74-637: The Great Bookcase is a large piece of painted furniture designed by the English architect and designer William Burges . William Burges designed the Great Bookcase in 1859. The bookcase is 10 feet (3.0 m) high and 5 feet (1.5 m) wide. It has been described as "the most important example of Victorian painted furniture ever made." The paintings on the bookcase depict pagan and Christian art depicted in "allegories of poetry, architecture, sculpture, painting and music". Believed to have been constructed by
148-574: A building which John Newman describes in Glamorgan: The Buildings of Wales as the "most successful of all the fantasy castles of the nineteenth century." The skyline of the capital of Wales[:] the dream of one great patron and one great architect has almost become the symbol of a whole nation —Crook describing the castle's silhouette. Work began in 1868 with the 150 feet high Clock Tower, in Forest of Dean ashlar . The tower forms
222-656: A commission for the reconstruction of the chapter house of Salisbury Cathedral . Henry Clutton was the lead architect but Burges, as assistant, contributed to the restoration of the sculpture and to the general decorative scheme. Much was lost in restorations of the 1960s. More lasting was Burges's work of 1858 onwards in the substantial remodelling of Gayhurst House , in Buckinghamshire , for Robert Carrington, 2nd Baron Carrington . Rooms there contain some of his large signature fireplaces, with carving by Burges's long-time collaborator Thomas Nicholls , in particular those in
296-453: A considerable body of examples of doubtful validity; the truth was that he wanted them for their architectural effect." "The distant view, of unequal drum towers rising under candlesnuffer roofs from the wooded hillside, is irresistibly appealing. Here the castle of romantic dreams is given substance." —Newman describing the prospect of Castell Coch. The Keep Tower, the Well Tower and
370-528: A large parish church but in impression is described in Lawrence and Wilson's study as "a cathedral becoming such a city and one which posterity may regard as a monument to the Almighty's praise." Burges inspired considerable loyalty within his team of assistants, and his partnerships were long-lived. John Starling Chapple was the office manager, joining Burges's practice in 1859. It was Chapple, designer of most of
444-412: A living. Burges entered King's College School , London, in 1839 to study engineering, his contemporaries there including Dante Gabriel Rossetti and William Michael Rossetti . He left in 1844 to join the office of Edward Blore , surveyor to Westminster Abbey . Blore was an established architect, having worked for both William IV and Queen Victoria , and had made his reputation as a proponent of
518-449: A memorial to Lefroy's wife. She was the daughter of James Walker , who established the marine engineering company of Walker and Burges with Burges's father Alfred, and this family connection brought Burges the commission. Pevsner says of Fleet that "it has no shape, nor character nor notable buildings, except one," that one being All Saints. The church is of red brick and Pevsner considered it "astonishingly restrained." The interior too
592-529: A period following the death of the Marquess in 1900. In 1950, the 5th Marquess of Bute handed the castle over to the Ministry of Works. McLees views it as "one of the greatest Victorian triumphs of architectural composition", whilst Crook writes of Burges "recreating from a heap of rubble a fairy-tale castle which seems almost to have materialised from the margins of a medieval manuscript." Bute's commissions formed
666-541: A repository of influences and ideas that he used and re-used for the whole of his career. Although he never went beyond Turkey, the art and architecture of the East, both Near and Far, had a significant impact on him; his fascination with Moorish design found ultimate expression in the Arab Room at Cardiff Castle, and his study of Japanese techniques influenced his later metalwork. Burges received his first important commission at
740-454: A result of widespread dissatisfaction with the existing church of 1735 which the Dublin Builder described as "a shabby apology for a cathedral which has long disgraced Cork." The proposed budget was low, at £15,000, but Burges ignored this constraint, producing a design that he admitted would cost twice as much. Despite the protestations of fellow competitors, it won, though the final cost
814-467: A series of lectures he gave to the Society of Arts in 1864, illustrates the breadth of his interests; the topics covered including glass , pottery , brass and iron , gold and silver , furniture, the weaver's art and external architectural decoration. For most of the century following his death, Victorian architecture was neither the subject of intensive study nor sympathetic attention and Burges's work
