May Morris, Egypt, and Coptic Textiles

In the late-nineteenth century, vast quantities of Coptic textiles were brought to light through archaeological activity in Egypt and distributed among international collections. Produced between the third and seventh centuries CE, these remarkably preserved ancient objects became prized by textile scholars, including the artist, writer and teacher of the Arts and Crafts Movement, May Morris (1862–1938). This essay discusses Morris’s visit to Egypt in 1896, and her study and collecting of Coptic textiles. It argues that, in her 1899 publication ‘Coptic Textiles’, Morris produced an original contribution to emerging scholarship on Coptic art by formulating an experimental intervention that drew upon her knowledge and expertise as a textile maker-historian, and espoused an orientalised aesthetic response to colour. Following this, it considers how her collecting of Coptic textiles and valuing of Coptic material heritage was imbricated within a complex and contradictory discourse on preservation propagated among Arts and Crafts networks.