The accompanying verdure bore the inscription "How king arthur sat in his hall at high tide of pentecost and how the whole round table was there assembled when there entered to them a damsel and called upon the knights to take upon them the quest of the sangreal whereof was great stir and wonder amongst them of the Round Table both the king and his knights." Presumably composed by Morris, this is in the style of the chapter headings of William Caxton's 1485 edition of Malory's Morte d’Arthur, and explains a scene that conflates the beginning of book 13 with the later miraculous appearance of the inscription on the Siege Perilous (from the old French word for a chair), heralding the coming of the knight who will succeed in the quest. In Burne-Jones s own words, "suddenly writing comes on the empty chair, the Siege Perilous set by Arthur, where no man can sit but the one who can achieve the adventure. Launcelot is opposite the chair, and points to him- self as if asking if he is to sit there. Gawaine and Lamorak and Percival and Bors are all there." 1 This device serves to intro- duce Sir Galahad, whose Christian chivalric virtues are under- scored by the doves, symbolizing the Holy Ghost, placed above the chair. It is he who will salve the conscience of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, by achieving the spiritual quest for the Holy Grail, the vessel believed to have been used by Christ at the Last Supper and later by Joseph of Arimathea to catch the blood issuing from the side of the Crucified Christ on the cross. Galahad s subsequent arrival inspires a collective vision of the Grail, which marks the begin- ning of the quest. The other knights, in addition to those cited by Burne-Jones, are Sir Ector (or Hector) de Marys and Sir Kay. Together, the figures form a friezelike composition often used by the artist and particularly reminiscent of The Feast ofPeleus (cat. no. 51), in which there is a similar interruption by an unexpected visi- tor. The round-backed seats may have been inspired by early Renaissance painting, and were themselves copied by the architect M. H. Baillie Scott as furnishings for his interiors of 1897-98 at Darmstadt for Ernst Ludwig, Grand Duke of Hesse, appropriately the owner of Burne-Jones s later oil of Saint George (cat. no. 86). 2 A simpler version, with a solid back and painted panels (William Morris Gallery, Walthamstow), was made as early as 1856, as part of the furniture for the rooms Morris and Burne-Jones shared in Red Lion Square. 3 Two preparatory designs, of roughly the same size, are known (19 3/4 x 39 3/8 in.). One, now at Birmingham, must be an early conception, as the figures are studied from the nude, and the Siege Perilous is placed farther to the left, beyond a second pillar eliminated from the final composition. 4 The other, more finished, 5 would conform with Morris's description of the original studies as being "not above 15 inches high. The figures are grouped and drawn from carefully prepared studies: for the most part there is but little minuteness of detail and they are only slightly tinted." 6 What appears to be a photographic copy of this design can be seen on the wall next to the loom, in a photograph of The Summons made during weaving at Merton Abbey/ Parts of the larger photographic enlargements, including the head of Sir Launcelot and the figures of Sir Palomedes and Sir Bors, are in the William Morris Gallery, Walthamstow. 8 The fine drawing for the head of Gawaine (seated nearest to the Damsel) is one of several portraitlike studies for the main figures; a similar drawing of Lamorak remains in the collection of the Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight. 1. Letter of 1890 to Helen Gaskell, quoted in Memorials, vol. 2, p. 208. 2. See James D. Kornwolf, M. H. Baillie Scott and the Arts and Crafts Movement (Baltimore and London, 1972), pp. 162-68; one of the chairs was illustrated in Studio 15 (July 1898), p. 92. A friendly carpenter made up actual examples of the round-backed chairs for Burne-Jones to use as models, which the artist's granddaughter later recalled in use in the sum- mer house at North End House, Rottingdean: "The seats were very high off the ground with no depth from back to front, so that any knight who used them would have sat like a child with his feet dangling in the air, if indeed he managed to keep himself balanced on the exiguous chair at all. … If that is how Arthur s court was furnished it is quite enough to explain the eagerness of the knights to leave their seats and follow the quest of the Holy Grail and one can only conclude that the Siege Perilous was even more uncomfortable and ill-adapted to the human frame than the seats of the other knights" (Thirkell 1931, pp. 80-81). 3. Victoria and Albert Museum 1996, no. j.4; see Peter Cormack, discus- sion of William Morris's "Weaving Chair," Journal of the Edward Barnsley Educational Trust, no. 3 (March 1996). 4. Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery (1994P22); previously sold at Christies, December 15, 1987, lot 66, illus. 5. Sotheby's Belgravia, November 16, 1976, lot 252, illus. 6. Aymer Vallance, "The Revival of Tapestry-Weaving: An Interview with William Morris," Studio 3 (1894). 7. Reproduced in Morris, Letters, vol. 4, 189J-1896 (1996), p. 90. 8. See Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery 1981, p. 108, no. tioa, and Whitworth Art Gallery 1984, p. 190, no. 15