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#1732843964829888-565: A standard Victorian stately home. The Bute Tower includes Lord Bute's bedroom and ends in another highlight, the Roof Garden, with a sculpture of the Madonna by Fucigna and painted tiles by Lonsdale. Bute's bedroom has much religious iconography and a mirrored ceiling. The Marquess's name, John, is repeated in Greek, ΙΩΑИΣ, along the ceiling beams. The Octagon Tower followed, including the oratory, built on
962-481: A suite of bachelor's rooms, the Marquess not marrying until 1872. They comprise a bedroom, a servant's room and the Summer and Winter Smoking Rooms. Externally, the tower is a re-working of a design Burges used for the unsuccessful Law Courts competition. Internally, the rooms are sumptuously decorated with gilding, carvings and cartoons, many allegorical in style, depicting the seasons, myths and fables. In his A History of
1036-690: A utopian medieval England . Burges stands within the tradition of the Gothic Revival , his works echoing those of the Pre-Raphaelites and heralding those of the Arts and Crafts movement . Burges's career was short but illustrious; he won his first major commission for Saint Fin Barre's Cathedral in Cork in 1863 when he was 35. He died in 1881 at his Kensington home, The Tower House aged only 53. His architectural output
1110-636: Is a partial list of Royal Academicians ( post-nominal : RA ), academicians of the Royal Academy of Arts in London. A full list is available on the web pages of the Royal Academy Collections. Nephew of Andrew Freeth This is a partial list of Honorary Royal Academicians ( Post-nominal : HonRA), academicians of the Royal Academy of Arts in London. A full list is available on the web pages of
1184-494: Is simply decorated but the massive sculpture, particularly of the tomb of the Lefroys and of the gabled arch below which the tomb originally stood, is quintessentially Burges, Crook describing it as "not so much muscular (gothic) as muscle-bound." Despite early competition setbacks, Burges was sustained by his belief that Early French provided the answer to the crisis of architectural style that beset mid-Victorian England, writing "I
1258-463: Is uncertain; Girouard states that it is King David while McLees suggests that it depicts St Lucius . The Drawing Room is a double-height room with decoration that Newman describes as illustrating the "intertwined themes (of) the fecundity of nature and the fragility of life." A stone fireplace by Nicholls features the Three Fates , spinning, measuring and cutting the thread of life. The murals around
1332-582: The Church of Christ the Consoler (1870–76), St Mary's, Studley Royal (1870–78), in Yorkshire, and Park House, Cardiff (1871–80). Many of his designs were never executed or were subsequently demolished or altered. His competition entries for cathedrals at Lille (1854), Adelaide (1856), Colombo , Brisbane (1859), Edinburgh (1873), and Truro (1878) were all unsuccessful. He lost out to George Edmund Street in
1406-611: The Château de Pierrefonds is echoed at Castell Coch, Burges's Drawing Room roof drawing heavily on the octagonal, rib-vaulted chambre de l'Imperatrice at Pierrefonds. Burges noted that many the English Gothic Revivalists of his generation drew on Viollet-le-Duc's work, though few would have read his publications. Burges's other main source was the Château de Chillon , from which his conical, and conjectural, tower roofs are derived. Severely damaged during Welsh rebellions in
1480-654: The Gothic Revival . In 1848 or 1849, Burges moved to the offices of Matthew Digby Wyatt . Wyatt was as prominent an architect as Blore, evidenced by his leading role in the direction of The Great Exhibition in 1851. Burges's work with Wyatt, particularly on the Medieval Court for this exhibition, was influential on the subsequent course of his career. During this period, he also worked on drawings of medieval metalwork for Wyatt's book, Metalwork , published in 1852, and assisted Henry Clutton with illustrations for his works. Of equal importance to Burges's subsequent career
1554-551: The South Wales Valleys , but did little to the castle itself, beyond completing the 1st Marquess's work. The 3rd Marquess despised Holland's efforts, describing the castle as having been "the victim of every barbarism since the Renaissance ", and, on his coming of age, engaged Burges to undertake rebuilding on a Wagnerian scale. Almost all of Burges's usual team were involved, including Chapple, Frame and Lonsdale, creating
