Voysey's Birds and Animals (Artists In Focus; V&A)

Charles Francis Annesley (better known by his initials C. F. A.) Voysey (1857–1941) is, with William Morris, one of the best-known and most enduringly popular designers of the Arts & Crafts Movement. A practising architect, Voysey also designed a broad range of applied arts objects, from furniture, ceramics and metalwork to wallpaper, carpets, tiles and fabrics. His two-dimensional designs, created from the 1880s to the early 1930s, are among his best-known works today. His wallpaper and textile designs in particular are characterized by simple, stylized, rhythmic repeat patterns that rely for their motifs on forms found in the natural world. Plants abound, but so too do animals and birds, represented as silhouettes or in soft, pastel shades. This beautifully designed, accessibly priced gift book offers a wealth of designs by Voysey in which animals and birds are the principal motifs. With a text by Karen Livingstone, a published expert on Voysey and the Arts & Crafts Movement, and around 110 colour illustrations from the extensive collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum, this book brings together not only completed patterns but also working drawings in pencil and watercolour.