CFA Voysey c 1893
The Isis fill paper and coordinating frieze is an early exuberant example of Voysey’s mastery of pattern design. It is from his large-scale early 1890’s output and both the fill paper and the frieze may be used independently of each other. The frieze is more demonstrably graphic and makes a clear enough statement to be used above a painted or paneled wall. The fill paper is grand though subtle when used alone and the ideal complement to the frieze when somewhat more opulence is desired. The choice of the name for this fill and frieze set is unclear but it may be speculated that Voysey had the poem Prothalamion by Edward Spencer in mind for a description of that part of the Thames still traditionally called the Isis in Oxford. In the poem the river is idyllically described.
“Along the shoare of silver streaming Themmes;
Whose rutty banke, the which his river hemmes,
Was paynted all with variable flowers.
And all the meads adornd with daintie gemmes
Fit to deck maydens bowres”
The Isis frieze is 24” tall with a 16.62 horizontal repeat when used with the fill paper. The frieze may also be trimmed at various places to use only sections of the design when combining with the fill. When not used with the fill the frieze is scalable.
$7.00 per square foot.