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#17328439648291628-594: The Drawing Room which include motifs from Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained . He also designed a circular lavatory for the male servants, the Cerberus Privy , which Jeremy Cooper describes as being "surmounted by a growling Cerberus , each of his three heads inset with bloodshot glass eyes." In 1859 Burges began work with Ambrose Poynter on the Maison Dieu, Dover , which was completed in 1861. Emulation of
1702-616: The East Bute Docks in Cardiff for the second Marquess. The 3rd Marquess became Burges's greatest architectural patron; both were men of their times; both had fathers whose industrial endeavours provided the means for their sons' architectural achievements, and both sought to "redeem the evils of industrialism by re-living the art of the Middle Ages ". On his succession to the Marquessate at
1776-517: The Gothic Revival , written as the tower was being built, Charles Locke Eastlake wrote of Burges's "peculiar talents (and) luxuriant fancy." The Summer Smoking Room is the tower's literal and metaphorical culmination. It rises two storeys high and has an internal balcony that, through an unbroken band of windows, gives views to Cardiff docks, one source of Bute's wealth, the Bristol Channel, and
1850-623: The Kitchen Tower comprise a series of apartments, of which the main sequence, the Castellan's Rooms, lie within the Keep. They begin weakly, the Banqueting Hall, completed well after Burges's death, being described by Newman as "dilute [and] unfocused" while Crook considers it "anaemic." It contains a colossal chimney piece, carved by Thomas Nicholls. The identity of the central figure in the overmantel
1924-562: The Welsh hills and valleys. The floor has a map of the world in mosaic and the sculpture is by Thomas Nicholls. As the castle was developed, work continued with alterations to Holland's Georgian range, including his Bute Tower, and to the medieval Herbert and Beauchamp Towers, and the construction of the Guest Tower and the Octagonal Tower. In plan, the castle broadly follows the arrangement of
1998-702: The age of 35, but his subsequent career did not see the development that might have been expected. His style had already been formed over the previous twenty years of study, thinking and travelling. J. Mordaunt Crook , the foremost authority on Burges, writes that, "once established, after twenty years' preparation, his 'design language' had merely to be applied, and he applied and reapplied the same vocabulary with increasing subtlety and gusto." In 1856 Burges established his own architectural practice in London at 15 Buckingham Street, The Strand . Some of his early pieces of furniture were created for this office and were later moved to The Tower House , Melbury Road, Kensington ,
2072-477: The age of one, Bute inherited an income of £300,000 a year, and, by the time he met Burges, he was considered the richest man in Britain, if not the world. Bute's wealth was important to the success of the partnership: as Burges himself wrote, "Good art is far too rare and far too precious ever to be cheap." But, as a scholar, antiquarian, compulsive builder and enthusiastic medievalist, Bute brought more than money to
2146-518: The architectural writers Dixon and Muthesius as "a recreation of a thirteenth-century dream world [with] a skyline of great inventiveness." In 1859, he submitted a French-inspired design for St John's Cathedral in Brisbane , Australia, which was rejected. He also provided designs for Colombo Cathedral in Ceylon and St Francis Xavier's Cathedral, Adelaide , without success. In 1855, however, he obtained
2220-603: The bookcase as "occupying a unique position in the history of Victorian painted furniture." In 1933, the bookcase was purchased for the Ashmolean Museum by Kenneth Clark , Clark paying £50. After periods on display at the Victoria and Albert Museum and at Knightshayes Court , the bookcase has now been returned to the collection of the museum in Oxford and is on show in its Pre-Raphaelite gallery. Fourteen artists were involved in
2294-656: The bookcase. The bands feature paintings by Poynter of the "Sea, the Earth, and the Air", "Shells and Fishes of the Ocean", "Flowers and Beasts of the Field", the "Birds of the Air", and the "Stars of the Firmament". Two designs on the bands were painted by Burges, of Aesop's fables and the story of Cock Robin . Above the front panels is a cornice decorated with muses painted by Poynter, and surmounting
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2368-410: The building, with animals and birds depicted on the end of pews, and Burges's mosaic flooring astonished his contemporaries. Drawing on his rare knowledge of medieval techniques and working with his meticulous attention to detail, Burges created a chapel that Crook describes as "almost unique amongst High Victorian ecclesiastical interiors." The richly symbolic iconography" and Masonic influences on
