Strawberry Thief Blue Sandwich tray

Morris & Co was founded as early as 1861 by the artist and designer William Morris and a number of his friends from the Pre-Raphaelites in Great Britain under the name Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co. The Pre-Raphaelites considered the dominant art of the time to be a soulless and mechanical reproduction of Raphael and Michelangelo. The company was created with the hope of being able to design, manufacture and sell handmade home furnishings in medieval stucco. This passion for handmade furnishings gave the company a number of high-profile jobs for the Church of England. In 1875, the company was renamed Morris & Co. today, Morris & Co belongs to Spode, which has carried on William Morris' dream of selling beautiful and handcrafted interior details. Patterns such as Honeysuckle, Acanthus and Willow Bough were developed as early as 1875 and have since been bestsellers both in and outside the UK.