![Morris & Co - Arming and Departure of the Knights of the Holy Grail [1895-96] by Gandalf's Gallery](http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7295/11113992545_e6ddb2ff5b.jpg)
Morris & Co - Arming and Departure of the Knights of the Holy Grail [1895-96], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.
The Holy Grail or San Graal tapestries are a set of six tapestries depicting scenes from the legend of King Arthur and the quest for the Holy Grail commissioned from Morris & Co. by William Knox D’Arcy in 1890 for his dining room at Stanmore Hall, outside London. Additional versions of the tapestries with minor variations were woven on commission by Morris & Co. over the next decade.
The original set of tapestries remained at Stanmore Hall until D'Arcy's death in 1920. They were subsequently sold and dispersed. Morris & Co. wove a second subset of the narrative panels in 1895 and 1896 for the drawing room at Compton Hall, Lawrence Hodson's seat near Wolverhampton. A third complete set was woven for George McCulloch in 1898 and 1899. Some hangings from these subsequent weavings are in the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery.[5] Others are in the collection of Andrew Lloyd Webber. The Stanmore Hall weaving of The Attainment was purchased by guitarist Jimmy Page in 1978; the piece failed to meet its reserve at auction in 2008 and remains in Page's collection.
[Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, England - Tapestry, wool and silk on cotton warp, woven for Lawrence Hodson of Compton Hall]