Stained Glass Design by Ballantine and Allan

Illustration: Ballantine and Allan. Stained glass window design for Glenormiston House, 1851.

This particular stained glass window was entered as an example of the work of the Edinburgh based stained glass makers Ballantine and Allan, at the Great Exhibition of 1851 held at the Crystal Palace in Hyde Park. Many British and foreign companies displayed their work at the exhibition which was openly portrayed as a convenient marker celebrating the industrial process of the mid-nineteenth century, particularly of Britain itself. However, manufacturers and the retail trade saw it ostensibly as being the first international trade fair of its kind. Profits and full order books were hoped for, and therefore space was at a premium. Many companies, rather than display their everyday products, instead chose to feature commissioned or specially designed work, hoping that these would outshine potential rivals and increase orders, both domestic and foreign.

The stained glass example shown in this article was a case in point. It was a commissioned piece for Glenormiston House in the Tweed Valley in Scotland. it was to sit within the entrance hall and was specifically designed to reflect the unique prospect and history of Glenmormiston. This very personal piece had little connection to the Great Exhibition, but a great deal with Glenormiston itself. Because the estate was technically crown land, the occupiers were in some respects seen as tenants of the Crown. Their rent was symbolic as it entailed one red rose which was to be presented to the monarch on the festival of St John. The centre panel illustrates the handing of the rose to the reigning monarch. The standing knight in the background is holding the banner of St John. 

In actuality, the central scene is quite specific and is said to represent the handing over of a red rose by a maiden in 1529 to James V of Scotland, traditionally the last time the ceremony was held. Whether the date of 1529 was portrayed for any other reason than that it was held as a romantic point, being the last ceremony of its kind, or that it was a period that was favoured by the customer, is unknown. That it was portrayed as suitably medieval, even down to the encaustic tiled floor, also represents the intrinsic fashion of the period.

Although a black and white illustration, it was said that the window itself was richly coloured. The borders of both the central panel and the exterior frame were picked out in ruby red and gold, with imitation gemstones throughout. The background itself was in pale blue with gold bands stencilled in white enamel. The Scottish thistle, Irish shamrock and English rose were used as repeat motifs throughout the background work of the window. 

It is an interesting piece of medievalism from the mid-nineteenth century, made more interesting by being of Scottish origin, rather than English. Medieval themes were just as popular during this period in Scotland as they ever were in England. In some respects it could be said that the enthusiasm for the romance and chivalry of the medieval world was a Scottish invention, at least hugely popularised by Sir Walter Scott. Although the historical era could be said to have been overly glamorised and fictionalised by Scott himself, it does not change the fact that many got their first introduction to the medieval world from Scott's prolific novels and poetry. This importantly included William Morris, who voraciously read Scott's novels as a boy, a habit that clearly changed his perspective on the contrasts, as he saw it, between the medieval past of his imagination and the contemporary industrial world in which he lived, all produced at a very early and impressionable age.

Ballantine and Allan had been making stained glass since the 1830s. In 1843 they won a prestigious commission to produce the stained glass for the gothically inspired Houses of Parliament, though for some reason they supplied fewer windows than were actually originally expected. The company had obviously made an impression with their stained glass work and the medieval inspired commission in London must have added to their reputation as a company that could easily supply good quality medieval work for ecclesiastical and domestic buildings, hence the 1851 Glenormiston piece for the Great Exhibition. The company stayed in business until well into the twentieth century. Some of their work produced for church buildings in Wales from the 1850s up until near the end of the nineteenth century can be found here. They will perhaps give some indication as to the colour schemes that were used for the Glenormiston piece.

Glenormiston House was unfortunately demolished in 1950 like so many country estates and houses across Britain. What happened to the stained glass window celebrating the handing over of one red rose to the reigning monarch on the festival of St John is unknown. However, despite the fact that the house is no longer there, the story of the rose as a form of rent is still attached to the Glenormiston land, although the traditional ceremony seems more a matter of amusement today than a serious theme for decorative art.

