Autotypes of cartoons for St. Editha of Polesworth Windows, Tamworth: The Legend of St. Editha

Autotypes of cartoons for St. Editha of Polesworth Windows, Tamworth: The Legend of St. Editha

Ford Madox Brown (1821 - 1893)

Date: after 1873
Dimensions:
610 x 320 mm
Medium: Photograph: Autotype
Object number: GA0880
DescriptionPhotographic autotypes of twelve cartoons depicting The Legend of St. Editha. The cartoons were produced by Madox Brown in chalk and wash, as designs for a series of three stained glass windows in the church of St. Editha's in Tamworth, Staffordshire. The cartoons, of which there were fifteen in total (twelve figures and three trefoils), were purchased by Charles Rowley in 1877 and presented to the Art Gallery Committee of Manchester Corporation in 1882. They were subsequently put on display at Manchester School of Art between 1900 and 1913. They currently remain untraced, and these photographic reproductions have since become an important visual record. There exact dimensions are unknown.

The windows themselves were executed by the highly influential Arts and Crafts firm, Morris and Co. in 1973.

Titles of each cartoon, in order of narrative:

Window I. Marriage of St. Editha (GA0880.3)

1. King Athelstane gives away his sister
2. St. Editha in marriage to
3. Sigtrig, King of Northumbria
4. Nuptial benediction of Ella, Bishop of Lichfield

Window II. St. Editha as Abbess (GA0880.2)

5. St. Editha holding crozier, admonishing
6. Two Nuns gathering flowers
7. Two Nuns kneeling adoring
8. Virgin and Child

Window III. St. Editha and Marmion (GA0880.1)

9. William the Conqueror presenting charter
10. Marmion taking possession of Tamworth
11. Marmion Asleep
12. St. Editha striking him with her Crozier

(Benjamin Angwin - November 2014)