LABOURS ON THE MONTH- DECEMBER, KILLING A HOG

Brief description: Stained glass rectangular panel depicting a male figure taking the bristles off a dead hog, representing the month of December. Designed by Dante Gabriel Rossetti and made by Morris, Marshall, Faulkner and Company in 1863.

Stained glass panel depicting a male figure with a blue tunic and a hat. He is shown kneeling scouring the bristles from a dead hog. In the background is a bush or a tree behind a fence. A small pane of clear glass in the top right-hand corner of the frame would have likely originally contained a piece of glass with a painted goat, representing the Zodiac symbol Capricorn. This stained-glass panel was designed by the Pre-Raphaelite painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882) and was part of a complete set of twelve Labours of the Months designed and made for the drawing room of Silsden House, Keighley. Silsden House was designed by the architect Norman Shaw for Charles Hastings, a Bradford textile manufacturer. The source for the Labours was probably a medieval manuscript or almanac. Another panel from this source:March, A Woodcutter, is in the collection of the William Morris Gallery in Walthamstow. Although the glass was removed before Silsden was demolished in 1903, the rest of the series is untraced. Rossetti, who is better known for his Pre-Raphaelite paintings, also designed stained glass windows for the firm of Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co. (later Morris & Co.) for a short period between 1861 and 1864. The firm also used these designs on tiles and a complete set of Labours of the Month can be seen in the fireplace tiles in the Old Hall at Queens' College, Cambridge, decorated by Morris and Co. in 1862-1864.

Object type: stained glass panel

Number of objects: 1

Production date: 1863

Production period: 19th century, mid

Designer: Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828 - 1882)

Manufacturer: Morris, Marshall, Faulkner and Company

Dimensions: Height: 424 mm, Width: 275 mm

Original location: Silsden House Keighley Yorkshire England drawing room Silsden House

Acquisition: gift 2001

Acquisition source: Godlee, Nicholas

Accession number: ELYGM:2002.2