The fairy tale of “Sleeping Beauty” was a subject with which Burne-Jones seems to have been particularly preoccupied as he returned to it repeatedly, culminating in the "Briar Rose" series, of which “The Council Chamber” is an example. Numerous preparatory sketches such as this one survive, conveying the artist’s infatuation with this imaginary dream world. Here, the base of the thrown is apparent at the far right of each of the two sketches for the pavement of the council chamber. This series of drawings came to the Museum from Paul R. Miles via Henry Turner Bailey. Webb either sold or gave this series of drawings to Bailey, who was (among other things - see below) editor of "The School Arts Book," for which Webb wrote several articles. Henry Turner Bailey (1865-1931) was a graduate from the Massachusetts Normal Art School in 1887. He played a key role in the development of industrial drawing in Massachusetts schools. In 1901, Bailey becomes editor of School Arts, a valuable and resourceful journal. In 1992 the Museum was approached by the estate of J.M. (Josephine Maria Litchfield) Bailey, widow of Henry Turner. They were offered to the Museum for sale, but the price was quite high. Somehow Roland Elzea, then Chief Curator of the collection at Delaware arranged some sort of a deal by which they came to us as a partial purchase/partial gift with the latter somehow brokered through Paul R. Miles. Miles was local and involved at the time with the Museum, but it’s unclear how is support for this project was manifested.