Bookcase
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Bookcase |
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This bookcase, of ebonised pine with gilded and painted decoration, was designed by Burges and manufactured by the firm of Morris & Co in 1862-3. It was made for W.B.Warington Taylor, a partner in, and financial advisor to, Morris & Co. The commission seems to have arisen out of the first public display of painted furniture by Burges and other designers in the International Exhibition of 1862 (Crook, p.297). | |
| The double doors are painted with a frieze of figures personifying the Signs of the Zodiac set on a golden ground. The figures are apparently taking their astrological wares to market. The third figure from the right, riding a goat and symbolising Capricorn, was thought by Crook to be inspired by a German legend of a tailor riding a goat (Crook, p.297), and might therefore a punning reference to Taylor as the future owner of the bookcase. However, the figure on the cabinet is in fact a jester rather than a tailor, so the link seems somewhat tenuous. |  |
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The individualised nature of some of the faces in the frieze is noteworthy, and although Crook has suggested a resemblance between one figure and Rossetti (Crook, p.298) there is little similarity between the figure on the goat and photographs of Warington Taylor. The frieze painting has been attributed to several different artists (D.G.Rossetti, Stacy Marks and Frederic Leighton) but no firm conclusion reached. |