2442-516: The castle included a chapel to be built on the roof of the Well Tower. It was never finished and the remains were removed in the late nineteenth century. Following Burges's death in 1881, work on the interior continued for another ten years. The castle was little used, the Marquess never came after its completion, and its main function was as a family sanatorium, although the Marchioness and her daughter, Lady Margaret Crichton-Stuart, did occupy it for
2516-616: The castle moat and the city and has nine sculptures by Thomas Nicholls, with a further six sculpted by Alexander Carrick in the 1930s. The Swiss Bridge , which crossed the leat to Bute Park, was moved in the 1920s and demolished in the 1960s. The stables, which lie to the north, on the edge of Bute Park, were designed by Burges in 1868–69. Megan Aldrich contends that Burges's interiors at Cardiff have "rarely [been] equalled, [although] he executed few buildings as his rich fantastic gothic required equally rich patrons (..) his finished works are outstanding monuments to nineteenth century gothic",
2590-652: The competition for the Royal Courts of Justice (1866–67) in The Strand . His plans for the redecoration of the interior of St Paul's Cathedral (1870–77) were abandoned and he was dismissed from his post. Skilbeck's Warehouse (1865–66) was demolished in the 1970s, and work at Salisbury Cathedral (1855–59), Worcester College, Oxford (1873–79), and at Knightshayes Court had been lost in the decades before. Beyond architecture, Burges designed metalwork, sculpture, jewellery, furniture and stained glass. Art Applied to Industry ,
2664-490: The connection lasted the rest of Burges's life and led to his most important works. To the Marquess and his wife, Burges was the "soul-inspiring one". The architectural writer Michael Hall considers Burges's rebuilding of Cardiff Castle and the complete reconstruction of the ruin of Castell Coch, north of the city, as representing his highest achievements. In these buildings, Crook contends that Burges escaped into "a world of architectural fantasy" which Hall describes as "amongst
2738-413: The cornice are three painted gables. The three gables feature painted depictions of 'Religion' and 'Love' by Westlake, and between them, 'Art' by Burne-Jones. The interior of the bookcase is also decorated, with birds painted by Marks. After the bookcase fell over in 1878, extra decoration was added inside with the addition of allegories of eight metals by Weeks to replace paintings by Fitzgerald damaged in
2812-475: The culmination of the castle, Lady Bute's Bedroom. Crook considers this room "pure Burges: an arcaded circle, punched through by window embrasures, and topped by a trefoil-sectioned dome." The decorative theme is 'love', symbolised by monkeys, pomegranates and nesting birds. The decoration was completed long after Burges's death but his was the guiding spirit. "Would Mr Burges have done it?" William Frame wrote to Thomas Nicholls in 1887. Burges's original design for
2886-441: The decoration of the bookcase; Edward Burne-Jones , John Anster Fitzgerald , Henry Holiday , Stacy Marks, Albert Moore , Thomas Morten , Edward Poynter , Dante Gabriel Rossetti , Charles Rossiter , Frederick Smallfield , Simeon Solomon , William Frederick Yeames , Fred Weeks, Nathaniel Westlake , and Burges himself. The decoration of the front of the bookcase is divided into two sides, featuring pagan and Christian themes,
2960-457: The design, including the statuary, the stained glass and the furniture, charging 10% rather than his usual 5%, owing to the high level of his personal involvement. He drew designs for every one of the 1,260 sculptures that adorn the West Front and decorate the building inside and out. He sketched cartoons for the majority of the 74 stained glass windows. He designed the mosaic pavement, the altar,
3034-489: The early fourteenth century, Castell Coch fell into disuse and by the Tudor period , the antiquary John Leland described it as "all in ruin no big thing but high." A set of drawings for the planned rebuilding exists, together with a full architectural justification by Burges. The castle reconstruction features three conical roofs to the towers that are historically questionable. According to Crook, Burges "supported his roofs with
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3108-561: The east end, representing the Tree of Jesse . The Abbey is a demonstration of Burges's skills as a restorer, with "a profound sensitivity towards medieval architecture." Mordaunt Crook wrote of Burges's interior that, "it meets the Middle Ages as an equal." In 1861–2, Burges was commissioned by Charles Edward Lefroy, secretary to the Speaker of the House of Commons , to build All Saints Church, Fleet , as
