|
'Souvenir d'Afrique'.
This design by Lewis Jones at the Silver Studio was first produced by Warners in 1930 and re-released 1988.
|
Lewis Jones worked at a time when it was usual for the studio, and not the designer, to take the credit for the work they produced. His daughter-in-law, Una, was therefore surprised in 1981 when some of his designs were shown on the midday BBC television programme 'Pebble Mill'. She telephoned them and confirmed that she had seen designs by Lewis Jones, and was told of an exhibition at the Museum of London, organised by Middlesex Polytechnic. It was there that Mark Turner told her of the 'Silver Collection' and that there was a log which gave the artist's name to each design. This collection is now held by the Museum of Domestic Design & Architecture (MoDA), part of the Middlesex University. The
MoDA website is here and
some photos of a trip to MoDA is here.
Lewis Jones never sought fame, and so would not have expected that many years after his death the Condé Nast publication 'House and Garden' in October 1988 would have an illustrated special feature "Lewis Jones: a Career in Textile Design" by Mary Schoeser. He would have been surprised that it was entitled "Rediscovered Designer".
In the 1980s the Warner Fabrics company re-issued some fabrics designed for them by Lewis and other Silver Studio designers. The
Warner Textile Archive documents the history of The Warner & Sons textile business.
Please note that we acknowledge most of these examples are probably copyright of
the Museum of Domestic Design & Architecture (MoDA) or
the Warner Textile Archive
or others. But, we have included them here to provide some representation of Lewis Jones' work.
