William Burges

William Burges slept in a tower at Cardiff Castle with his sketchbooks—ink-stained pages piled under his bed like secret sandwiches. Every surface in his London home was carved or gilded, whether it was a chair or a cathedral door. If you tap his drawing of a sinister grinning mask, you’ll see how he hid jokes in wood and gold. He built entire rooms as if they were stage sets for medieval plays, and the actors were his furniture.