Furniture Design
ca. 1855-1881 (made)
Artist/Maker | |
Place of origin |
William Burges began designing furniture early in his career, in the mid-1850s, and continued until his death in 1881. Generally heavy, sculptural, extensively carved, and with medieval decorations, his furniture stood out in the 19th century particularly for its unique application of painted decoration. Following a medieval fashion of design, Burges applied painted decoration to his furniture to correspond to greater painted schemes on surrounding walls and ceilings. He displayed a number of such painted pieces at the International Exhibition of 1862 in the Medieval Court. Despite receiving mixed reviews for his use of colours, decorative subjects, and carpentry at this early date, Burges’ furniture proved very popular in succeeding decades. He continued to design in this bold fusion of Pre-Raphaelitism and the Gothic Revival the duration of his career.
Object details
Categories | |
Object type | |
Materials and techniques | Pencil and watercolour on paper |
Brief description | William Burges. Design for a painted bookcase. English, ca. 1855 - 1881. |
Physical description | Pencil and watercolour drawings of a bookcase on paper. A section drawing of a side view of the bookcase is drawn on the left side. It reveals decorative details in yellow paint. The rough sketch of a female figure facing the bookcase is depicted on the left. A section drawing of a cylindrical wooden element from the bookcase is drawn on the right side of the sheet. |
Dimensions |
|
Styles | |
Marks and inscriptions |
|
Subjects depicted | |
Summary | William Burges began designing furniture early in his career, in the mid-1850s, and continued until his death in 1881. Generally heavy, sculptural, extensively carved, and with medieval decorations, his furniture stood out in the 19th century particularly for its unique application of painted decoration. Following a medieval fashion of design, Burges applied painted decoration to his furniture to correspond to greater painted schemes on surrounding walls and ceilings. He displayed a number of such painted pieces at the International Exhibition of 1862 in the Medieval Court. Despite receiving mixed reviews for his use of colours, decorative subjects, and carpentry at this early date, Burges’ furniture proved very popular in succeeding decades. He continued to design in this bold fusion of Pre-Raphaelitism and the Gothic Revival the duration of his career. |
Associated object | |
Collection | |
Accession number | 8829:9 |
About this object record
Explore the Collections contains over a million catalogue records, and over half a million images. It is a working database that includes information compiled over the life of the museum. Some of our records may contain offensive and discriminatory language, or reflect outdated ideas, practice and analysis. We are committed to addressing these issues, and to review and update our records accordingly.
You can write to us to suggest improvements to the record.
Suggest feedback
You can write to us to suggest improvements to the record.
Suggest feedback
Record created | June 30, 2009 |
Record URL |
Download as: JSONIIIF Manifest