3182-508: The fall. William Burges William Burges ARA ( / ˈ b ɜː dʒ ɛ s / ; 2 December 1827 – 20 April 1881) was an English architect and designer. Among the greatest of the Victorian art-architects, he sought in his work to escape from both nineteenth-century industrialisation and the Neoclassical architectural style and re-establish the architectural and social values of
3256-728: The figure of St John over the mantelpiece in Lord Bute's bedroom at Cardiff Castle and the bronze Madonna in the roof garden. Lastly, there was Axel Haig , a Swedish-born illustrator, who prepared many of the watercolour perspectives with which Burges entranced his clients. Crook calls them "a group of talented men, moulded in their master's image, art-architects and medievalists to a man – jokers and jesters too – devoted above all to art rather than to business." In 1865, Burges met John Patrick Crichton-Stuart, 3rd Marquess of Bute . This may have resulted from Alfred Burges's engineering firm, Walker , Burges and Cooper, having undertaken work on
3330-429: The fireplace of that room as a memorial. The room was completed by Burges's brother-in-law, Richard Popplewell Pullan . Following Burges's death, further areas of the castle were developed along the lines he had set by, amongst others, William Frame . This included extensive reconstruction of the walls of the original Roman fort. The Animal Wall , completed in the 1920s by the 4th Marquess , originally stood between
3404-406: The firm of Thomas Sneddon, it was designed in 1859 and finished in 1862. Christian themes are painted on the left side of the bookcase, and pagan themes on the right, decorated by fourteen Pre-Raphaelite and Victorian artists. The bookcase was included in the 1862 International Exhibition in London, where it was displayed in the Medieval Court. A cabinet designed by Burges and painted by Poynter
3478-493: The furniture for Castell Coch, who completed its restoration after Burges's death. Second to Chapple was William Frame , who acted as clerk of works. Horatio Walter Lonsdale was Burges's chief artist, contributing extensive murals for both Castell Coch and Cardiff Castle. His main sculptor was Thomas Nicholls who started with Burges at Cork, completing hundreds of figures for Saint Fin Barre's Cathedral, worked with him on his two major churches in Yorkshire, and undertook all of
3552-642: The home he built for himself towards the end of his life. His early architectural career produced nothing of major note, although he won prestigious commissions, which remained unbuilt, for Lille Cathedral , the Crimea Memorial Church and the Bombay School of Art . His failed entry for the Law Courts in the Strand, if successful, would have given London its own Carcassonne , the plans being described by
3626-459: The library contains five figures, four representing the Greek , Egyptian , Hebrew and Assyrian alphabets, while the fifth is said to represent Bute as a Celtic monk. The figures refer to the purpose of the room and to the Marquess, a noted linguist. The decoration of these large rooms is less successful than in the smaller chambers; much was completed after Burges's death and Girouard considers that
3700-642: The major corpus of Burges's work from the 1860s until his death. However, he continued to accept other appointments. The interiors of the Hall and Chapel of Worcester College, Oxford , had been designed by James Wyatt in 1776–90. In 1864, Burges was commissioned to overhaul Wyatt's unremarkable designs for the chapel by the Reverend H. C. O. Daniel, a member of the college's Senior Common Room and future Provost, who had known Burges when they were contemporaries at King's College London . Burges's extensive iconography envelopes
3774-433: The most magnificent the Gothic Revival ever achieved." In the early nineteenth century, the original Norman castle had been enlarged and refashioned by Henry Holland for the 1st Marquess of Bute , the 3rd Marquess's great-grandfather. The 2nd Marquess occupied the castle on visits to his extensive Glamorgan estates, during which he developed modern Cardiff and created Cardiff Docks as the outlet for coal and steel from
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#17328439648293848-535: The muralist, Lonsdale, "was required to cover areas rather greater than his talents deserved." The central portion of the castle also included the Grand Staircase. Illustrated in a watercolour perspective prepared by Axel Haig , the staircase was long thought never to have been built but recent research has shown that it was constructed, only to be torn out in the 1930s, reputedly after the third Marchioness had "once slipped on its polished surface." The staircase
3922-489: The original budget, Cork was still unable to afford a really large cathedral. Burges overcame this obstacle by using the grandeur of his three-spired exterior to offset the lesser scale of the remainder of the building. Although the cathedral is modest in size, it is very richly ornamented. As was his usual practice, from his office in Buckingham Street and in the course of many site visits, Burges oversaw all aspects of
