Panels
- Place of origin:
Isle of Wight, England (made)
- Date:
- Artist/Maker:
- Materials and Techniques:
Stained and painted glass
- Museum number:
- Gallery location:
Sacred Silver & Stained Glass, room 83, case BAY3
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We know little of the stained-glass work of C.E. Gwilt. But it must have been favourably received, because he submitted designs for a competition to create windows for the House of Lords. These designs were for a large window depicting eight Norman kings. In 1844 they were exhibited at the Bazaar, St James’s Street, London.
This window was formerly located in a house in Niton in the Isle of Wight.
Gwilt was one of several stained-glass artists in the first half of the 1800s who experimented with the use of coloured glass in their compositions, in a return to earlier traditions. In this window Gwilt combines coloured and stained glass in a setting of clear quarries (diamond-shaped panes as used in lattice windows). Heraldry had been a popular addition to windows since the Middle Ages. Here we see arms representing the patron saints of Scotland and Ireland, Andrew and Patrick. St George represents England.
Physical description
Three panels, trefoil-headed, with tracery lights above. The central panel depicts St George slaying the dragon - he wears chain mail and a white surcoat decorated with the arms of England - against a background of quarries with tudor roses. The left hand panel is decorated with a shield of the saltire cross of St Andrew or Scotland on a background of quarries decorated with thistles while the right hand panel has a similar shield with a saltire cross of red on white (St Patrick or Ireland) on a background of quarries with shamrocks.
Place of Origin
Isle of Wight, England (made)
Date
1840 (made)
Artist/maker
Guilt, C. Edwin (maker)
Materials and Techniques
Stained and painted glass
Marks and inscriptions
'designed executed by C. E. Guilt, 1840' [centre; & and lower right:] 'Fet C.E.G.t' [and lower left:] 'Fet C.E.G.'
Dimensions
height: 88 cm, width: 86 cm
Object history note
The window was purchased in an antiques shop on the Isle of Wight in the 1930s by the vendor's father. No previous history is known.
Descriptive line
Clear and coloured glass window with painted details and yellow (silver) stain depicting St. George and the Dragon. Made by C.Edmund Gwilt in England, 1840.
Bibliographic References (Citation, Note/Abstract, NAL no)
Martin Harrison Victorian Stained Glass London 1980.p.21 & plate 2(b).
Reproduces the panels in colour and refers to the reference in The Builder.
Michael Archer English Stained Glass London 1985. p.31.
Illustrated in colour.
?, "Glass Painters 1750-1850, Part II, Journal of the Society of Master Glass Painters, XIII, no.2 (1960-1), pp.390-407
Labels and date
SAINT GEORGE AND THE DRAGON
In the flanking lights of the window are the Saltires of St Andrew (left) and St Patrick (right), for Scotland and Ireland respectively. Formerly in a house at Niton, Isle of Wight.
England, signed and dated 1840; by C. Edwin Gwilt
Museum no. C.315-1976 [(PW) 2003]
Production Note
Formerly in a house at Niton, Isle of Wight
Materials
Stained glass
Subjects depicted
George (Saint)
Categories
Religion; Stained Glass
Production Type
Unique
Collection code
CER
