£1,495.00
BRANGWYN, Frank, R.A.; RUTTER, Frank. The British Empire Panels Designed for the House of Lords by Frank Brangwyn, R.A. Descriptive text by Frank Rutter, with a foreword by the Earl of Iveagh. Benfleet, Essex: F. Lewis (Publishers) Limited, 1933.
Deluxe limited edition, one of only 200 copies, this copy No. 31, signed by Frank Brangwyn and containing the original loose signed etching depicting The Royal Gallery of the House of Lords, Showing the First Five Panels in the Course of Erection.
Lavishly illustrated throughout with reproductions of Brangwyn’s designs, including striking colour plates and studies showing the development of his monumental British Empire murals. Original light cloth lettered and decorated in gilt.
Some foxing, particularly to preliminary leaves, but retaining the crucial original signed etching, itself an important component of the deluxe issue.
Year: 1933
Edition: Deluxe Limited Edition — No. 31 of 200 copies, signed by Frank Brangwyn
Publisher: F. Lewis (Publishers) Limited
Frank Brangwyn’s British Empire Panels constitute one of the most extraordinary episodes in twentieth-century British monumental art.
Commissioned for the Royal Gallery of the House of Lords following the First World War, Brangwyn initially conceived a series commemorating those who had died in the conflict. When those designs were considered too sombre, he was asked to create something altogether different: a vast celebration of the British Empire.
The result was spectacular.
Brangwyn imagined the Empire not through formal portraits of monarchs and generals, but as an almost overwhelming vision of humanity and nature. His enormous compositions teem with people, animals, tropical vegetation, fruit and colour. The imagery is dense, energetic and unmistakably Brangwyn.
Yet the story took an unexpected turn. Despite having been commissioned for the Palace of Westminster, the completed panels were ultimately judged unsuitable for the Royal Gallery and were never permanently installed there. They eventually found a home in Swansea’s Brangwyn Hall, where they remain among the artist’s greatest monumental achievements.
This deluxe volume records the conception and development of that remarkable project through Brangwyn’s drawings, studies and richly reproduced finished designs.
Most significantly, this copy preserves something beyond the reproductions: an original etching signed by Brangwyn himself, showing the Royal Gallery during installation of the first five panels. It directly connects the book with the intended architectural setting of one of Brangwyn’s most ambitious commissions.
This is substantially more desirable than the ordinary issue.
Only 200 copies of the deluxe edition were produced, each accompanied by an original signed Frank Brangwyn etching. This example is No. 31, with the limitation leaf signed by Brangwyn and the original loose etching also signed by the artist.
The combination of limited edition, artist’s signature, original graphic work, important parliamentary commission and extensive colour illustration gives the book appeal across several collecting fields: British art, Brangwyn, architecture, the Palace of Westminster, artist-illustrated books and original prints.
The signed etching is particularly important. Rather than merely documenting Brangwyn’s work, the volume contains an original work by the artist intimately connected with the history of the commission itself.
