Morris and Co. window by John Henry Dearle – empire over federation – at Adelaide stock exchange from 1902
The former Adelaide stock exchange building between Grenfell and Pirie streets, Adelaide cty, with its Morris and Co. federation stained-glass window by John Henry Dearle.
Adelaide’s earliest Morris and Co. stained glass, at the former Adelaide stock exchange building off Grenfell Street, Adelaide city, was also the only one not in a church and with a contemporary theme.
The stock exchange was opened in 1901 by South Australia premier John Jenkins but its special six-panelled stained glassed window wasn’t installed until the next year. The window’s late arrival meant its original ground floor location was changed to the far more suitable first-floor landing of the exchange.
The window had been commissioned by the exchange’s chairman, philanthropist George Brookman, also a trustee of the public library, museum and art gallery. Brookman’s interest in Morris & Co. had been fired by seeing the company's work in the British pavilion at the 1900 Paris international exhibition.
The window was designed in 1900 by artist John Henry Dearle, who had trained with arts and crafts movement doyen William Morris, and became chief designer of the famous London design company Morris & Co.
Meant to commemorate the 1901 federation of Australian colonies as a nation, the window's intrincis meaning was shifted by Dearle’s adaptions of Brookman’s ideas to an exaltation of the British empire ideal. In the window’s lower panes, figures represent Britannia (holding a wreath framing the word “Federation”) and her colonies: Australia, Canada, India and South Africa.
In the right hand panel, a negro figure previously used by the artist in the picture, "the Star of Bethlehem," was meant to represent South Australia – a reference to the colony's emblem featuring Britannia greeting an Aboriginal man. In the upper panels, based on the designs of British painter Edward Burne-Jones, are the morning, sun and evening.
The stained-glass window survived two fires at the building, in 1938 and 1982. The stock exchange remained in the building until 1991 but it was left empty for the next 20 years.
Insured for a million dollars, the federation window was fonated to the Art Gallery of South Australia by a Spanish businessman who sold the building to the state government in 2007. The government restored the building two years later for it to become a focus for the state’s science education when it was the first international satellite of the Royal Institute of Great Britain. During the renovations, spaces closed over the years were reopened and many original features restored, including many artefacts from the stock exchange's operations.