Further reading links:
Victorian Stained Glass Pattern Book (Dover Pictorial Archives)
390 Traditional Stained Glass Designs (Dover Pictorial Archives)
Victorian Stained Glass
William Morris Stained Glass Pattern Book
Stained Glass and the Victorian Gothic Revival (Studies in Design & Material C)
Victorian Stained Glass Designs CD-ROM and Book (Electronic Clip Art)
The Stained Glass of A.W.N. Pugin
The Stained Glass of William Morris and his Circle (Studies in British Art)
Victorian Stained Glass. With Photographs by the Author
Encyclopedia of Victorian Colored Pattern Glass, Book 7: Ruby Stained Glass from A to Z
Edward Burne-Jones (Master of Drawing, Painted Glass and Ceramic Art)
William Chambers of Glenormiston
The Great Exhibition of 1851: A Nation on Display
Britain, the Empire, and the World at the Great Exhibition of 1851
The Great Exhibition of 1851 (Texts in Culture)

Sleeping Beauty Tiles by Edward Burne-Jones

Illustration: Edward Burne-Jones. Sleeping Beauty ceramic tile panel, 1865.

Illustrated in this article are six tile panels made up of two ceramic tiles per panel. They are representations of the fairy tale Sleeping Beauty and were produced by William Morris company Morris, Marshall, Faulkner and Co in 1865. In all there were originally nine panels set in further floral and swan border panels with a text near the bottom that read: Of a certain Prince who delivered a King's daughter from a sleep of a hundred years, wherein she and all hers had been cast by enchantment. It is believed that Edward Burne-Jones designed the panels, although it is said that William Morris was also involved in the creative procedure and might well have designed some of the background details, particularly the wallcoverings. The tiles were hand-painted, though not by Burne-Jones.

Illustration: Edward Burne-Jones. Sleeping Beauty ceramic tile panel, 1865.

This particular ceramic tile panel was in fact part of a larger commission for Morris, whereby two other ceramic tile panels were produced, one depicting Beauty and the Beast and the other Cinderella, along with stained glass windows and other furnishings. They were intended for the home of the fine artist Myles Birket Foster for his new house at Witley in Surrey.

All three tile panels were destined for bedrooms, to be used as overmantels. They are relatively early examples of the collaboration between both Morris and Burne-Jones and clearly shows how successful the partnering was to be. Although Burne-Jones was by no means an employee of Morris company and had an incredibly successful solo career in his own right, it is very often the collaborative work produced for and with Morris that has proved as popular today as it was in the second half of the nineteenth century.

Illustration: Edward Burne-Jones. Sleeping Beauty ceramic tile panel, 1865.

The Sleeping Beauty tiles shown here are an interesting example of the changing of styles and tastes during the mid-nineteenth century. Whereas the story itself has no real style marker setting it in any particular era or decorative style, Burne-Jones and Morris have set it specifically in an idealised medieval period, along with medieval styled costumes and interiors. Another period than that of the mid-nineteenth century might well have portrayed the story in an entirely different decorative format. It is to be noted that many of the fairy tales such as Sleeping Beauty, Beauty and the Beast and Cinderella have tended to use a vague eighteenth century setting, particularly when thinking of the relatively recent interpretations by Disney, for example.

However, the 1860s was a period that saw the Gothic Revival probably at its most popular and therefore at its most extensive. The early years of the Revival had seen medievalism used mainly within an ecclesiastical context, A W N Pugin being a prime example of this early phase. However, with his death in 1852, the Gothic Revival appeared to break out of the constraints that, although not imposed by Pugin, still seemed framed by the architect and designers often biting criticism for any form of unecessary affectation outside of the realms of church services.

Illustration: Edward Burne-Jones. Sleeping Beauty ceramic tile panel, 1865.

