The Mirror of Venus

Details

Date: c. 1856-1860
Dimensions: 96.5 x 126 x 50.8
Object Type: furniture
Material: mahogany
Catalogue number: G58
Owner: Brown, Ford Madox, 1821, 1893
Manufacturer: Priestley, Frederick
Credit notes: Purchased with assistance from the V&A Purchase Grant Fund

The piano once belonged to the Pre-Raphaelite artist Ford Madox Brown who was fond of performing German music and English songs with his family and friends. It appeared as lot 4 in the sale of Madox Brown’s effects on Tuesday, 29 May, 1894, where it is described as having a panel designed by William Morris. The piano came into Madox Brown’s possession before 1860 as it was seen and admired by Edward Burne-Jones in the Madox Brown’s house, as described in Georgiana Burne-Jones’s “Memorials of Edward Burne-Jones”, 1904, vol. 1 p. 207:

“Mrs Catherwood gave us a piano (as a present for their wedding in 1860) made by Priestley of Berners Street, who had patented a small one of inoffensive shape that we had seen and admired at Madox Brown’s house; we had ours made of unpolished American walnut, a perfectly plain wood of pleasing colour, so that Edward could paint upon it. The little instrument when opened shows inside the lid a very early design for the “Chant d’Amour” and on the panel beneath the keyboard there is a gilded and lacquered picute of Death, veiled and crowned, standing outside the gate of a garden where a number of girls, unconscious of his approach are resting and listening to music.”

The Burne-Jones’s piano was given by the Burne-Jones family to the Victoria & Albert Museum in 1926 (Museum No. 43-1926.)

The patented Priestley piano had an ingeniously simplified piano action with only two moving parts as well as a compact soundboard. ds.

Details

Date: 1892
Dimensions: 25.15 x 6.48
Object Type: design
Material: pencil, ink and watercolour on paper
Catalogue number: A50c
Artist: Image, Selwyn, 1849, 1930
Commissioner: Century Guild
Credit notes: Mackmurdo bequest, 1942

The Century Guild were commisoned to design six stained glass windows for the Loretto School Chapel, Musselburgh, Scotland. The chapel was built between 1891 and 1893 as a gift to Dr. Almond from Old Lorettonians. This design, depicting the presentation of Jesus in the Temple, was created by Selwyn Image, it is in three parts (A50a-c). The finished window was executed by James Powell & Sons and is also in the collection (C112). The other five windows depict Christ disputing with the Doctors in the Temple (see original designs: A78-90); The Crucifixion; The Ascension (see original design A57); Christ and St Mary Magdalene and Christ at Emmaus (window now in the V&A).

Details

Date: 1892
Dimensions: 25.15 x 6.48
Object Type: design
Material: pencil, ink and watercolour on paper
Catalogue number: A50b
Artist: Image, Selwyn, 1849, 1930
Commissioner: Century Guild
Credit notes: Mackmurdo bequest, 1942

Details

Date: 1892
Dimensions: 25.15 x 6.48
Object Type: design
Material: pencil, ink and watercolour on paper
Catalogue number: A50a
Artist: Image, Selwyn, 1849, 1930
Commissioner: Century Guild
Credit notes: Mackmurdo bequest, 1942

Details

Dimensions: 22.86 x 13.97
Object Type: design
Material: watercolour
Catalogue number: A270
Artist: Mackmurdo | Arthur Heygate | 1851 | 1942
Credit notes: Presented by Miss Constance MacQueen, 1956

This abundant mirrored design by Arthur Heygate Mackmurdo is likely for a textile or wallpaper, and demonstrates the designer’s skill and affinity for capturing flowing natural forms. It includes scrolling green acanthus leaves, which were also a common motif found in many of William Morris’s designs.

Archives: Objects

Pages

Archives

Categories