WILLIAM PECKITT’S GREAT WEST WINDOW AT EXETER CATHEDRAL C S Atkinson A thesis submitted to the University of Plymouth In partial fulfilment for the degree of MASTER OF PHILOSOPHY October 2011 i Copyright This copy of the thesis has been supplied on condition that anyone who consults it is understood to recognise that its copyright rests with its author and that no quotation from the thesis and no information derived from it may be published without the author’s prior consent. All photographs are by the author, unless otherwise stated All quotations, pictures and images have been utilised under the Fair Dealing for review principle of the UK Copyright, Design and Patents Act 1988. Additionally, every attempt has been made to identify and obtain direct permission to use pictures and images that are not my own property. ii Abstract This thesis examines the Great West Window at Exeter Cathedral designed by William Peckitt of York (1731-95). Peckitt was arguably the most important glass designer of the eighteenth century and undertook prestigious commissions at York, Oxford and elsewhere. In 1764 he was contracted by the Dean of Exeter, Jeremiah Milles, to supply glass to complete the restoration of the Cathedral’s glazing and to make the new window, which has often been considered to be his masterpiece. Peckitt’s Great West Window is no longer extant (although portions of it have been salvaged), having been replaced in 1904 with a window, designed by Messrs Burlison and Grylls, which was itself destroyed by enemy action in 1942. The Burlison and Grylls window was more in keeping with the Gothic revival aesthetic typical of the later nineteenth century and its proponents had argued forcefully that Peckitt’s Great West Window was an aberration that needed to be removed. The thesis provides initially an account of the debate that raged in the national press and beyond about the propriety of replacing Peckitt’s window. This documentary evidence gives a valuable insight into attitudes towards the adornment of churches at the turn of the century: should respect for the extant fabric include Peckitt’s one-hundred-and-fifty year-old contribution or should the building be renovated with a modern medieval-revival window. Until recent times it was largely the case that eighteenth-century glass was regarded as wholly inferior to the medieval glass that preceded it and it is widely accepted that glass making in Britain only recovered with the nineteenth-century Gothic revival and the modern glass that followed it. In this thesis it is suggested that the denigration of eighteenth-century glass and in particular that of William Peckitt at Exeter, ignores its iii qualities, practical and intellectual, and the Great West Window is used to reveal the seriousness of such endeavours. Peckitt’s work is positioned within the context of the particular circumstances of the restoration of Exeter Cathedral in the mid-eighteenth century under two successive Deans, Charles Lyttelton and the aforementioned Jeremiah Milles, both of whom were nationally significant antiquarian scholars. Peckitt was knowledgeable about medieval glass techniques, worked sensitively in restoring medieval glass and when designing a completely new window for the Cathedral worked closely with Milles to provide an iconographical scheme that was appropriate for the Cathedral, its history and its patrons. The evidence brought forward suggests that it is wrong to presume that glass designers like Peckitt had little understanding of medieval glass manufacture nor any interest in using the medium of glass appropriately in the context of a medieval building. iv Table of Contents List of Illustrations ........................................................................................................................... 3 Acknowledgements ......................................................................................................................... 7 Abbreviations .................................................................................................................................... 9 Declaration ...................................................................................................................................... 11 Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 13 Chapter One: The Arguments .................................................................................................... 23 Chapter Two The Great West Window of Exeter Cathedral .......................................... 63 Chapter Three: Continuity and Change .................................................................................121 Conclusion .....................................................................................................................................167 Appendix 1: The Cloisters – Surviving Glass from the Great West Window ......................................173 Appendix 2: Notation of William Peckitt’s Great West Window at Exeter Cathedral ....................181 Bibliography ...................................................................................................................................185 1 2 List of Illustrations Figure 1: Portion of The Temple Memorial Window, Burlison and Grylls, 1903. .......... 25 Unknown. Reproduced in Twining, C W, The Art and Craft of Stained Glass, 1928, p18 This is amongst a handful of photographs of the Burlison and Grylls Window that have come to light to date. However, drawings for the window, reproduced in C W Twining’s book on Stained Glass give some indication of the quality and design concept of the Temple window. ........................................................................................ 25 Figure 2: Cartoons for canopies, West Window, Exeter Cathedral. H Grylls. Reproduced in Twining, C W, The Art and Craft of Stained Glass, 1928. ................... 25 Figure 3: Exeter Cathedral, Great West Window, Reginald and M C Farrer Bell. Circa 1950. Photo: Col. Woodcock, 2003. .............................................................................. 26 The upper portions of this window replicate the original design by Burlison & Grylls for the window installed in 1903-4. .................................................................................. 26 Figure 4: Arms of Bishop Grandison, William Peckitt, 1766 Photo: author, 2007 ......... 33 Figure 5: Letter from Charles Prinn to Marlborough re the Temple Memorial Window, .................................................................................................................................................. 46 Figure 6: William Peckitt, The Arms of Sir Thos Ackland, 1766. Exeter Cathedral Cloisters Photo: Author, 2007 .......................................................................................... 64 Figure 7: William Peckitt, 1766. Detail of Shield and Fragments of decorative glass from the Great West Window of Exeter Cathedral,. Exeter Cathedral, Cloisters. Window C3. Photo by author. 2010 ......................................................................................................... 65 Figure 8: William Peckitt, 1766. Fragments of decorative glass from the Great West Window of Exeter Cathedral. Exeter Cathedral, Cloisters. Window C2. Photo by author. 2010 ........................................................................................................................... 65 Figure 9: William Peckitt, 1766. Fragments of decorative glass from the Great West Window of Exeter Cathedral,. Exeter Cathedral, Cloisters. Window C5. Photo by author. 2010 ........................................................................................................................... 66 [See Appendix 1 for details of the surviving Peckitt glass at Exeter]. ................................ 66 Figure 10: Exeter Cathedral from the West, Photo –Torsten Schneider on 13. Nov 2005 .................................................................................................................................................. 71 Figure 11: Interior of Exeter Cathedral: Nave looking East., Exeter Cathedral Archive; [Photographs not catalogued at the time of consultation] .......................................... 74 Figure 12: Exeter Cathedral: Great East Window – detail, Photo: Author, 2008 ................. 76 Figure 13: William Peckitt of York, Self Portrait, Enamelled glass, York City Art Gallery .................................................................................................................................................. 84 3 Figure 14: William Peckitt, East Window, St Martin Stamford, 1767, Photo: Author, 2008 ......................................................................................................................................... 88 Figure 15: has been removed due to copyright restrictions ................................................ 95 Figure 16: William Peckitt, The Muse Presenting Sir Isaac Newton and Sir Francis Bacon to George III, Wren Library, Cambridge. .............................................................................. 97 Figure 17: William Peckitt, Figure of St Peter, 1768. York Minster, Photo: the author 2009 ....................................................................................................................................... 101 Figure 18: William Peckitt, Painted glass panel, York City Art Gallery ......................... 106