This watercolour and gouache design by Morris Kestelman (1905-1998) is a sketch for his finished design for the Sadler's Wells Opera production of Puccini's one-act opera Gianni Schicchi, which opened at London's Prince's Theatre on 5th December 1944. The finished design is also in the Theatre Collections (S.343-1987). Morris Kestelman designed both costumes and set, and post-dated this mistakenly as 1945.

Gianni Schicchi, Puccini's only comic opera, was based on a story by Dante and set in Florence in the Middle Ages. This production starred the baritone Edmund Donlevy as the wily Gianni Schicchi who impersonates Buoso Donati on his death-bed. Donati has already died, leaving everything to a monastery, but encouraged by Donati's aggrieved relatives, Schicchi takes his place in bed and summons a lawyer to re-draft the will. To the relatives' fury he wills most of Donati's estate to himself, leaving them powerless to complain for fear of being implicated in the plot. The opera takes place in this one room, the relatives gathered around the curtained bed.

Since the production took place when London was being bombed, the first-night programme noted that the audience would be alerted to an Air Raid warning by an illuminated sign in front of the footlights, asking those who decided to leave to do so quietly, but advising them to remain.