In 1882 A.H. Mackmurdo founded the Century Guild, the first organization after William Morris’ to declare complete allegiance to the ideals of the Arts and Crafts movement. The prospectus of this small association of architects, designers, and craftsmen asserted that its members were not tradesmen, but artists who would "restore building, decoration, glass painting, pottery, wood-carving and metal to their rightful places beside painting and sculpture." Mackmurdo’s life is a paradigm for Arts and Crafts ideals. He was mentored by John Ruskin, and, sharing his goal of social uplift, taught with him at the Working Men’s College in the slums of London’s East End. The Century Guild embodied the quest to restore "joy in labor" by the unification of all art forms and a return to the handmade. Its journal Hobby Horse (founded in 1884) was the first arts-oriented literary magazine, and the first to introduce progressive British design to a European audience. Despite the Guild’s medievalizing name, the work produced there was different from the Gothic Revival associated with early Arts and Crafts. While sharing the same devotion to structural honesty, it is characterized by the swirling stem and flower forms found on this textile, as well as on the furniture and metalwork produced by the firm. The Guild was an immediate success, receiving commissions and high praise when its work was displayed in exhibitions. However, since it was only in existence for ten years, objects that can be absolutely documented to have been made there are rare. Fortunately, this wonderful textile was illustrated in a long, appreciative article, "Mr. Arthur H. Mackmurdo and the Century Guild" in Britain’s most prominent art journal, the Studio, in 1899. Wendy Kaplan, Curator & Department Head of Decorative Arts and Design