By the 1860s, Gothic themed domestic work could be found being produced by varying companies across Britain, not all of them successfully so. Anything and everything seemed to have a medieval dimension, from stained glass through to wallpaper, ceramics, textiles, furniture, glass, books and more. There seemed no limitation to the decorative style and in some respects this was to eventually destroy it as a functioning format. The all pervasiveness of medievalism led to innovations in other style periods and the public eventually moved on from Gothic, though having said that medieval styled furniture was still being produced, all be it on a much reduced scale, as late as the 1920s.

In this respect it is hard perhaps to see Morris company being quite as innovative and creatively separate as it sometimes appears to us today. While there is no doubt that Morris and his company had particularly exacting standards, more so than many, it is perhaps unwise to see him as being quite as unique within his own period. Morris clearly identified himself as a businessman, particularly so within his earlier career, and this is a fact that is sometimes underplayed. The Gothic revival and medievalism in general was such a pervasive decorative style during the mid-nineteenth century that it would have been near impossible to have produced work in any other successful and fashionable style, particularly when running a decorative arts business.

Illustration: Edward Burne-Jones. Sleeping Beauty ceramic tile panel, 1865.

This is not to say that Morris was not innovative within his company. Procuring commissions through the work of such artists as Burne-Jones helped enormously. However, Morris did struggle to fill order books, particularly during the earlier phase of the company as Morris, Marshall, Faulkner and Co. He was after all, but one of many companies offering decorative interior accessories, a number of whom had much lengthier and more prestigious connections than his own. Many were also supplying goods in the same decorative style as Morris, and more successfully.

However, it is perhaps the early years of Morris and his company that appeals to us today. Much of the work including the six ceramic tile panels shown here, have an element of naivety and charm that was perhaps lacking in some of the more professional styled companies that rivalled Morris, Marshall, Faulkner and Co. It is after all the attention to hand detailing and hand production, rather than medievalism itself that was to eventually mark Morris and Co as a uniquely separate identity later in the century, and these early pieces give a good indication of the direction that that creative styling was to take.

Illustration: Edward Burne-Jones. Sleeping Beauty ceramic tile panel, 1865.

Anyone interested in seeing the complete Sleeping Beauty panel might like to take a look at this Victoria and Albert Museum link where the full set is now kept.

Further reading links:
Edward Burne-Jones: The Earthly Paradise
Burne-Jones: The Life and Works of Sir Edward Burne-Jones (1833-1898)
Sir Edward Burne-Jones (Pre-Raphaelite painters series)
Hidden Burne-Jones: Works on Paper by Edward Burne-Jones from Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery
Edward Burne Jones
Burne-Jones: An Illustrated Life of Sir Edward Burne-Jones (Shire Library)
William Morris, Edward Burne-Jones and the Kelmscott Chaucer
Tate British Artists: Edward Burne-Jones
William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones: Interlacings (Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art)
William Morris and Morris & Co.
Morris & Co.
William Morris

Decoration of English Stone Crosses

Illustration: Stone monument at Kirk Michael, Isle of Man.

Large stone crosses litter the islands of Britain and Ireland from one end to the other. They derive from more than one culture, although superficially at least, they appear to be decoratively Celtic in style. The crosses have decorative work that belong primarily to Celtic, Anglo-Saxon and Norse cultural heritages though not necessarily exclusive to one specific culture. Many of the crosses have either fusion or crossover decorative work that apply themselves to a mixed heritage with the Celtic underlying both Anglo-Saxon and Norse traditions. This blending, on occassion, produced a further unique tradition of its own, particularly when considering such cultures as Manx on the Isle of Man.

The three examples shown in this article come from Northern England and the Isle of Man. The two from England are said to be Anglo-Saxon in origin, while the one from the Isle of Man is said to be Norse. Interestingly, the two English crosses which have lost their upper portions, were said to have been damaged by Norse raiders, while the Isle of Man cross is said to have been created by the Norse.

