The Knights of the Round Table Summoned to the Quest by the Strange Damsel
by BURNE-JONES, Edward, Wool and silk on cotton warp
In his later life, Burne-Jones still provided Morris with a seemingly endless flow of stained-glass cartoons, their work in this field culminating in the four enormous windows made for St Philip’s Cathedral, Birmingham (1885-97). During the 1880s, Morris turned his attention to tapestry. Burne-Jones supplied the designs, their greatest achievement being the Holy Grail series completed in 1894 for Stanmore Hall, Uxbridge, near London.
The Knights of the Round Table Summoned to the Quest by the Strange Damsel is number 1 of the Holy Grail tapestries woven by Morris & Co. in 1891-94 for Stanmore Hall. The tapestry in Birmingham was woven by Morris & Co. for George McCulloch in 1898-99. It varies slightly from the original woven for Stanmore Hall.
The authors of the tapestry were Edward Burne-Jones (overall design and figures), William Morris (overall design and execution), and John Henry Dearle (flowers and decorative details).