The George Daniels Collection

Highlighted amongst the lots in Sworders' July Design sale are drawings by George Daniels (1854-1940) - perhaps the most accomplished British stained glass designer working in the late Gothic and early Renaissance idiom from the 1890s until the Second World War - including designs for an impressive five-light window in the north aisle of Manchester Cathedral and extant stained glass windows in Cambridgeshire and Suffolk churches.

Lot 140, George Daniels (1854-1940) Designs for stained glass Chedburgh Church, Suffolk, 1925 

A talented draughtsman, Daniels began his career as an apprentice to the London firm of Clayton & Bell. Peter Cormack, author and scholar on stained glass, describes him as “the firm’s dominant artistic personality and the creator of its scholarly and elegant ‘house style’ seen in many of the English cathedrals, including Lichfield, Gloucester, York, Ely and Truro, as well as in hundreds of parish churches throughout the UK and overseas.”

Daniels began his successful collaboration with FC Eden in 1920. The pair shared an appreciation of later medieval and early Northern Renaissance art and worked on a wide range of projects.

This collection of pencil cartoons, mostly drawn when the artist was in his 70s and 80s, show his skills in figure drawing were undiminished in these later years.

Of particular interest are a series of works completed in 1927 for an impressive five-light window in the north aisle of Manchester Cathedral, which was destroyed by the Luftwaffe in December 1940. The panels for this commission depict a range of historical and New and Old Testament subjects including Edward I and Eleanor of Aquitaine, Malcolm III and Margaret of Scotland, and The Holy Family. The estimate for the group of nine drawings offered together as a single lot is £4000-6000.

George Daniels (1854-1940) Designs for stained glass 1. St. Mary's Church, March, Cambridgeshire, 1929 tracery showing a vision of Jesus after his crucifixion

The other cartoons are all for extant stained glass windows in Cambridgeshire and Suffolk churches, including the drawings for a three-light Crucifixion window (1929) for the Chapel at Hengrave Hall (estimate £1200-1500) and, at the same guide, a two-light Saints Nicholas and Martin window at Little St Mary’s, Cambridge (1930) offered with designs for St Mary’s in March, Bassingbourn church, and the window at Pampisford church, Cambridgeshire. The latter, dated 1939, ranks among his very last works.

Browse all drawings by George Daniels in Sworders' Design, Day 1 sale coming up on July 13th. Online bidding available via Bidsquare.