Lot 14
  • 14

Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, Bt., A.R.A., R.W.S.

Estimate
200,000 - 300,000 GBP
bidding is closed

Description

  • Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, Bt., A.R.A., R.W.S.
  • The Knights of the Round Table Summoned to the Quest by a Strange Damsel (The Summons)
  • watercolour with bodycolour
  • 59 by 106cm., 23 by 41½in.

Provenance

Colin Robinson Esq, by whom sold Sotheby’s, London, 16 November 1976, lot 252, where bought by the present owner

Condition

The paper appears to be in good, stable condition with no visible condition issues; ready to hang. Contained under glass in a gilt Italianate style frame (some gilt losses); unexamined out of frame.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Catalogue Note

The Knights of the Round Table Summoned to the Quest by a Strange Damsel (The Summons) is a preparatory study for one of the tapestries designed by Burne-Jones and woven at Merton Abbey by Morris & Co for the dining room at Stanmore Hall in Middlesex c.1890. Five narrative tapestries were designed, depicting the story of the quest for the Holy Grail described by Malory in Morte d’Arthur, The Summons being sequentially the first. The tapestry bears the inscription (presumably by Morris); ‘How king Arthur sat in his hall at high tide of Pentecost and how the whole round table was there assembled when there entered to them a damsel and called upon the knights to take upon them the quest of the sangrael whereof was great stir and wonder amongst them of the Round Table both the king and his knights.’ The knights depicted are Sir Gawaine, Lamorak, Percival and Bors, Ector de Marys and Kay and one chair is shown unoccupied, symbolising the Siege Perilous (from the old French word for chair) prefiguring the coming of a knight who will succeed in the quest to find the grail.

A presumably earlier study (Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery) of the same size to the present one depicts nude figures of the knights demonstrating Burne-Jones’ meticulous preparation for his compositions. In an interview given by Morris is 1894 he mentioned the present study as one of those ‘not above 15 inches high. The figures are grouped and drawn from carefully prepared studies: for the most part there is but little minuteness of detail and they are only slightly tinted.’ (Aymer Vallance, ‘The Revival of Tapestry-Weaving: An Interview with William Morris', in Studio, 1894) Burne-Jones commissioned the chairs depicted in The Summons which he used in his summer house after they had been used for the studies and the horse was painted from a plaster model which can be seen in a photograph of Burne-Jones’ studio published in Art Annual in 1894.

Stanmore Hall was owned by William Knox D’Arcy, an Australian millionaire who had made his fortune in gold mining and founded the precursor of British Petroleum. Morris and Burne-Jones disliked D’Arcy’s bourgeois taste but his agreement to pay £3,500 for the tapestries made his patronage irresistible. The choice of subjects for the tapestries was almost certainly determined by the designers rather than the patron but they suited the gothic grandeur of Stanmore Hall.