de Morgan, William (Frend) (1839–1917)

English pottery designer and novelist. He set up his own factory in 1888 in London, producing tiles and pottery painted with flora and fauna in a style typical of the Arts and Crafts Movement. When he retired from the pottery industry, he began writing novels in the style of Charles Dickens. Joseph Vance (1906) was a great success; it was followed by six other novels.

De Morgan was born in London and educated at London University. He studied art at the Royal Academy School, where he formed friendships with William Morris, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Edward Burne-Jones, and others of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. For 40 years he devoted himself to designing artistic pottery and stained glass, starting out with designs for Morris's Merton Abbey factory. In 1871 he established a pottery industry in Chelsea, London, and rediscovered the process of making coloured lustres (covering pottery with an iridescent metallic surface), before building his factory in Fulham. His work was influenced by Persian and Italian styles – he spent many months in Italy in later years.

The novels that followed Joseph Vance are Alice-for-Short (1907), Somehow Good (1908), It Never Can Happen Again (1909), An Affair of Dishonour (1910), A Likely Story (1911), and When Ghost Meets Ghost (1914).