Lantern / A Gridded Romance
Installation
Design and concept by Dovetail Foundry
Illustration: Sam Caldwell, Joanna Coates, Amanda Lwin
Workshop: Object Design Ltd
Architecture is a code which is built into the form and substance of a
building. All buildings tell a story; our installations interpret and decipher
some of these codes.
The lantern is modelled on Lutyens’ design for the rooflight which
Initial sketch design
illuminates the scullery at Castle Drogo.
Each panel shows a moment from Julius Drewe’s life, but is also
illustrated with a tale that is related by theme or content. Some
narratives are historical, others are fictional. Some are allegories,
others are pure fantasy. Many of the stories describe tales of rise and
fall, fortune, social climbing and falling from power. From stories
contemporary to the period 1914-1930, to medieval myths, to recent 21st
century epics - this lantern ‘sheds light’ on the human stories of those
who built and lived in the Castle and wider shifts in the social order of
the 20th century.
Lantern above scullery at Castle Drogo
Italo Calvino’s novel The Castle of Crossed Destinies uses a grid of tarot cards to
describe a series of stories. A group of travellers meet in a Castle deep in a forest.
After dining at the laden table, each finds him or herself unable to speak. They
come upon the idea of using a deck of tarot cards to narrate their experiences.
Calvino’s ingenious setup allows him to read the grid of cards forwards,
backwards, up and down, each row and column describing a different narrative
Story grid made of tarot cards from The Castle of Crossed Destinies - Italo Calvino
drawing on the archetypes described in Italian folk tales and the classical tales
that infuse and inspire them.
The Maesta by Duccio di Buoninsegna (the altar piece of Siena Cathedral) tells
the story of Christ’s life. Like a comic strip, it is chronologically illustrated with
important events in each pane- miracles, healings and statements of faith.
Unlike a comic strip, it starts at the bottom and works upwards. The central
image of the Crucifixion is wider and takes up two panes, represents the central
moment in the Christian creed. Above the earthly scenes, a row of eternal angels
and (missing) the Virgin Mary, are separated architecturally from the temporal
scenes below. The altarpiece is a cosmic diagram as well as a narrative piece.
Rather than telling a linear tale, our lantern allows stories to be viewed in the
round. – not strictly as a narrative with a beginning and end but a circle with
cross-symmetries and narrative echoes – allowing for relationships across and
around squares that make up each window. Colour plays an essential role here
in helping to pick out some of these patterns.
Siena Cathedral Altarpiece
Diagram
Narrative in static images
How do you tell a story, which exists in time, in
paintings or illustration, which have only still
images? There are lots of solutions - the most
well known being the ‘monoscenic’ (ie. artworks
12. The Gods
Will Not Save You
centred on the most representative, memorable
part of a narrative - like Waterhouse’s Lady of
1. Ancestors
11. Stewardship
Shalott) or ‘sequential’ (an array of scenes like a
comic strip).
There are other significant narrative types.
2. Childhood
10. Old Age
‘Continuous’ narratives, popular in medieval
works of art, are illustrations where characters
are repeated within the same landscape.
D
C
B
9. Building
a Home
A willow pattern plate is an example of a
A
continuous narrative. ‘Simultaneous’ narratives
B
are diagrammatic, and often require additional
A
A
3. Travel
B
B
A
C
interpretation from either a storyteller who
advises how to read it, or from the existing
knowledge of the reader.
D
4. Success /
Capitalism
8. The Fisher King
5. Romance
7. WWI
6. Wandering
TYPE OF PICTORIAL NARRATIVE
A: Sequential (like a comic strip)
B: Monoscenic (single scene)
C: Simultaneous (diagrams, maps)
D: Continuous (repetition of figures)
01
Ancestors
Illustration: Joanna Coates
Two narratives are intertwined: the family tree of
cultures.) Importantly, it is a story which outlines a
Julius Drewe, reaching back through unknowable
grand and romantic quest, and a problematic return.
years to connect with the medieval Knight Drogo
The illegitimate son of Lancelot, Galahad was fated
du Teigne, and the myth of the Holy Grail, a story of
to grow up to be the ‘greatest knight in the world’. A
quest and loss.
