'Morris was a pleased man when he found that his wife could embroider any design that he made and did not allow her talent to remain idle.' Georgiana Burne-Jones made this remark in her 'Memorials' (1904, vol. 1, p. 2.18), about the happy times she and her husband spent at Red House with William Morris and his family. With its slight air of menace, it can hardly be bettered as a prediction of things to come, and was to determine his daughter May's future as well. Embroideries were the first things Morris designed for household decoration, and it became a significant element in the Morris decorating firm's profitability. Accordingly, it is to be hoped that Morris's comment in a letter to his mother - 'also I think it amuses her' - was tempered to his audience rather than dismissing Janey's and subsequently May's demanding and labour-intensive contributions to the Morris & Company's activities. May was to prove equal to the task when, in 1885, she took over the management of the firm's embroidery department at just twenty-three years old. Young though she was, brought up in an atmosphere of intense creativity, it might be said that May's apprenticeship began when she was born.
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