This one was produced in 1904 at the request of the banker Guillaume Mallet when he refurbished his house, the Bois des Moutiers, in Varengeville-sur-mer (Seine-Maritime), a house built by the architect Sir Edwin Lutyens.
Inscribed top "THE ADORATION" DESIGNED BY SIR E BURNE-JONES Inscribed bottom right "MADE BY MORRIS AND COMPANY MERTON ABBEY MCMIV " Le Bois des Moutiers, Varengeville-sur-Mer, for Guillaume Mallet: Lutyens met the French banker Guillaume Mallet through his involvement in the plans for a Paris International Exhibition of 1900. He eventually designed three houses for the Mallets, two at Varengeville in Normandy and one near Grasse, in the south of France. (RIBA /www.ribapix.com)
Christie's Paris, 23 February 2009 ... Lot 93, Edward Burne-Jones, L’Adoration des Mages, 1904, est. €400,000-€600,000 (ca. $515,000-$772,000). In a demonstration of their immunity to fickle fashion, YSL and Bergé favored tapestry. On offer is Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones’ The Adoration of the Magi from 1904. While Burne-Jones rendered the subject both in stained glass and paintings, this example is more massive in scale. It had been executed for Guillaume Mallet’s Edwin Lutyens house near Dieppe and later successfully hidden from the Nazis. Even if it goes for over its presale high estimate, this tapestry from an edition of ten will still be a relative bargain, as this specialty is finally back again in vogue.