Lucy Faulkner (1839–1910) was born in Birmingham, England. Lucy's brother Charles founded with William Morris the company Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co. She and her sister Kate were hired as amateurs to help with the company, but as they continued working, they were paid for their labor and compensation and recognized as artists in their own right. Lucy also became one of the first managers for the company.
Lucy was mostly known for her tile paintings of women, particularly from fairytales and legends. She painted stories such as Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, and Beauty and the Beast, which were painted in sequence to be hung as mantelpieces over the fireplace.
After she married Harvey Edward Orrinsmith (a wood engraver and master bookbinder), she stopped painting tiles for Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co., and changed her surname from Faulkner to Orrinsmith but still continued to illustrate.
Most of her work is located at the William Morris Gallery in London, which has the largest surviving collection of her hand-painted tiles up on display. For many years the tiles she painted at Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co. were attributed to her sister Kate but new research has uncovered the misattributions.