lost son, reunited with his father after adolescence,
he acquired a special, elevated status. The holy grail
Convinced of a noble genealogy (believing himself a
was the ultimate quest object, and it had eluded
descendent of the Norman aristocratic Drew family
countless attempts to locate it. After adventure, trail
of Devon, specifically Drogo) Julius Drewe found
and tribulation, Galahad (with Sir Bors and Perceval)
meaning in the connection to an older England
found the grail, in the hall of the Fisher King. Yet the
and all its attendant myths. Family, history and
culmination of such fevered searching was troubling
Englishness being intertwined preoccupations, here
– no triumphant return was granted the heroes.
is represented in a family tree Drewe’s wife Frances,
Galahad chose to ascend to Heaven, rather than
their children, his parents, and his cousin Richard
return with the Grail to Camelot. Various legends
Peek. Peek, a relative of Julius’ mother, was the Rector
compete in the telling of the tale, but most agree that
of Drewsteignton (named after Drogo de Teigne).
Sir Perceval was waylaid by love or by a desire for
What better place to stake a claim and solidify this
solitude, also choosing not to return to the Arthurian
ancient connection? Creating a castle here was more
court. Of the three who set out, only Sir Bors returned
than simply making a new home: it was a statement
to Camelot, where the company of the Round Table
of intent for the sort of family Julius Drewe wished to
had been sadly diminished by the quests undertaken.
have, something enduring, and deeply rooted.
The great endeavours we undertake rarely unfold
The Grail Myth is significant here as it is allied to
as we plan, and it is impossible to simply return to
a founding epoch of ‘Englishness’, the Arthurian
where one was before the adventure began.
legends (although it is in fact a myth found in various
02
Childhood
Illustration: Sam Caldwell
The Victorian values of family and duty were found nowhere more
strongly than within the home. An era of innovation, the Victorian
idea of the powerful, respectable middle-class man was in fact
a departure from previous eras of neo-feudal and aristocratic
governance.
The private home was a demure factory for creating well mannered,
respectful sons of Empire - from stable parents, taught at home until
time for prep and secondary school, a cog in the machine of Britain.
Julius Drewe was born in 1856 and grew up in Ampthill, Bedfordshire,
eventually attending Bedford School. His parents were George S.H.
‘Over the City by Railway’ of Victorian slum by Gustave Doré
Drew and Mary (née Peek), who, apart from Julius had seven other
children. The quiet luxuries of a middle-class Victorian home were
in sharp contrast to how the poor lived. However it was impossible
to be entirely unaware of these differences owing to the existence of
a serving class whose lives were necessarily intertwined with those
they worked for: coachmen, coal-men, maids, rag-and-bone collectors
and all the other various trades that serviced respectable homes. The
disparity in wealth and living standards, allied with growing classconsciousness gave rise to early reform movements and acts, which
sowed the seeds for later, greater societal changes. This was the world
the young Julius Drewe inherited and made his way in: eschewing
university after leaving school to start work in the tea trade at age 18.
Cross section of a Parisian house around 1850, Edmund Texier 1852
03
Travel
Illustration: Amanda Lwin
Aladdin is a Middle Eastern folk story. It was
added to the 1001 Nights collection by French
Orientalist and anthropologist ​Antoine ​Galland,
who heard it from a Syrian storyteller. The
fairytale involves themes of wealth, luck, travel
and social climbing.
A well-known children’s board game of chance,
Snakes and Ladders is in fact based on an Indian
Two Indian ‘snakes and ladders’ spiritual diagrams
spiritual teaching aid- each square was labelled,
with the snakes and ladders demonstrating
virtues (generosity, faith) or vices (lust, anger),
and emphasising the role of karma or fate. As
with many cosmic diagrams, the uppermost row
represents heaven and its inhabitants and is
separated but connected to the world.
Julius Drewe started as a tea trader, travelling
between Britain and China. We see glimpses of
his trade in this panel: tea plantations, docks,
cargo ships.
