12
June 2003
William Morris: Hanging offence
William Morris, socialist, designer and prime mover in the nineteenth-century Arts and Crafts movement advocated a return to traditional craft styles and materials. But not without some risks. Chemical analysis of one of his early patterned wallpapers now confirms that a copper arsenic salt was used in the colouring. Morris was a shareholder and sometime director of Devon Great Consols, the largest arsenic producer of its age, whose workers were plagued by arsenic-related illnesses. Morris, it seems, was aware of contemporary health concerns over arsenic green, but dismissed them. In his textile printmaking, Morris is reputed to have rejected new synthetic dyes, favouring traditional dyes based on plant and animal extracts. Even in the mid-nineteenth century, the toxic effects of arsenic-based pigments were suspected.
Science in culture
ANDY MEHARG
Nature 423, 688 (2003); doi:10.1038/423688a
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