Morris (William) & Co. (Westminster)
William Morris & Co. (Westminster) was a stained glass firm established in west London in 1901 by William Thomas Morris FMGP (1874-1944). William T Morris had previously worked in the family glazing business, Morris & Sons, established by his father Richard Morris, but left following his father’s death in 1901. There was inevitably confusion with the famous firm of Morris & Co., but stylistically their output was very different.
The chief designer in 1926 was Frederick Miller Baker. This was the same year that Frederick Cole joined the studio, and it was Cole who would succeeded Baker as chief designer, when Baker left to join the McCausland studio in Toronto.
In 1946, after war service, Cole was invited to restart the studio by the Pollard Group, who had purchased the business in 1935. When Pollard’s withdrew from stained glass in 1958 the studio closed.
Sources:
The Other William Morris by Ruth Cooke, The Journal of Stained Glass, vol. XXIV (2000)
Stained Glass Marks & Monograms, complied by Joyce Little, and edited by Angela Goedicke & Margaret Washbourn (NADFAS, 2002)