Detail of a British snakes and ladders game with virtues and vices, 1895
04
​Success / Capital​
Illustration: Sam Caldwell / Joanna Coates / Amanda Lwin
Home & Colonial was founded by Julius Drewe
manufacturer Bovril and selling off parts of
who in 1883 went into partnership with John
the business.
Musker selling groceries at a small shop in
Edgware Road in London. He subsequently opened
Allied Suppliers was sold again to James Gulliver’s
stores in Islington, Birmingham and Leeds. The
Argyll Foods in 1977. In 1987 Argyll Foods merged
shops mainly sold tea and by 1885 they were
with Safeway, the UK arm of an American cash-
trading as the Home & Colonial Tea Association.
and-carry grocery business. In 2005 Safeway
was taken over by the much smaller Morrisons
In 1924 Home & Colonial bought the share
supermarket who today run most of the 430 stores.
capital of Maypole Dairies of Wolverhampton
The remaining 50 stores were purchased by other
from the Watson family. Between 1924 and 1931,
supermarket groups: Waitrose (19), Sainsburys (14)
several stores, including Liptons (supermarkets),
and Tesco (10).
Templetons, and Galbraiths merged with Home
& Colonial to form a company with over 3,000
Liptons was a grocery retail business and a
branches. In 1929, Home and Colonial created
separate tea business. Whereas the supermarkets
a new company, Allied Suppliers, to supply the
were sold to Home and Colonial, the tea business
whole group of businesses.
was gradually acquired by Unilever between
the years 1938-1972. In 1991 Unilever created a
In 1961 Home & Colonial adopted the name of this partnership with PepsiCo to market bottled drinks
company, Allied Suppliers, reflecting the end of
such as Lipton’s Iced Tea.
the British Empire.
​The panel is a history of Home & Colonial and its
In 1972 Allied Suppliers was acquired by James
legacy, but this particular story of takeover and
Goldsmith’s Cavenham Foods. Goldsmith
growth can also be read as an analogue of 20th
financed this acquisition by initially buying drinks
century commerce.
05
Romance
Illustration: Sam Caldwell
Julius Drewe’s first tea shop was called ‘Willow Pattern
Tea Stores’.
The Willow Pattern is a faux-oriental story fabricated by
Staffordshire potter Thomas Minton to capitalise on the
fashion for Chinese porcelain. It tells the story of two
lovers who elope, but are chased down by the Emperor’s
men. The lovers die together and are reborn as love birds.
Each scene of the story is depicted in the same landscape
of islands, bridges and water.
Willow pattern explanation
Julius Drewe first set eyes on his future wife, Frances at
the Bedford Hotel. They had 5 children: Adrian, Basil,
Cedric, Mary, Frances. With Drewe retired at 32, the
family travelled frequently in Europe and further afield, as
postcards from the Collection attest. On the lower dish we
present some of those places where the Drewes travelled:
the Trevi Fountain, the Ruins at Virginia Water (Surrey),
the Arc de Triomphe.
Ruins at Virginia Water - Collection postcard
06
Wandering
Illustration: Amanda Lwin
Following his early retirement, Julius Drewe was a man
of leisure – business voyages became leisurely cruises.
Seafaring was a constant in his life. Many ships have
sailed across the Mediterranean throughout human
history and this watery wandering and searching has
metaphorical significance. Did Julius’ ‘wanderings’
contain a search for meaning? Was this expressed in
his resolution to build Castle Drogo?
Odysseus’ story is the archetypal narrative of voyage and
return. On his way back from Troy, he is waylaid by storms,
sea monsters, witches and gods.
Phoenicians were great sailors of the Mediterranean and
some say they even made it to Devon and Cornwall for their
quarries rich in tin.
Marco Polo was a 13th century Venetian merchant who
may at one time have served as one of the Kublai Khan’s
advisors. Upon returning to Venice he joined a fleet
attacking Genoa, where he was captured and imprisoned.
His travels were documented by his cellmate, an Italian
Romance writer.
Ibn Battuta was a great Moroccan Traveller of the 14th
century. His first journey to India & China started at 1325
and proceeded overland via Algiers, Tripoli and Alexandria.