3996-471: The original carving for the Animal Wall at Cardiff. William Gualbert Saunders joined the Buckingham Street team in 1865 and worked with Burges on the development of the design and techniques of stained-glass manufacture, producing much of the best glass for Saint Fin Barre's. Ceccardo Egidio Fucigna was another long-time collaborator who sculpted the Madonna and Child above the drawbridge at Castell Coch,
4070-517: The original medieval style can be seen in his renovation of the grotesque animals and in the coats of arms incorporated into his new designs. Burges later designed the Council Chamber, added in 1867, and in 1881 began work on Connaught Hall in Dover, a town meeting and concert hall. The new building contained meeting rooms and mayoral and official offices. Although Burges designed the project, most of it
4144-410: The pulpit and the bishop's throne. Lawrence and Wilson consider the result "undoubtedly [Burges's] greatest work in ecclesiastical architecture" with an interior that is "overwhelming and intoxicating." Through his ability, by the careful leadership of his team, by total artistic control, and by vastly exceeding the intended budget of £15,000, Burges produced a building that in size is little more than
4218-424: The relationship and his resources and his interests allied with Burges's genius to create what David McLees considers to be "Bute's most memorable overall achievement." "A prime example of the partnership of aristocratic patron and talented architect produc[ing] the marvels of Cardiff Castle and Castell Coch." —Dixon and Muthesius characterising the relationship between Burges and Bute. However occasioned,
4292-547: The scheme of decoration are significant, Gillingham suggesting that Burges's Freemasonry connections were a partial explanation for his appointment and noting that a "symbolic masonic commentary pervades the Chapel. Unusually, in the redecoration of the Chapel, Burges did not use members of his usual team. The stained glass and the ceiling paintings are by Henry Holiday , and the statues, lectern and candlesticks are by William Grinsell Nicholl . List of Royal Academicians This
4366-513: The spot where Bute's father died, and the Chaucer Room, the roof of which Mark Girouard cites as "a superb ... example of Burges's genius in the construction of roofs." The Guest Tower contains the site of the original kitchen at its base and above, the Nursery, decorated with painted tiles depicting Aesop's Fables and characters from nursery rhymes. The central block of the castle comprises
4440-448: The suites of rooms he created at Cardiff being amongst "the most magnificent that the gothic revival ever achieved." Crook goes further still, arguing that the rooms reach beyond architecture to create "three dimensional passports to fairy kingdoms and realms of gold. In Cardiff Castle we enter a land of dreams". The Castle was given to Cardiff City Corporation by the 5th Marquess of Bute in 1947. In 1872, while work at Cardiff Castle
4514-466: The themes are as follows: On the sides of the bookcase are depicted Saint Augustine by Solomon, Plato by Rossiter, Saint Cecilia by Morten, Orpheus by Yeames, Sirens by Fitzgerald, and Harpies by Weeks. The base of the bookcase features four metamorphosic figures, in the form of Arachne , the Pierides and Syrinx , all painted by Marks. Decorative bands run horizontally between each section of
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#17328439648294588-419: The two-storey banqueting hall, with the library below. Both are enormous, the former to act as a suitable reception hall where the Marquess could fulfil his civic duties, the latter to hold part of his vast library. Both include elaborate carvings and fireplaces, those in the banqueting hall depicting the castle itself in the time of Robert, Duke of Normandy, who was imprisoned there in 1126–1134. The fireplace in
4662-636: The walls draw on Aesop's Fables with delicate drawings of animals in the Aesthetic Movement style. The octagonal chamber with its great rib-vault, modelled on Viollet-le-Duc's chambers at Coucy and Pierrefonds, is decorated with drawings of butterflies and birds. Off the hall lies the Windlass Room, in which Burges delighted in assembling the fully functioning apparatus for the drawbridge , together with murder-holes for expelling boiling oil. The Marquess's bedroom provides some spartan relief before
