Photographic Print
Date
1893
Level of description
Item
Extent and medium
Dimensions 153mm X 245mm
Creator
Royal School of Art Needlework
Burne-Jones, Edward: Edward Burne-Jones (August 28, 1833—June 17, 1898) was a leading painter and designer of late 19th-century England. His romantic medieval imagery was part of the last phase of the Pre-Raphaelite style. He was part of the Arts and crafts movement and the revival of the idea of the “artist-craftsman,” he worked closely with William Morris and was also connected to the 'Holland Park set' and the 'Souls' a friend of Mrs Percy Wyndham one of the founders of the Royal School of Art Needlework he was asked to provide designs for the school in the 1870s.
Burne-Jones, Edward: Edward Burne-Jones (August 28, 1833—June 17, 1898) was a leading painter and designer of late 19th-century England. His romantic medieval imagery was part of the last phase of the Pre-Raphaelite style. He was part of the Arts and crafts movement and the revival of the idea of the “artist-craftsman,” he worked closely with William Morris and was also connected to the 'Holland Park set' and the 'Souls' a friend of Mrs Percy Wyndham one of the founders of the Royal School of Art Needlework he was asked to provide designs for the school in the 1870s.
Scope and content
Sepia Photographic print on card, entitled Pomona. This records a design by Edward Burne-Jones and William Morris and shows the worked example stitched by the Royal School of Art Needlework (later the Royal School of Needlework) . The work was exhibited in Chicago in 1893. (reference An Unbroken Thread by Dr Susan Kay Williams (published by the Royal School of Needlework, 2022) p.42)
Pomona was designed by Edward Burne-Jones, with the grape border by William Morris. It shows a woman holding apples in her skirt and an apple bough in her left hand on a background of Acanthus leaves and a carpet of flowers and strawberries. The side borders are grape vines and there are text banners at the top and bottom in a gothic script.
Top banner:
I am the ancient apple-queen. as once I was so am I now
for evermore a hope unseen. between the blossom and the bough.
Bottom Banner
ah where's the river's hidden gold. and where the windy grave of troy.
yet come I as I came of old. from out the heart of summer's joy.
This poem Pomona was published by William Morris in 'Poems By the Way' 1891.
Versions of this design:
There are a number of versions of this design worked up into embroideries, the RSAN embroidery panel was exhibited at the World's Fair in Chicago in 1893 and that panel is in a private collection. When it was included in the Tate Modern Exhibition of 2018/2019 the embroidery work was described as reputedly made under the guidance of May Morris. (An Unbroken Thread p.37)
The National Trust property at Wightwick Manor in the West Midlands has a watercolour on paper of the design, though in this case the banners are in Latin, which they think was probably painted at the Morris workshop. Their catalogue suggests that only the figure is by Burne-Jones and that the background as well as the border (which is similar to the embroidery) is by Morris. NT1287891
The Pomona design was also woven as a tapestry for Morris and Co. There is a very similar tapestry version to the RNAS embroidery in the Whitworth Art Gallery in Manchester dates 1884-5 in wool and silk from Morris and Co. WHT 162063 and with the Banners also in English.
There is another version in the Victoria and Albert Museum T. 33 -1981 which has a different background by John Henry Dearle and and a simple acanthus border with no banners. The V&A catalogue says that there is a record in Burne-Jones's account book of a payment for the design from Morris and Co in 1882.
Description on back of card reads 'No. 9. The property of the Royal School of Art Needlework. Exhibition Road. South Kensington.'
Pomona was designed by Edward Burne-Jones, with the grape border by William Morris. It shows a woman holding apples in her skirt and an apple bough in her left hand on a background of Acanthus leaves and a carpet of flowers and strawberries. The side borders are grape vines and there are text banners at the top and bottom in a gothic script.
Top banner:
I am the ancient apple-queen. as once I was so am I now
for evermore a hope unseen. between the blossom and the bough.
Bottom Banner
ah where's the river's hidden gold. and where the windy grave of troy.
yet come I as I came of old. from out the heart of summer's joy.
This poem Pomona was published by William Morris in 'Poems By the Way' 1891.
Versions of this design:
There are a number of versions of this design worked up into embroideries, the RSAN embroidery panel was exhibited at the World's Fair in Chicago in 1893 and that panel is in a private collection. When it was included in the Tate Modern Exhibition of 2018/2019 the embroidery work was described as reputedly made under the guidance of May Morris. (An Unbroken Thread p.37)
The National Trust property at Wightwick Manor in the West Midlands has a watercolour on paper of the design, though in this case the banners are in Latin, which they think was probably painted at the Morris workshop. Their catalogue suggests that only the figure is by Burne-Jones and that the background as well as the border (which is similar to the embroidery) is by Morris. NT1287891
The Pomona design was also woven as a tapestry for Morris and Co. There is a very similar tapestry version to the RNAS embroidery in the Whitworth Art Gallery in Manchester dates 1884-5 in wool and silk from Morris and Co. WHT 162063 and with the Banners also in English.
There is another version in the Victoria and Albert Museum T. 33 -1981 which has a different background by John Henry Dearle and and a simple acanthus border with no banners. The V&A catalogue says that there is a record in Burne-Jones's account book of a payment for the design from Morris and Co in 1882.
Description on back of card reads 'No. 9. The property of the Royal School of Art Needlework. Exhibition Road. South Kensington.'
Transcription
N0 9 The property of the Royal School of Art Needlework, Exhibition Road, South Kensington. Top wording I am the ancient apple queen as once I was so I am now. for evermore a hope unseen betwixt the blossom and the bough. Bottom wording Ahwheres the rivers hidden gold and where the windy grave of Troy yet come I as I came of old from out the heart of summers joy.
Reference code
D1/020
© Royal School of Needlework