Another level of interest is added when considering the date of the actual illustrations themselves, which derive from the end of the eighteenth and beginning of the nineteenth century. This was a period when mainstream British culture was only beginning to analyse, understand and produce a level of appreciation of what was in many respects the three founding cultures of the islands. The Celtic, Germanic and Scandinavian cultural heritage were in many respects the building blocks that were to produce the modern nations of Ireland, Scotland, Wales and England. Each had a unique and specific identity and each added to the cultural heritage of the separate but linked nations that now occupy the islands.

Illustration: Head Stone Cross, St Andrew's Church, Aycliffe, Durham, England, 10th century.

More specifically each culture had a confident and identifiable decorative style that, although unique and rooted in specific yet different cultural origins, somehow complemented each other so that when one or more cultures came together to produce decorative work, the overlapping elements of uniqueness, blended, balanced and harmonised to a degree that was not always possible in other cross-cultural endeavours.

What is also interesting about the illustrations themselves, are the lack of specific details. Although, these examples can be identified with the stone crosses that are still in existence today, they tend towards a generalised view with few close details and many imaginative interpretations. Some examples of medieval and pre-medieval work that were reproduced during this period even tried to change the cultural emphasis of the decoration, so that truly indigenous work was transformed into a decorative format that was much more classically inspired.

In many ways this was a formula that was produced in order for the classically trained British elite to understand what they were attempting to appreciate. It was still considered by many that because cultures that had little interaction with classical Greece and Rome, particularly those in Britain and Ireland that either preceded or post-dated the Roman occupation, they were somehow incapable of portraying the world as it should be seen. Therefore, even work such as the Bayeux Tapestry, which had a specific decorative style of its own, was often reinterpreted in illustrations as if it were a classical Roman or Greek frieze. This lost all the uniqueness of the original and also, perhaps tellingly, lost all reference points to a culture that was decidedly and independently non-classical in origin and focus.

Illustration: Head stone cross, St Oswald's church, Hawkswell, Yorkshire, England, 10th century.

Decoration is such a pervasive human style that it is sometimes difficult to disentangle the many elements that go into its pattern work. These can include social, cultural and political dimensions that are not always as obviously apparent as the pattern itself, but they are there nonetheless. Even such things as the projection of one culture by another, such as these three illustrations, becomes a complicated vision of interpretation and reinterpretation, with elements and overtones that can also entail the complex relationship between overlord and subject, master and slave, depending on which culture you feel emotionally bonded to.

That an imported decorative style such as that of the classical world, was deemed by many to be infinitely superior to any form of indigenous style, says much about the disconnectedness between British culture in the eighteenth and early nineteenth century, and its native past. Admittedly, many books and magazines during this period began to explore Celtic, Anglo-Saxon and Norse artefacts and remains across Britain, such as the stone crosses illustrated. However, they were explored with a certain detachment, as if the cultures belonged to people that no longer existed, lost to time. That they belonged in fact to the past of many of the contemporary working people of Ireland, Scotland, Wales and England and in some respects were still part of their everyday culture, says much about the divorced reality between the cultural elite of Britain and the ordinary people.



Further reading links:
Old Stone Crosses of West Gloucestershire
The Sandbach Crosses: Sign and Symbolism in Anglo-Saxon Sculpture
Stone Crosses in East Cornwall (Including Parts of Bodmin Moor) (Cornish Cross)
Stone Crosses in West Penwith (Cornish Cross)
Stone Crosses in North Cornwall (Cornish Cross)
Stone Crosses in Mid Cornwall (Publication Series / Industrial Development Authority Irelan)
The stone crosses of the county of Northhampton
Old stone crosses of the vale of Clwyd and neighbouring parishes, together with some account of the ancient manners and customs and legendary lore connected with the parishes
Celtic Crosses of Britain and Ireland (Shire Archaeology)
The Trailblazer Guide to Crosses and Stones on the North York Moors
Ancient Stone Crosses of England
Crucial Guide to Crosses and Stones on the North York Moors (Crucial guides)
The Early Christian Cross Slabs, Pillar Stones and Related Monuments of County Galway, Ireland (British Archaeological Reports (BAR) International) (Parts 1-2)
The ancient stone crosses of Dartmoor and its borderland