The Designs of William De Morgan.

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Summary: Surfeit of Wm. de Morgan
Review: Comprehensive view of Wm. de Morgan for the interested person. It covers a huge period in English ceramic art. This book has hundreds of his pieces or designs and tells his chronology as an artist. I will not lend it out; this is the ultimate compliment.

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Summary: The best book on de Morgan's extraordinary work.
Review: Published in conjunction with an exhibition of de Morgan's work at the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1989, this book contains the complete collection of William de Morgan's original pottery and tile designs and drawings that was given to the museum after his death in 1917. With just about 20 pages of text of the total 256 pages, it is nearly all photographs with over 50 pages in color. De Morgan began working with William Morris in 1862, but after ten years he set up his own studio making tiles, vases, bowls and other domestic ceramics. His designs, inspired by brightly colored Middle-Eastern, Hispanic and Italian Renaissance pottery are beautiful. The forms of his vessels seem, for the most part, somewhat stilted but ocasionally they become organic enough to be satisfying to the modern eye. However his use of decoration is without equal except, perhaps, in some Hopi work. This book will be of interest to ceramic artists in particular, but any artist, art historian, or collector will enjoy it.