Between 1490-92 the ship of Kemal Reis, uncle of
cartographer Piri Reis, sailed his fleet to Spain to rescue
Muslims and Jews from the persecution of the Spanish
Inquisition. Many Sephardic (Spanish) Jews settled in parts
of the then-Ottoman Empire in Greece and Turkey.
In Jules Verne’s adventure ‘Around the World in 80
Days’, Phileas Fogg takes advantage of the birth of new
technologies and infrastructure, including the Suez Canal,
to undertake an extraordinary journey. He travels overland
to Brindisa where he catches a steam ship to India via Suez.
Although not initially allied at the beginning, by the height
of the British Empire, commerce and Empire building were
largely interdependent. With the opening of the Suez Canal
in 1869, the British no longer needed to travel around the
Cape of Good Hope - also creating a safer and enormously
shorter journey time. It is this journey that Julius Drewe
and Edwin Lutyens must have taken many times. Various
garrisons were deployed across the Mediterranean to ensure
the safe passage of steamships: Gibraltar, Malta (Valetta),
Cyprus (Limassol).
In 2012 the Costa Concordia was shipwrecked off the coast
of Tuscany, a disaster precipitated by her archetypally
villanous captain.
Jeremy Deller’s 2013 Venice Biennial installation included
an image of William Morris hurling Roman Abramovitch’s
yacht into Venice Lagoon.
In 1902 Edwin Lutyens was employed by Edward Hudson,
the owner of Country Life magazine, to restore a ruined
castle on Holy Island, Lindisfarne. The castle on the tidal
island is an iconic image of safe landfall.
07
World War I
Illustration: Joanna Coates
A conveyor belt gradually ushers soldiers into the horrors of war,
accellerating and preventing any escape from carnage.
The First World War produced slaughter on an unimaginable
scale. The men armed with fixed bayonets pitted against machine
guns were casualties of an governing order not appreciating how
mechanisation had forever altered the world.
The violence crossed all classes and the damage was inflicted on both
genders. From farmhands to public schoolboys many joined up with a
mixture of naivete, bravery and bravaura - an optimism which ended
in trauma and death in many cases, including that of Adrian Drewe,
Julius’s beloved eldest son.
The factor of technology in the war has always been in poignant
contrast to the natural and fragile elements that are now icons of the
conflict: war horses (a particular Devon connection), poppies, the
calm flat fields that were once theatres of war.
Castle Drogo under construction
08
The Fisher King
Illustration: Amanda Lwin
The myth of the Fisher King is an Arthurian legend involving a solitary king who
guards the Holy Grail. The king is maimed, rendering him, and by analogy his
lands, infertile. All he is able to do is fish.
This myth is the basis for T.S. Eliot’s post-WWI masterpiece The Waste Land ‘Fishing, with the arid plane behind me. Shall I at least set my lands in order?’
The Drewes were distraught by the death of their eldest son Adrian in the First
World War. Julius Drewe lost interest in his legacy project, the building of Castle
Drogo. I​ n this panel, the half-cleared Dartmoor forest and a scaffolded Drogo,
merges with the flattened landscape​s of Flanders post-WWI.
Julius Drewe was also a keen fisherman who was originally attracted to this
location in Dartmoor because of the salmon fishing.
Artist Kathe Köllwitz is well-known in Germany for her
inter-war depictions of familial grief. Initially pro-war, she
encouraged her husband to permit their son to fight. When
her son died in the first few days of conflict, her guilt and
grief were eventually channeled into sculptures and prints,
many with parents mourning lost children.
Flanders post-WWI
Stanley Spencer’s Sandham War Memorial Chapel (192632) features a series of wall paintings which are designed to
fit the interior arches of the building.
The next line of T.S Eliot’s poem is ‘London Bridge is falling
down falling down’. In this context, it refers to the collapse
of a certain social structure or order.
Kate Köllwitz - The Grieving Parents
Stanley Spencer - Sandham War Memorial Chapel
09
Building a Home
Illustration: Amanda Lwin
Edwin Lutyens set up his own practice in 1888. His earliest
commissions were individual houses which he executed in the
vernacular of a country cottage - this Arts and Crafts style was
originally promoted by radical socialists such as William Morris.