4736-614: Was also displayed at the exhibition. The Great Bookcase was poorly received by the Building News and Architectural Review at the exhibition. The bookcase was designed by Burges to hold his collection of art books, and was originally displayed at his rooms in Buckingham Street in London. It was later placed in the library at the house Burges had designed for himself, The Tower House in Holland Park . The architectural writer and collector and Burges connoisseur Charles Handley-Read described
4810-502: Was an important factor at a time when the established Anglican Church in Ireland was seeking to assert its predominance. For the exterior, Burges re-used some of his earlier unexecuted plans, the overall design from the Crimea Memorial Church and St John's Cathedral, Brisbane , the elevations from Lille Cathedral . The main problem of the building was its size. Despite the prodigious efforts of its fundraisers, and despite Burges exceeding
4884-455: Was brought up in the thirteenth century belief and in that belief I intend to die"; and in 1863, at the age of 35, he finally secured his first major commission, for Saint Fin Barre's Cathedral , Cork. Burges's diary records his delight at the result: "Got Cork!" Saint Fin Barre's was to be the first new cathedral built in the British Isles since St Paul's . The competition occurred as
4958-600: Was completed after his death by his partners, Pullan and Chapple. The listed status of the Maison Dieu was reclassified as Grade I in 2017 and Dover District Council, the building's owner, is seeking grant funding to enable a restoration, focussing on Burges's work. In 1859–60, Burges took over the restoration of Waltham Abbey from Poynter, working with Poynter's son Edward Poynter and with furniture makers Harland and Fisher. He commissioned Edward Burne-Jones of James Powell & Sons to make three stained-glass windows for
5032-441: Was facing bankruptcy . The exterior comprises three towers, described by Newman as "almost equal to each other in diameter, [but] arrestingly dissimilar in height." Burges's main inspiration was the work of the almost contemporaneous French architect Eugène Viollet-le-Duc who was undertaking similar restoration and building work for Napoleon III . Viollet-le-Duc's work at the Château de Coucy , The Louvre and particularly at
5106-501: Was his travelling. Burges believed that all architects should travel, remarking that it was "absolutely necessary to see how various art problems have been resolved in different ages by different men." Enabled by his private income, Burges moved through England, then France, Belgium, Holland, Switzerland, Germany, Spain, Italy, Greece and finally into Turkey . In total, he spent some 18 months abroad developing his skills and knowledge by sketching and drawing. What he saw and drew provided
5180-493: Was largely ignored. The revival of interest in Victorian art, architecture, and design in the later twentieth century led to a renewed appreciation of Burges and his work. Burges was born on 2 December 1827, the son of Alfred Burges (1796–1886), a wealthy civil engineer . Alfred amassed a considerable fortune, which enabled his son to devote his life to the study and practice of architecture without requiring that he actually earn
5254-458: Was not universally praised in the contemporary press; the Building News writing that the design was "one of the least happy we have seen from Mr Burges's pencil...the contrasts of colour are more startling than pleasing." The Arab Room in the Herbert Tower was the last room on which Burges was working when he fell ill in 1881. Bute placed Burges's initials, together with his own and the date, in
5328-472: Was proceeding, Burges presented a scheme for the complete reconstruction of Castell Coch , a ruined thirteenth-century fort on the Bute estate to the north of Cardiff. Burges's report on the possible reconstruction was delivered in 1872 but building was delayed until 1875, in part because of the pressure of works at Cardiff Castle and in part because of an unfounded concern on behalf of the Marquess's trustees that he
5402-465: Was small but varied. Working with a long-standing team of craftsmen, he built churches, a cathedral, a warehouse, a university, a school, houses and castles. Burges's most notable works are Cardiff Castle , constructed between 1866 and 1928, and Castell Coch (1872–91), both of which were built for John Crichton-Stuart, 3rd Marquess of Bute . Other significant buildings include Gayhurst House , Buckinghamshire (1858–65), Knightshayes Court (1867–74),
5476-597: Was to be in excess of £100,000. Burges, who had worked in Ireland before, at the Church of St Peter, Carrigrohane , at the Holy Trinity Church Templebreedy , at Frankfield and at Douglas , enjoyed strong local support, including that of the Bishop, John Gregg . In addition, as the Ireland Handbook notes, Burges "combined his love of medievalism with a conspicuous display of Protestant affluence" which
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