The design and manufacture of stained glass was one of Morris & Co’s specialities. Burne-Jones originally designed this angel in 1878 for Salisbury Cathedral, but it was so popular it was reused several times. This version is from a series of eight windows made in 1902 for a house in Kensington belonging to George McCulloch, a mining magnate who had made a fortune in Australia. McCulloch was an important patron; he also commissioned versions of the Holy Grail tapestries and a large carpet from the Firm.
The piece is a fragment, the upper half of an angel playing a harp decorated with an intricate fish-scale pattern. It shows Burne-Jones’s ability to use the magic of light shining through coloured glass to produce ethereal effects, particularly in the feathered wings and the streaky multi-coloured red, blue, purple and green glass of the halo.
