Small sketchbook with board covers, with various pencil drawings of plants, animals and figures. (59 in total). It contains studies for Fair Rosamund, Fatima, Ezekiel and the Boiling Pot and The Tomb of Sir Tristram. A series of stylized copies from an as yet unidentified herbal, which was the basis that Morris and Burne-Jones used for the trees that separated the Good Women in the design for the embroidery that was to have been for Ruskin. The projected series had been intended for the girls of the Winnington School to work under the supervision of Georgiana and Miss Bell. However the project was abandoned. A number of similar embroideries were made for the Red House (for example: St Catherine now held at Kelmscott Manor). At this stage Burne-Jones was as involved in designing plant forms for the backgrounds for their projects, as was Morris. The drawing of the cherry relates to a watercolour of the same subject Acc. no 1918.466 in Manchester City Art Gallery collections. The more detailed studies of botanical species relate to the other version of The Legend of Good Women in stained glass. The majority of this sketchbook therefore is concerned with the illustrations of Chaucer's legend and confirms the date of 1862-63. At this early date in the history of the Firm the sketchbook clearly identifies Burne-Jones as the author of all the floral details which later became the domain of William Morris. Hitherto it had been thought that Morris had been responsible, but the present sketchbook would show that Burne-Jones designed not only the figures, but was responsible for all of the aspects of these panels. Also it would appear that Burne-Jones's preference was to have a sequence of layers, the foreground with stylized medieval plants, the mid-ground with more detailed accurate botanical representations and the background of settings with medieval architecture.
This book contains studies for several early works (see nos. 37-39) [Hayward catalogue 1976]. It is included here, however, for an interesting copy of two of the hounds in Dürer's engraving St. Eustace (p. 5 rcto). These re-appear in the last of the Sir Tristram designs for stained glass, The Tomb of Sir Tristram and Isuelt (no. 78). Dürer was an important early source for Burne-Jones. The engraving was probably lent to the artist by Ruskin who was in fact to give him an impression of it, together with a number of other Dürer prints, in 1865 (see no. 378). The torso of an old man on the facing page is probably a study for The Parable of the Boiling Pot (no. 255).