott Campaign Group
Your Support is Vital to Us
We are grateful to our Benefactors, Companions and individuals for helping us raise money to conserve and renovate the tapestries at Kelmscott Manor. but we still need your continued support to reach our goals.
You can help us in these ways
Give What You Can
Any donation large or small is incredibly appreciated, and could make all the difference to the Tapestry Room. Please select ‘Kelmscott Manor’ when making your donation. Donate online at the Kelmscott Manor website.
Kelmscott Manor Companion
Donate £500. Donations will be recorded in perpetuity in a special ‘Commemorative Companion’ book.*
Kelmscott Manor Benefactor
Make a donation of £5,000 – Gifts will be recorded on the panel plaque in the South Road Barn as a ‘Kelmscott Manor Benefactor’.*
Make a donation of £15,000 or more – Gifts will be recorded on the panel plaque in the South Road Barn as a ‘Kelmscott Manor Principal Benefactor’. *
*If you are already a Benefactor or Companion of Kelmscott manor, you may want to name a loved one.
If you would like to become a Companion of Kelmscott Manor or a Benefactor, please download our donation form.
Legacies
‘The past is not dead: it is living in us and will be alive in the future, which we are helping to build.’ William Morris
By remembering Kelmscott Manor in your will, the contribution you make will ensure that generations to come are able to enjoy the Manor in the same way you have.
To learn more about legacies, please visit this page.
If you would like to discuss a donation or legacy please contact Dominic Wallis, Head of Development, Society of Antiquaries of London, by telephone at 020 7479 7096 or email at [email protected].
Fundraising, payments and donations will be processed and administered by the National Funding Scheme (Charity No: 1149800), operating as DONATE. Texts will be charged at your standard network rate. For Terms & Conditions, see www.easydonate.org
