Works from family of artist Edward Burne-Jones from Gatewick House in Sussex heading to auction

Among the works is a bird pattern textile hanging by the famed English designer and artist William Morris (1834-1896), a lifelong friend of Burne-Jones. The two met as undergraduates at Oxford in 1853 and dedicated their lives to the arts, becoming hugely successful both in their own right and in their collaborative projects. Burne-Jones designed furniture, tapestries, stained glass, jewellery, theatre sets and fine art, which would lead to him becoming an associate of the Royal Academy in 1885. Morris founded the furnishings and decorative arts company Morris & Co. which focused on the Medieval aesthetic, with hand craftsmanship and traditional textile arts as its main focus. Both artists would have a profound effect on interior decoration and the decorative arts and still do to this day, with Morris designs still offered by Sanderson & Sons and Liberty of London.

The textile hanging featuring birds in a recurring pattern, is instantly recognisable as an original William Morris design from circa 1877 and 1878. It was first hand-loom jacquard woven at Morris & Co. headquarters at Queen Square in London and later at Merton Abbey in Surrey (where Morris took on premises). In November 1879 Edward Burne-Jones ordered a set of bed hangings in this pattern and it is possible that this hanging may have formed part of this order. It was owned by Edward Burne-Jones and passed to his daughter Mrs J W Mackail née Margaret Burne-Jones (1866-1953), then passed down by descent to her daughter Clare Mackail (1896-1975) to the current generation. It carries an estimate of £2,000-£4,000 (lot 312).

An occasional table attributed to the chief furniture designer and wood carver at Morris & Co. George Washington Jack (1855-1931), features a label that reads 'William Morris used to work at his designs for the Kelmscot Chaucer in the studio at The Grange on Sunday Mornings while my father Edward Burne-Jones worked at his drawings for the same book. Morris used this table', which tells us that the table belonged to Burne-Jones and was used by him at his family home and garden studio, The Grange in Fulham, London, where he resided from 1867-1898.

The table was a popular model, with clients purchasing it from Morris & Co. in the late 19th century (another similar walnut table is in the St. Louis Museum of Art) and it is therefore even more exciting to have the actual model that Burne-Jones used in his own home. Originally of Scottish and Irish descent, Washington Jack worked at several architectural practices in Scotland and London before joining Philip Webb's firm as a draughtsman and site architect in 1882. It was Webb who introduced Jack to William Morris and from 1885 Jack began to work for Morris & Co. as chief designer, while simultaneously working for Webb. He was elected a member of the Art Workers Guild in 1906 and exhibited at the Arts & Crafts Exhibition Society. The table dates from c.1890 and is in Washington Jack's preferred 18th century revival style. It carries an estimate of £6,000-£8,000 (lot 313).

A late George III Irish green, black and gilt Japanned ‘royal portable harp’ that belonged to Edward Burne-Jones’ daughter Margaret (1866-1953), also features in the sale. Decorated all over with shamrock gilding, it was made by famed royal musical instrument maker John Egan (active in Dublin 1804 to 1838), who is considered the ‘father of the Irish harp’. Egan successfully revolutionised the use of the harp by creating ‘portables’, which were in a new romantic style. He diverted away from the traditional Irish harp by adding a ditaltuning mechanism and pliable catgut strings (which were used in European pedal harps). Some of the best examples bear Egan's name inscribed on a brass plaque that proclaims 'Maker-by Special Appointment to his Most Gracious Majesty George IVth'.

Egan’s portable harps such as this one, are extremely rare and out of approximately 2000 that he made, only 37 are still known to exist. A comparable harp with a similar paper label to this one is held in The National Trust Collection at Snowshill Manor and Garden, Gloucestershire. Other examples are in the collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, the Smithsonian, Washington D.C and the National Museum of Ireland, Dublin. It carries an estimate of £1,000-£1,500 (lot 311).

A late 19th/ early 20th century plaster bust of aGoddess (possibly Demeter or Hera), designed after the antique, had pride of place in Edward Burne-Jones’ studio and carries an estimate of £300-£500 (lot 310). All of the above will be offered in a sale, titled Collecting Arcadia: The Collections from Gatewick and Trethill Housewhich will take place at Dreweattson October 16, 2024. The family collection from Gatewick will present over 400 lots ranging from works by the Scottish artist Allan Ramsay (1713-1784), who was a painter to King George III and Michelangelo Maestri (d. 1812), whose most admired works are based on motifs from antique frescos discovered in Pompeii and Herculaneum, to fine furniture, objects of vertu and jewellery collected by and descended from numerous members of the Yorke and Burne-Jones families.

All are illustrative of a combination of discerning architectural ambition, family lineage and enthusiastic 1950s antiquarian collecting, which created a thoroughly modern country house in the 18th century spirit. The sale is an exploration into one family’s collecting story, from entrance hall to the attics, each piece a part of the puzzle in the Yorke family’s quest for their arcadia.⁠

Gatewick house, Steyning, Sussex

The Saxon name Gatewick means ‘goat farm’ and the house rests on an ancient site. It is first noted in a deed of c. 1200 as a water mill, when Ralph, Abbot of Fécamp in Normandy, gifted ‘the mill by the church at Staninges’ to a family who later took the ‘de Gatwyck’ name and lived there for several generations. Having acquired Gatewick in the 1950s David Yorke sought to transform it from a modest home to a fine Georgian country house, all to his own designs. He was a Justice of the Peace for Sussex, but in his spare time he was a passionate amateur architect, a skill that led him to become senior architectural adviser for the National Trust.

Its interiors were remodelled and designed to accommodate generations of both families’ collections. Alongside the pieces coming directly from the Burne-Jones side of the family (as mentioned above), many came from David Yorke’s father’s London home (the Hon Claude John Yorke, third son of the 7th Earl of Hardwicke). He was a collector of Georgian furniture, paintings and porcelain, which were all transposed to Gatewick on his death and remained integral to the new designs. Yorke also designed a Georgian landscape around the house, framing the church view with trees and making the stream flow from an arch, with clever planting and garden carvings adding to its charm.