'The Lady of Woodbank and Her Daughters' stained glass panel

This stained glass panel of three windows depicts Ellen Morley Heaton, and the model of her house, Woodbank. Heaton is flanked by panels depicting her two daughters. Although designs and cartoons for stained glass were being prepared by Rossetti and other partners in Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co. from the summer of 1861 onwards, it was not until November 1861 that a glazier was employed. It is therefore possible that the Woodbank panels were the firm's first completed commission, although other windows, for Selsey and Brighton and Darley Dale were in progress at the same time. The quality of the glass-painting, especially in the panels of the Heaton daughters, suggests that Rossetti himself was involved in transferring his designs onto glass.

John Aldam Heaton (1830 - 1897) was a wool and textile manufacturer in Bradford. In 1860 he moved to Woodbank, an ancient farm near Harden, Bingley, in Yorkshire. Heaton invited Rossetti to paint a portrait of Ellen, his wife, and the artist stayed with them at Woodbank for a month between November and December 1861 to carry out the commission. The portrait of Mrs Ellen Heaton, known as 'Regina Cordium' ('Queen of Hearts'), subsequently formed the basis of this stained glass window for the house. Through his friendship with Rossetti, Heaton made contact with Morris’s firm and supplied it with a variety of fabrics. Heaton was also instrumental in securing a number of other stained glass commissions for the firm. When the Heatons left the Woodbank House in 1876, they took the glass with them. The panels were returned to the house in 1952 but then removed again and put in storage before being sold to the William Morris Gallery.