Panel of clear, coloured and flashed glass with painted details and yellow (silver) stain. Depicting the arms of Isabella of Bourbon. From the Chapel of the Holy Blood, Bruges. Made in Flanders, c.1496

Panel. Arms of Isabella of Bourbon. Grosvenor Thomas collection.
Inscription at base of panel describing her as Countess of Charolais.

Reconstruction of the windows in the Chapel of the Holy Blood:
Were 9 windows of two lights each.
19th replacements
Window 7: Emperor Maximilian & Mary of Burgundy
Window 8: Charles the Bold and Isabel of Bourbon
Window 9: Charles V and Isabella of Portugal

From the archives of the Confraternity of the Holy Blood – payments for glazing were recorded in 1483 and in 1496.

The ancient glass disappeared during the French invasion of 1797. The glass from the Chapel was sold by the municipality of Bruges to a local man for a miniscule sum who then sold them, at great profit, to an English man in the early 19th century. Believe the glass ended up with firm of Watson & Bethell.

There are coloured drawings of the windows, pre-dispersal, in the Chapel archives. In 1845 reproductions of the panels were made from these drawings by the glass painter Pluys.

In 1913 they were owned by Grosvenor Thomas. He acquired them from Kilburn Grange which was erected after 1830.

Rackham, in a letter of 1921, says panels were previously in Kilburn Grange which had been pulled down 10 or 12 years ago [presumably meaning 1909 or 1911]. The family of Major Cecil Peters of Sunbury Manor, Sunbury in Middlesex, formerly owned Kilburn Grange.

Isabel was the second wife of Charles the Bold of Burgundy. She died in 1465 before Charles became Duke (1467). She got her title of 'Countess of Charolais' from Charles, the Count.
She was the daughter of Charles I of Bourbon and Agnes of Burgundy.
The arms displayed in the panel are a mirror image. The arms of Bourbon appear on the left impaling those of Burgundy with an escutcheon of pretence for Flanders, the arms of the Dukes of Burgundy and thus of her husband, Charles the Bold. All of the arms are completely reversed.

In the Magie du Verre exhibition catalogue (cat.9) there is a fragmentary stained glass panel of the Deposition with these arms displayed at the base. In this instance the arms of Isabella and her husband Duke Charles are displayed correctly BUT Isabel's are prominent (displayed on the right side of the shield, or left as you face it). I think this is a strong indication that the wife's arms are intended to be prominent and that the Holy Blood arms should be examined in this light.

From the Chapel of the Holy Blood, Bruges.

Until 1795, the two-light windows of the Chapel of the Holy Blood in Bruges in Belgium contained images of the Dukes of Burgundy and their consorts (wives). The sequence started with Philippe le Hardi, or Philip the Bold (ruled 1364–1404). The Habsburgs were also shown in the case of Maximilian, Holy Roman Emperor from 1493, who married into the Burgundian line. The figures were all identified by coats of arms displayed below them.

The stained glass was removed in 1795 and shortly afterwards sold to a British dealer. Some of it was later installed at Kilburn Grange, a private house in north-west London. This was demolished in 1910. The Museum acquired the present panels (inv. nos C.438 to 439, 441 to 443-1918) in 1918, together with other coats of arms and a late figure of Charles V.

The ducal figures in stained glass now in the Chapel of the Holy Blood were made in the years 1845-7. They were based on watercolours of the originals.

C.443-1918