Design for embroidery

Details

Date: c.1930
Object Type: design
Material: bodycolour on paper
Catalogue number: A667
Artist: Whall, Veronica (1887 - 1967)

Sketch designs for two windows made for the apse of the Chapel of St Pierre, Grasse, France in 1930 depicting the Crucifixion and the Resurrection.

Veronica Whall was the daughter of Christopher Whall, she began assisting her father in her early teens. In the 1900s she attended classes, including Edward Johnston’s in lettering and calligraphy, at the Central School of Arts & Crafts. With her brother, Hew Bernard Whall, she set up ‘The Stonebridge Press’ and illustrated a number of its hand printed publications. By the time of the First World War, Whall was one of her father’s principal assistants, becoming a partner in the firm Whall & Whall Ltd in 1922. After her father’s death in 1924, she carried on the work of the Whall studio, helped by her brother until her retirement in 1953. Among her most important commissions were windows for Carlisle and Leicester Cathedrals and the complete glazing scheme for King Arthur’s Hall.

Details

Date: 1865
Dimensions: 75.5 x 104.5
Object Type: design
Material: pencil and ink on paper
Catalogue number: BLA413
Artist: Webb | Philip | 1831 | 1915

Philip Webb’s design for the canopy of the East window of St John the Apostle, Torquay, Devon. The overall window was designed by Edward Burne-Jones working for Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co. in 1865, the overall theme was of the Church Triumphant in the Heavenly Jerusalem. Webb designed the towers and turrets at the top of the five lights, this is for the central light. The chirch was designed by the architect G.E. Street who both Morris and Webb had worked for as young men. Burne-Jones designed a further West window for the church in 1890.

Details

Date: 1896
Object Type: design
Material: pen, pencil on paper
Catalogue number: A313
Designer: Morris & Co.

St. Cecilia was made by Morris & Co. in 1897 for ‘The Hill’ at Witley in Surrey, the house built for Myles Birket Foster in 1863, and where he lived until 1893 when the house was purchased by Mr. Edgar Horne, who presumably commissioned both this window and another single light, ‘Flora’ (BJ 434) which appears in the Morris & Co. ‘Catalogue of Designs for Stained Glass’ dated 8 April 1896. The entry in the Catalogue of Designs for C76 is dated 1897 January and names the glass painters as follows: figure of St. Cecilia by Walters, quarries by Wren, scroll drawn and lettered by Campfield and painted by Wren. The original Burne-Jones cartoon (BJ 50) for this figure was first used at Jesus College Chapel, Cambridge (south transept, south window, 3rd tier) in 1873; also used at St.Nicholas, Halewood, Lancashire in left light of a two-light window (south transept, memorial to Edith E. Bardswell) in 1881; and at Holy Trinity, Sloan Street, Chelsea (east window, 4th tier) in 1894-95). The finished window is in the Gallery’s collection (C76).

Details

Date: 09.03.1876
Dimensions: 20.3 x 29.2
Object Type: design
Material: pencil on paper
Catalogue number: A394
Designer: Burne-Jones | Edward Coley | Sir | 1833 | 1898
Retailer: Morris & Co.

Scale design drawing for a three light window for St Peter’s Church, Yateley, Hampshire. The three windows depict figures of St Peter, Christ as King and St John with additional figures of angels playing musical instruments. It is labelled ‘2nd Design for East Window, Yateley Church, March 9th 1876’, providing an insight into how Morris & Co. communicated with their clients on the final designs for artworks.

The design is also marked, ‘Omitting the angels this design is approved’. Although the windows were realised in 1878, they have since been destroyed.

Details

Date: early 1880s
Dimensions: 113.8 x 62.2
Object Type: design
Material: black and sepia wash and pencil on paper
Catalogue number: A481
Artist: Morris, William, 1834, 1896

This unexecuted design shows Morris’s method of creating a pattern. The free and unrestrained pencil and charcoal drawing in the background of the design is erased and refined as the pattern develops. The outlines are then strengthened in sepia watercolour before colouring is finally added.

Morris didn’t usually create preliminary sketches and instead worked out a pattern on a single sheet of paper until it either came to fruition or was abandoned, as in this example. However, the motifs and forms he created were never wasted and were reworked into future patterns, elements of his ‘Windrush’ and ‘Wandle’ patterns came be found in this earlier unexecuted design.

Details

Date: c. 1880
Dimensions: 73.2 x 71
Object Type: design
Material: pencil, ink and watercolour on paper
Catalogue number: BlA456
Attributed artist: Morris, William, 1834, 1896

This design for an embroidered reversible table cover has clearly been used as a working drawing, intended to communicate the design and choice of colours to the artisan who would make up the piece. The swirling, symmetrical floral pattern and choice of earthy, natural hues are typical of the smaller pieces of embroidery sold by Morris & Co. for domestic decoration.

“At first glance, this design appears unfinished, but looking more closely you can see faint pencil markings underneath the coloured sections. The pencil markings have vertical and diagonal symmetry with the parts that are coloured in, in a mathematical pattern. The purpose of the design is to convey information to the maker. Therefore because of the symmetry, the composition is complete.”

Raizel Frankl-Slater, WMG Young Producer

Details

Date: c.1890s
Dimensions: 19.8 x 25.5
Object Type: design
Material: pencil on paper
Catalogue number: A523
Designer: Jack, George Washington Henry (1855 - 1931)
Credit notes: Gift of Margery Jack, 1972

This original design indicates that the table was originally intended to be decorated with different coloured wood inlay. On the present example, (G53) the pattern is the same, but painted; the painting executed by the artist’s daughter Jessie Jack, who donated the table to the gallery. Possibly made and designed as a workbox for George Jack’s wife Annie’s embroidery. When exhibited in 1899 the table was described as a ..”very entertaining little work table.., the construction of which seems somewhat frail even for feminine use, but one can forgive that, since it is painted in the gayest fashion imaginable”.

Object Type: design

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