Stained Glass Windows
in the Peak District
William Morris (1834-1896)
William Morris (1834-96) was a man of exceptional talents. As well as being the greatest artist-craftsman of his age, who ran a successful manufacturing and decorating businesses, he was one of the best known and most prolific Victorian poets, a passionate social reformer, an early environmentalist, an educationalist and would-be feminist.
Morris and Co.
Morris & Co. (1875-1940) was the successor to original business of Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co. William Morris was always the driving force behind the ‘Firm’, and the change of name reflected his taking the business fully under his personal control, without partners, and with Burne-Jones as principal designer. The business continued long after the deaths of Morris (1896) and Burne-Jones (1898), although without any great developments of style, and often continuing to use Burne-Jones’s designs. The role of chief designer passed to J H Dearle and, on his death in 1932 to W H Knight. It finally closed in 1940.
In the middle of the nineteenth century (around 1861) the market for stained glass was very acute and also extremely competitive. William Morris stained glass was being used and the company that Morris and his partners had formed was able to supply some excellent products.
At that time, William Morris Stained Glass mainly involved use of religious themes, there were also many other products that were being sold to the domestic market. In fact, one of the best examples of William Morris Stained Glass could be seen in the thirteen different panels that depicted the story of Isoude and Tristram. This was one of the better examples of William Morris Stained Glass products and it was commissioned in the year 1862 which was just one year after the partnership was formed.
William Morris Stained Glass products such as Tristram and Isoude at the Court of King Arthur are excellent illustrations in which Tristram and Isoude are shown along with King Arthur and a lady of the court as well as a harpist. Some say that in this William Morris Stained Glass product, King Arthur is actually William Morris’s self portrait.
Other examples of William Morris Stained Glass works include David’s Charge to Solomon which was created in the year 1882 and is a stained glass window. There is other equally impressive William Morris Stained Glass products including the one called The Worship of the Shepherds which again was created in the year 1882.
During the middle of the nineteenth century many news William Morris Stained Glass products were created. During this period, William Morris and his partners created stained glass windows which were mainly designed by Burne-Jones. Some of the works of William Morris Stained Glass can still be viewed at All Saints at Selsey near Stroud and this was in fact the first church to be decorated by the partnership firm of which William Morris was a member.
There are other excellent examples of William Morris Stained Glass products including at Middleton Cheney and at Banbury where some truly outstanding stained glass windows were installed during the 1860s. Each of these William Morris Stained Glass windows has two figures which, in the case of the windows at Middleton Cheney, were made by William Morris and Madox Brown as well as by a person called Simeon Solomon. The other windows were mainly created by Burne-Jones and by Madox Brown.
In the year 1874, William Morris became the only controlling partner in the firm that was to be renamed Morris and Co. This company would then devote all of its time to designing outstanding patterns and the figures used in the later William Morris Stained Glass windows would be designed by Burne-Jones.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Morris
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morris_%26_Co.