Dearle, John Henry (1860 - 1932)

A designer specializing in textile, tapestry and stained glass. After 1878 he worked in William Morris’s shop on Oxford Street. He completed his first tapestry design in 1887; after 1870 he worked as the leading textile designer of the company. His early designs were made in Morris’s style, while his later works already revealed the influence of Near Eastern ornamentation. After William Morris’s death in 1896 right up until his own death, he was the art director of Merton Abbey Works.