Church of St Columba, Topcliffe, Yorkshire
Address
Church of St Columba, 10 Church Street, Topcliffe, Thirsk YO7 3PARecommended by
Highlight
Left hand panel in the three-light chancel south windowArtist, maker and date
Designed by Edward Burne-Jones and made by Lavers & Barraud, 1860.Reason for highlighting
A very early window designed by Burne-Jones before the foundation of William Morris’s firm. The architect William Butterfield was restoring the church at Topcliffe when the window was added. It seems Butterfield was so displeased with the design that the other two lights of the window were designed by Michael Frederick Halliday who was in the circle of Pre-Raphaelites. (The full window can be seen here.)
Butterfield objected to Burne-Jones placing the dove representing the Holy Spirit in Mary’s hands, clutched to her breast. Burne-Jones refused to change it, later calling it a mistake, and lamenting the lost chance of more work from Butterfield, who never commissioned another design from Burne-Jones.
The window is sumptuously coloured and is a gorgeous example of Burne-Jones early work. The window is signed E B Jones Inv in the lower right. The floral designs are gorgeous as are the feathers. Butterfield may have detested it and Burne-Jones regretted it but today we can adore it.
Burne-Jones’s original design in oils on canvas is in the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery.
Artist/maker notes
Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones (1833-1898) was born in Birmingham and studied at Exeter College, Oxford where he met William Morris, with whom he developed a lifelong friendship. Together they would create a series of stained glass windows that stand as one of the finest artist achievements of their time. The stature of this formidable artist and designer was recognised after his death when he became the first artist to be given a Memorial Service at Westminster Abbey.
Sources:
For a brief overview of the two companies see Morris & Co on Wikipedia
The Last Pre-Raphaelite: Edward Burne-Jones and the Victorian Imagination by Fiona McCarthy, Faber & Faber, 2011.
William Morris: A Life for Our Time by Fiona MacCarthy (Faber & Faber, 1994)
Burne-Jones Special Issue, The Journal of Stained Glass, Vol. XXXV, 2011
Damozels & Deities Pre-Raphaelite Stained Glass 1870-1898 by William Waters and Alastair Carew-Cox (Seraphim Press Ltd, 2017)
Lavers & Barraud (1858-1868) Nathaniel Wood Lavers (1828–1911) established the firm in 1855 and was joined by Francis Philip Barraud (1824–1900) in 1858. The firm employed a number of freelance artists, one of whom Nathaniel Westlake (1833–1921) became a partner in 1868. Westlake eventually became the sole partner following the deaths of Lavers and Barraud.
Sources:
Angels & Icons: Pre-Raphaelite Stained Glass 1850-1870 by William Waters (Seraphim Press Ltd 2012)
Stained Glass Marks and Monograms. Complied by Joyce little (London: National Association of Decorative and Fine Art Societies, 2002)
Other comments
An attractive church mostly of the nineteenth century, though with some earlier features. A fourteenth century brass in particular is excellent.