Morris & Co. Stained Glass: Design, Makers and Masterpieces

What the Firm's Stained Glass Covers

Morris, Marshall, Faulkner and Co. was founded in 1861, according to the Victoria and Albert Museum. Stained glass was among the firm's activities from that early period, and the V&A's account places the firm at the centre of a change in how the medium was used.

By the 19th century, the V&A notes, stained glass was used almost exclusively to embellish church interiors, and Morris, Marshall, Faulkner and Co. was instrumental in reintroducing the medium to the home. That shift, from church commission to domestic panel, is the defining context for the firm's glass.

The museum's records also show how the firm's glass entered a public collection. According to the V&A, the Penelope panel was one of four purchased from an exhibition of contemporary stained glass held at the South Kensington Museum in 1864.

One limit should be stated plainly. The evidence used here covers the firm under its founding name, Morris, Marshall, Faulkner and Co., founded in 1861 according to the Victoria and Albert Museum. The record supplied does not establish when, or whether, the firm adopted the later name Morris and Co., so this page does not date that change. The firm's full arc is traced in our Morris & Co. history guide.

Key Facts at a Glance

The following points come directly from the Victoria and Albert Museum's records and summarise the documented core of the topic.

Documented facts about the firm's stained glass:

• Morris, Marshall, Faulkner and Co. was founded in 1861, according to the V&A.
• The V&A records that by the 19th century stained glass was used almost exclusively in church interiors, and credits the firm with reintroducing the medium to the home.
• The V&A describes Edward Burne-Jones (1833 to 1898) as the most prolific and influential of the stained-glass designers working with William Morris during this period.
• The V&A holds a stained glass panel depicting a medallion head of Penelope surrounded by a diaper of flowers, museum number O8452.
• The V&A also holds a stained glass panel depicting Geoffrey Chaucer asleep, museum number O8453.

The two V&A panels are the named examples with object records used throughout this guide. Each is described in detail in the sections that follow.

The Penelope Roundel

The V&A's panel O8452 shows a medallion head of Penelope surrounded by a diaper of flowers. The museum records it as stained and painted glass, designed by Edward Burne-Jones and made by Morris, Marshall, Faulkner and Co. about 1864 in London, England.

The roundel belongs to a series of designs depicting the 14th-century poet Geoffrey Chaucer, who died in 1400, and six characters from his poem Goode Wimmen, or Good Women. Penelope herself was not featured in Chaucer's own tale, the V&A notes, but was famous as the model of domestic virtue in Homeric legend.

The design has a documented history of reuse. The V&A records that Burne-Jones adapted the Penelope roundel from the head of Phyllis, who appeared in another of the artist's Goode Wimmen designs. Adapting a head from one subject to another shows how the firm's design work could be recycled across a series.

The panel also has a recorded purchase history. It was one of four purchased from an exhibition of contemporary stained glass held at the South Kensington Museum in 1864, the institution that later became the V&A. That record ties the panel to a specific public moment in the firm's early glass production.

The Sleeping Chaucer Panel

The second documented panel, V&A museum number O8453, depicts Geoffrey Chaucer asleep. The V&A records it as designed by Edward Burne-Jones and made by Morris, Marshall, Faulkner and Co. in England in 1864. Its material is described as clear and coloured glass painted with brown pigment and yellow, or silver, stain.

The museum's description of the scene is unusually full. Chaucer wears a dark green gown with yellow cuffs and a brown turban, lying on his right side propped on his elbow in a field of flowers in front of a picket fence. Behind him stands a brick building with corinthian columns and a chequered floor.

The panel did not stand alone. It originally came from a series of seven depicting scenes from the Legend of Good Women, designed by Burne-Jones and made by Morris, Marshall, Faulkner and Co., according to the V&A.

The literary source explains the subject. The V&A records that the Legend of Good Women was written by Chaucer in the 1380s and is an epic poem in iambic pentameter describing how the personification of Amor came to the poet in his sleep and related the stories of ten women from antiquity who suffered for love. The sleeping Chaucer panel shows the poem's framing scene, the dream in which the stories are told.

Burne-Jones as the Firm's Glass Designer

Both documented panels carry the same attribution in the V&A's records: designed by Edward Burne-Jones, made by Morris, Marshall, Faulkner and Co. That pattern matches the V&A's wider assessment. According to the museum, Burne-Jones (1833 to 1898) was the most prolific and influential of the stained-glass designers working with William Morris during this period.

The two roundels also show his working method as the museum's object records capture it. According to the V&A, the Penelope head was adapted from the head of Phyllis in another of Burne-Jones's Goode Wimmen designs, and the Chaucer panel came from a series of seven panels depicting scenes from the Legend of Good Women, designed by Burne-Jones and made by Morris, Marshall, Faulkner and Co. Series production, with designs adapted and reused across subjects, is what the object records actually document.

The Penelope panel itself is worth describing in the V&A's terms. It is a stained glass panel depicting a medallion head of Penelope surrounded by a diaper of flowers, and it is made of stained and painted glass. The V&A's account places it in a series of designs depicting the 14th-century poet Geoffrey Chaucer (died 1400) and six characters from his poem 'Goode Wimmen' (Good Women). Penelope, the museum notes, was not featured in Chaucer's own tale but was famous as the model of domestic virtue in Homeric legend.

The Chaucer panel can be described just as concretely. According to the V&A, it is made of clear and coloured glass painted with brown pigment and yellow (silver) stain. Chaucer wears a dark green gown with yellow cuffs and a brown turban, lying on his right side propped on his elbow in a field of flowers in front of a picket fence, with a brick building with corinthian columns and a chequered floor behind. The poem the series drew on was written by Chaucer in the 1380s and, per the museum, is an epic poem in iambic pentameter describing how the personification of 'Amor' came to him in his sleep and related the stories of ten women from antiquity who suffered for love.

It is worth being precise about roles here. The V&A's records name Burne-Jones as designer and Morris, Marshall, Faulkner and Co. as maker. They do not name individual glass painters or workshop hands, so this page does not either.

What the Record Does Not Settle

Several natural questions cannot be answered from the evidence used here, and it is more useful to say so than to fill the gaps with guesswork.

Open questions this page leaves unresolved:

• When, or whether, the firm changed its name from Morris, Marshall, Faulkner and Co., founded in 1861 according to the Victoria and Albert Museum, to Morris and Co. The supplied record does not date the change.
• What William Morris himself said about stained glass. No quotation by Morris on the subject appears in the record used here.
• The roles of anyone other than Burne-Jones, whom the V&A names as designer, and the firm, which it names as maker. The record supplied names no other individuals in connection with the firm's stained glass.
• Which workshops or works manufactured the glass, and for whom. No documented commissions or clients for the firm's stained glass appear in the record.
• Further named stained glass examples with object records beyond the Penelope and Chaucer panels.

Where to See Morris Firm Glass and Where to Go Next

The two panels described here can be studied through the Victoria and Albert Museum's records: the Penelope roundel, museum number O8452, and the sleeping Chaucer panel, museum number O8453. Both are documented examples of Burne-Jones's design work made by Morris, Marshall, Faulkner and Co. in 1864.

For the firm's wider story, see our Morris & Co. history guide. If you are interested in how the firm's workshop production extended to other media, our guide to woodblock wallpaper printing in detail covers one such process. And if you want to bring a Morris design into your own rooms, our William Morris original designs collection gathers the prints we make from the firm's pattern work.