As he moved on to larger buildings he explored English Baroque
and classical styles. He was appointed as an official architect
for the Imperial War Graves Commission, and designed famous
memorials including the Cenotaph at Whitehall. This marked his
transition to being an architect of the Establishment: in his later
career he produced banks, a famous Dolls House for Queen Mary,
Works featured on panel:
1897: Munstead Wood, Surrey
1900: Deanery Garden, Berkshire
1903: Little Thakeham, Sussex
1906: Heathcote, Yorkshire
1911: Theological Society HQ, later BMA House, London
Lutyens, therefore, was apt - Lutyens’ subsequent rise to the top
1911-30: Castle Drogo, Devon
of the architectural Establishment mirrored Drewe’s own desires.
1919: Cenotaph; Etaples Military Cemetary
1913-29: New Delhi, India
1919: Midland Bank, Manchester
1921: Queen Mary’s Dolls House
1930: Design for Liverpool Cathedral (unbuilt except for crypt)
and a design for Liverpool Cathedral, as well as the intended
capital of the British administration in India, New Delhi.
We speculate that one of Julius Drewe’s aspirations for building
the castle was to become part of the landed gentry - to have a
‘seat’ - to become part of the Establishment. His employment of
10
Old Age
Illustration: Sam Caldwell
Self-reflection in old age is the subject of some of the most
distinctive paintings in the artistic canon: from Rembrandt’s self
portraits to Lucian Freud’s portraits of his aging mother.
At the end of his life Julius Drewe had created a monument which
realized his obsessions and preoccupations, raised a large family
who record him as a loving parent, but lost a beloved son. The
altered landscape behind him is a compendium of moments past,
fragments of joy and ambivalence about the life lived.
The universality of old age, the comparative reflections of highs
Rembrandt - Self-Portrait with Beret and Turned-Up Collar (1659)
and lows is caught by recording simple moments among the
grandeur, personal landscapes of memory and time now gone.
Freud - The Painter’s Mother (1984)
11
Stewardship
Illustration: Joanna Coates / Sam Caldwell
In 1974 the National Trust took over the care and stewardship
of Castle Drogo. A litany of leaks and structural problems
meant it was beyond a private family’s capacity to cope. But
behind this individual transfer of ownership lies a pattern, a
shift in thinking across the whole country.
After WWII, and with the development of the welfare state
and broader social changes, the old order of grand houses
with their servants and ‘upstairs-downstairs’ class barriers
appeared to be receding. The National Trust represented
what was a fairly radical idea at the time: opening up private
houses, the general public seeing grand buildings as part of a
national inheritance – for leisure, not as places of work. New
archetypes from this era are the OS map-carrying rambler and
the camper-van travelling family.
The National Trust also manages landscapes, planning,
planting, logging - working as a custodian of the natural
world as well as of built heritage.
12
The Gods Will Not Save You
Illustration: Sam Caldwell
Before comprehensive maps and GPS, the stars were a means of
navigating. Perhaps as a mnemonic device to aid recollection,
constellations of stars were ascribed names and personalities. Myths
and legends formed around these celestial bodies that were so
divorced from the everyday world of human life, yet were believed to
have a strong influence on those living below on earth.
In 1515 Albrecht Dürer created a woodcut print featuring the gods of
the constellations.
​In this panel, the old gods of fate have been replaced by ‘new gods’ of
the Establishment: politicians, bankers,​media moguls, ​judges.
‘The Gods Will Not Save You’ is a quotation from the TV series The
Wire (2002-08), wherein the lives of individuals are shown to be
wantonly affected by the petty whims and rivalries of those who
occupy power.
In 2014 Grayson Perry wrote an article decrying the rule of ‘Default
Man’: despite representing only 10% of the population, middle-class,
middle-aged heterosexual white men “dominate the upper echelons
of our society, imposing, unconsciously or otherwise, their values and
preferences on the rest of the population”.
Albrecht Dürer - Star Map