Just as with George III’s celebration in 1809 there were some opponents. Unsurpringly these included William Morris writing in his magazaine Commonweal in June 1887 called it amongst many other things “monstrous stupidity …hideous, revolting, and vulgar tomfoolery ..a grievous mass of flunkeyism.” He suggested that “this loathsome subject of the jubilee is consigned to its due dust-heap….” But as Mike Benbough-Jackson commented in Jubilee Tribulations “Of course no one denied that there was opposition, mainly from Republicans and Irish Nationalists. Yet the very fact that dissent came from these quarters seems to render the event all the more successful. These were minority, sectional interests whose squawks made the lion’s roar sound all the louder.”
Queen Victoria must have been pleased with the results as in 1887, the Golden Jubilee year, Morris was commissioned to create a wallpaper for Balmoral Castle. Morris’s design was bright and classic. It is comprised of the royal cypher (Victoria Regina Imperatrix) and a Scottish thistle within large lozenges. It was produced in a fine merrino flock, fawn on a white ground. With its formal diaper design, and strong lines of symmetry it is quite unlike Morris’s own style and much more in keeping with the typical wallpapers of the period. Where the Morris signature style shines through is in its simplicity of form and its lack of attempt or desire to depict the pieces realistically.
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