Wood Carvings in English Churches: I. Stalls and Tabernacle Work. II. Bishop's Thrones and Chancel Chairs. — John Shaqi
Wood Carvings in English Churches: I. Stalls and Tabernacle Work. II. Bishop's Thrones and Chancel Chairs.Bond, Francis
History
Wood Carvings in English Churches: I. Stalls and Tabernacle Work. II. Bishop's Thrones and Chancel Chairs.
Bond, Francis
Choir stalls; Church decoration and ornament; Wood-carving
To the exquisite stallwork of Abergavenny the remarks made on that at All
Saints', Hereford, again apply; it is redolent of the inspiration of the
first half of the fourteenth century; but its effects are gained in a
totally different way: this also may be assigned to the last quarter of the
fourteenth century;[21] say _c._ 1380 or later (46).
The stalls at Wingfield, Suffolk, might date from 1362, when the church was
made collegiate; but much work was done in the time of Michael de la Pole,
2nd Duke of Suffolk, and his wife, Catherine Stafford; he died in 1415; the
badges of Wingfield and Stafford--a wing and the Stafford knot--are seen on
the arches between the de la Pole chapel and the chancel. The design of the
stalls and desks is such as might be expected early in the fifteenth
century, especially in East Anglia, where fourteenth century design
lingered long (46). {48}
[Illustration: Norwich Cathedral]
At first sight the Norwich stalls might seem to belong to the first half of
the fourteenth century; as in the stalls of Chichester, the lower canopies
have ogee arches; while there is a second story above, as at Ely. The
exuberance of earlier design is present in the cusping and the crockets;
notice how the crockets vary from bay to bay, one set being actually
composed of hawks. Nevertheless supermullions rise from the apex of each
minor arch of the window tracery of the spandrils, and are conclusive
evidence that the date is considerably later. The stalls and misericords
below are of two periods. In the earlier set of twenty-four the seats are
polygonal; the armour depicted is that of the last half of the fourteenth
century, and there are arms of donors who died respectively in 1380, 1400
and 1428; so that we may assign the approximate date of 1390 to this set of
misericords. The remaining thirty-eight misericords have seats curved on
plan, and, according to Mr Harrod, are not later than the middle of the
fifteenth century. Now the canopies extend above both sets of misericords;
the probability therefore is that they were put up together with the second
set of misericords. But there is one curious bit of evidence in the canopy
work itself, which is here illustrated (48); viz, that one set of crockets
consists of hawks with jesses. Now on the arms of John Wakering, who was
bishop from 1416 to 1425 are three hawks' lures;[22] that being so, the
probability is that the whole of the canopies, and the second set of
misericords as well, are {49} of the approximate date of 1420. Though so
much later than the Ely stalls, the absence of the spirelet and the
retention of the horizontal cornice marks this, in spite of much beauty of
detail, as a retrogressive design.
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