Portrait of Frank Brangwyn

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: 1883
Object Type: archival
Catalogue number: J151
Designer and maker: Morris, William, 1834, 1896
Credit notes: Presented by Mrs. J,W. Mackail, 1946

A sheet of notes by William Morris on his French edition of Karl Marx’s ‘Capital’. The notes comprise passages from Volume I, chapter 14, section 5: The Capitalistic Character of Manufacture.

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

Dimensions: 4.4 x 9.8 x 9.8
Object Type: furniture
Material: wood
Technique: painted wood
Catalogue number: M2
Artist: Image, Selwyn, 1849, 1930
Credit notes: Mackmurdo Bequest, 1942

Small circular wooden box, lid painted with design of female head against a blue background. A band around the side of the box holds the Latin inscription: ‘O facies oculos nata tenere meos!’ This is taken from a poem in the second book of Ovid’s Amores and translates as: ‘Oh my face was born to hold my eyes!’

Details

Date: c.1875
Dimensions: 53 x 108
Object Type: textile
Catalogue number: N20
Designer: Morris, William, 1834, 1896
Manufacturer: Nairns of Kirkcaldy, Scotland
Retailer: Morris & Co.
Credit notes: Transferred from the William Morris Society, 2022

This is William Morris’ only design for linoleum, and his very first foray into designing for floor coverings. The design, featuring African marigolds set against an arched trellis, was reproduced in two colourways, although only this green and yellow version is known. The floral pattern closely resembles the ‘Marigold’ design Morris produced for printed textile, which was registered at around the same time.

Linoleum, composed of linseed oil on a canvas backing, was an inexpensive and practical alternative to woven carpets for Victorian households. Morris’s linoleum was extremely popular, in part due to its low price: it cost just 3s. 10d. per square yard, less than a third of the price of the most popular machine-woven carpeting. Morris & Co. almost certainly outsourced the production to Nairns of Kirkcaldy, Scotland, who were the most prolific producers of linoleum at the end of the 19th century. Original examples are relatively rare, owing much to the everyday heavy use of the surface, however another good example, again in yellow and green, can be seen today in situ in the hallway of Emery Walker’s House and museum at 7 Hammersmith Terrace, London.

Details

Date: 1930
Dimensions: 24 x 17.8
Object Type: book
Catalogue number: K3462
Author: Morris, William, 1834, 1896
Author: Bottomley, Gordon (1874 - 1948)
Publisher: The Fanfrolico Press
Credit notes: Gift from Lucia Crowden, 2022

Published in 1930 by The Fanfrolico Press, this privately printed book contains two poems by William Morris that are accompanied by eight collotype plates after drawings by Dante Gabriel Rossetti. The Fanfrolico Press began in Sydney, Australia and later moved to London, where this book was printed and published. The two poems included, ‘The Defense of Guenevere’ and ‘King Arthur’s Tomb’ stem from Morris’s early interest in Arthurian legends and were first published by Morris in 1858.

The book is printed on handmade Barcham Green paper from Hayle Mill in Kent, it is printed in Weiss Antiqua type which was designed by the German typographer Emil Rudolf Weiss in 1928. It is the seventh book printed by The Fanfrolico Press and this copy is edition 220 of 450.

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