This sequence of tapestries was originally designed for William Knox D'Arcy, for the dining room of his house, Stanmore Hall in Middlesex. Several further versions were woven later. Birmingham's version of The Ship was woven for Mrs Middlemore, wife of the Birmingham leather manufacturer Thomas Middlemore, and bequeathed to the Museum in 1947. The subject matter is based on the 15th century text Le Morte D'Arthur (The Death of Arthur) by Sir Thomas Malory. It tells the story of the spiritual quest by the knights of King Arthur's round table for the Holy Grail, the cup from which Jesus and the disciples drank at the Last Supper. This design links the figurative scenes together. The story tells how the knights travelled by ship for part of their journey to Sarras, where the Holy Grail was to be discovered. Ships were often used in medieval stories as important narrative devices, to transport characters from one scene or world to another. Burne-Jones drew studies for this design using scale models. Presented by Miss Evangeline Middlemore, 1947.
And then comes the ship — which is as much to say that the scene has shifted, and we have passed from out of Britain and are in the land of S arras, the land of the soul, that is." 1 In Malory's account the knights Bors, Perceval, and Galahad make the journey on a ship bearing on its stern the warning: "Thou man which shalt enter into this ship, beware that thou be in steadfast belief." There was a practical requirement for this smaller piece — to produce a vertical hanging for a corner of the dining room at Stanmore Hall — but Burne-Jones clearly reveled in the much- loved motif; the same type of jaunty, rounded vessel appears in the Viking Ship panel of stained glass designed in 1883 (see illus. on p. 289), as well as in the late oil painting The Sirens (cat. no. 157). Studies of similar ships from medieval manuscripts can be found in the Holy Grail sketchbook (Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery), as well as variations on the theme in the "Secret" Book of Designs (cat. no. 140). For use in the stu- dio, he even had someone (presumably W. A. S. Benson) make a three-masted model ship in wood, with sails of sheet metal. 2 1. Memorials, vol. 2, p. 209. 2. Illustrated in Burne-Jones 1900, p. 162.