William Mason was a well known textile designer who produced printed textiles and wallpapers operating as Mason Handprints. The Applied Arts collection example featured here is indicative of his bold abstract patterns from the 1960's.

One hundred and seventy-eight samples of his fabrics and many of his paintings are housed in Napier at the Hawkes Bay Museum. Ingrid Dubbelt (Mason's niece) and Douglas lloyd-Jenkins jointly curated an exhibition of Mason's work at the Hawkes Bay Museum in September 1998 - February 1999.

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William Mason was born in Napier in 1919 and raised in Waipawa. During the war he served in the Royal Navy. A war bursary enabled him to study painting and textile design at London's Goldsmith College and the Central School of Arts and Crafts.

He returned from London in the early 1950s and worked at a variety of jobs and exhibited his paintings throughout New Zealand.

In 1961 he won both first and second prizes at a Festival of Wellington wallpaper design competition. With the prize money, Mason and his wife Maureen set up Mason Handprints in their Plimmerton garage and began printing furnishing fabrics.

They produced textiles from 1961 and wallpapers from 1965. This was the era of the introduction of New Zealand television and Mason's designs entered the country's living rooms as backdrops to the television pop show C'Mon and Happen Inn. He also designed beachwear, kaftans and men's ties.

Mason Handprints was looking at expanding into the Australian market, which seemed ready for his bold and ebullient designs. However Mason sold his business to Resene Paints, who then contracted him to design for the company.

Mason died in 1994, leaving behind a huge body of work. Mason Handprints survives today, in the hands of Dave Cooper of Stokes Valley. All the original wallpaper designs are still used "Plus a few additions that we've created," says Cooper, but the textiles are no longer produced.

Profile from Mason Handprints catalogue (Hawkes Bay Museum) and the Auckland Art Gallery research library, and from correspondence with Ingrid Dubbelt and Jean Clarkson July 2002.