Design for Victoria and Albert Museum by William Bell Scott, Ceramic Gallery, stained glass window (English), about 1870

Small-scale pen and ink drawing with yellow watercolour on paper. Divided into four yellow-bordered rectangular lights, with a further light indicated above, this design for a stained-glass window in the Ceramic Gallery (now the Silver Gallery, Rooms 65-69) depicts scenes relating to English ceramic production and is annotated ‘Last window in the Series’. With a small boy leaning against a seated lady before a fireplace, the top left window light shows Dr Dodridge being taught Bible history by his mother from Dutch tiles. The top right window light, containing a man holding a tricorne hat, shows Dr Johnson experimenting on ware at Chelsea Pottery. The lower left light shows Josiah Wedgwood and Thomas Bentley, standing behind a vase placed on a pedestal. Surrounded by bound volumes, relievos and sculpture, the lower right light shows Flaxman and Stothard designing for Wedgwood. Drawn to a larger scale and lightly coloured with yellow watercolour, to the side is a detail of the foliage pattern to be used as a border. Annotated; subject matter labelled on drawing and on mount.

As carried out during the late 1860s and 1870s, the interior of the Lecture Theatre block of the Victoria and Albert Museum - containing the Lecture Theatre, Ceramic Gallery (now the Silver Gallery, Rooms 65-69) and refreshment rooms - was elaborately decorated. This pen and ink drawing comprises one of William Bell Scott’s designs for the fourteen stained-glass windows in the Ceramic Gallery. Henry Cole, the first director of the Museum, was responsible for the theme. Mirroring the arrangement of ceramic items within the gallery, the stained-glass windows depicted historical periods of ceramic manufacture: shown here are incidents and prominent figures from the history of English ceramic production. Scott executed the designs by painting onto glass panes with a brush, keeping the windows virtually free of colour (yellow being the only stain used) so as not to darken the gallery. Scott also designed two stained-glass windows for the landings of the two staircases leading up from the Ceramic Gallery to the Lecture Theatre.

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