This design is for a quarter section of a panelled ceiling at Combe Court, Godalming, Surrey. From about 1890, Morris & Co.’s interior decoration commissions were larger designed and supervised by J. H. Dearle. Combe Court was built in 1850 by the Rev John Storer and later owned by George Henry Pinckard, MA, JP, c.1860. Pinckard was chief officer of the Clerical, Medical & General Life Assurance Company from 1839 to 1858, and remained a director of the company until his death in 1892. Pinckard’s widow Rosa remained in the house following his death, it then passed to his nephew George Henry Coles Pinckard.
A smaller scale drawing for two ceiling designs for Combe Court, one of which is this same design, is in the Huntington, California (Accession number: 2000.5.115).
