The Angeli Laudantes Tapestry: Morris & Co. at Merton Abbey

Angels in wool and silk: what the tapestry shows

The subject is stated in the titles the museums use. The Victoria and Albert Museum records its example under the title Angeli Laudantes, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art records the same design under the English title Angels Praising (Angeli Laudantes). The two institutions therefore document one subject: angels shown in the act of praise, woven rather than printed or painted.

The V&A describes its example as tapestry woven in wool, silk and mohair on a cotton warp. The Met's record agrees on the essentials, giving dyed wool and silk on an undyed cotton warp and adding the weave density: 15 warps per inch. Those materials and that density are the practical facts behind the design's surface, which reads as flat pattern and figure set side by side.

Beyond the titles, the makers and the materials, the museum records consulted for this page do not describe the composition in detail. No named source in the evidence identifies specific plants or motifs in the design, so none are listed here.

If you want to compare this design with others from the same workshop, the parent reference on Morris woven work lists tapestries, woven textiles and carpets together with their dates and makers.

Who designed Angeli Laudantes: two museum records that differ

Attribution for this design is not settled, and the difference sits inside the V&A's own records. The museum's brief description states that the tapestry was designed by Edward Burne-Jones and woven by Morris & Co. in 1894. The museum's summary description states something more complicated: the tapestry was designed by John Henry Dearle with figures by Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, and made by Morris & Co. at the Merton Abbey Tapestry Works.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art takes the simpler line. Its record lists Angels Praising (Angeli Laudantes) with Sir Edward Burne-Jones as artist in the role of Designer. So one institution gives two versions and the other gives the version that matches the brief description.

Both museums record Burne-Jones's connection to the figures: the V&A's summary description gives the figures to Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art lists Burne-Jones as Designer. The V&A's summary record also adds Dearle as the designer of the whole. Both readings can be stated from the records. Neither can be confirmed as the final word, because no other source in the evidence available to this page addresses the question.

The two men the records name have documented dates. According to the V&A, John Henry Dearle was born in 1860 and died in 1932, and Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones was born in Birmingham in 1833 and died in London in 1898.

A note on dates as well as names. No record in the evidence gives a design date for Angeli Laudantes distinct from the dates the museums assign to the surviving examples. The V&A dates its example to 1894 and the Metropolitan Museum of Art dates its example to 1898. Those dates date the two tapestries, not necessarily the moment the design was first drawn.

Woven at Merton Abbey: how Morris & Co. made tapestry

Angeli Laudantes was woven in a workshop with a specific history. According to the V&A, tapestry weaving was established at Merton Abbey when the firm consolidated production at the site in 1881, and Morris appointed John Henry Dearle to manage production there. Dearle, later credited in the summary record as designer of Angeli Laudantes, was running the workshop more than a decade before this tapestry was woven.

The V&A also describes how large tapestry commissions were made. In its account, they were often designed by Morris, Dearle and other artists in collaboration, and executed by the company's experienced weavers on Flemish-style looms that Morris had built. The collaborative model explains how a tapestry could carry figures by Burne-Jones within a design credited to Dearle, or credited to Burne-Jones alone depending on which part of the record you read.

The firm took the training of weavers seriously enough that a teaching loom entered a national collection. In 1893 Morris donated to the South Kensington Museum, now the V&A, a miniature tapestry loom previously used to instruct apprentice weavers at the Merton Abbey workshop. The V&A also holds a full Merton Abbey Workshop loom from the late nineteenth century. Physical evidence of the workshop therefore survives alongside the tapestries themselves.

For the wider context of the firm's woven output, including tapestries, woven textiles and carpets with their dates and makers, see the parent reference list of Morris woven work.

Two surviving examples: the V&A and the Met

Two museum holdings are documented in the records used for this page. The Victoria and Albert Museum holds a tapestry depicting Angeli Laudantes under object number O69152, dated 1894. The Metropolitan Museum of Art holds a work titled Angels Praising (Angeli Laudantes), dated 1898. The two museums therefore give different dates for their examples, though the evidence does not say how many examples were made in total.

The Met record is thinner in one respect: it does not state the weaving firm or the place of weaving for its example. The V&A record is the only one of the two that names Morris & Co. and the Merton Abbey Tapestry Works as makers. No object number for the Met work is given in the record available here, and no other holding institution appears in the evidence.

Later reissues are a common question for Morris & Co. designs. On the evidence checked for this page, no source documents a later reissue of Angeli Laudantes or gives dates for one, so none can be reported.

Angeli Laudantes among Morris & Co. tapestries

The V&A holds two earlier Morris & Co. tapestries that show the same working pattern of shared credit. According to the V&A, The Forest, made at the Merton Abbey Workshop in 1887, was designed by William Morris, Philip Webb and John Henry Dearle. The V&A also holds The Orchard, made by Morris & Co. in 1890, designed by William Morris and John Henry Dearle. In both cases more than one hand is named in the design, which matches the collaborative practice the V&A describes for the workshop generally.

Read against those records, Angeli Laudantes fits the pattern the V&A describes: a Burne-Jones figure subject, woven at Merton Abbey, with the division of design credit recorded unevenly. What does not follow from the evidence is any claim about its popularity, the number woven, or a design date earlier than the surviving examples. No documented statement by Morris about Angeli Laudantes appears in the sources consulted, so nothing can be quoted from him on the subject.

For more tapestries from the same workshop, see the reference list of Morris woven work, which gathers tapestries, woven textiles and carpets in one place.

Seeing the design today and related designs

The documented places to see Angeli Laudantes are the Victoria and Albert Museum, which holds the 1894 tapestry O69152, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which holds Angels Praising (Angeli Laudantes) dated 1898. Checking each museum's online collection or display listings before a visit is the practical way to confirm whether an example is on view, since tapestries are often rotated for conservation reasons.

If you are drawn to the look of the design rather than the object itself, the William Morris Original Designs collection gathers prints made from designs held in museum collections, each listed with its source record. It is a way of living with the imagery when the original tapestry sits behind glass in another country.