UK 2014 Trip: St. George's Chapel at Windsor

A couple of my favorite books on goldwork are Mary Brown's Goldwork Embroidery:  Designs and Projects  and Jane Lemon's Metal Thread Embroidery  At the beginning of Brown's book, it has an excellent summary of the history and development of goldwork embroidery.  In the very back of Lemon's book, she has a list of the different locations of important embroidery pieces and collections.  I consulted this back section in Lemon's book to see where some of the pieces were located that I had studied and requested an appointment at St. George's Chapel at Windsor to see a set of panels created by Beryl Dean and other vestments and alter frontals in their collection.  (Please see correction note at bottom.)

Maria, one of the Senior Sacristans at St. George's, kindly showed me around and talked to me about the history of the pieces and the Chapel in general.  It was fascinating!  I absolutely LOVE looking at the beautiful details, craft, and imagery that was used in these pieces.  I was able to see 5 alter frontals and 6 sets of copes in addition to coordinating veils and vestment accessories.  The sets of copes included a set of white copes, the Coronation Jubilee Copes, a set of Blue copes used for Advent and Lent, a set of black copes used for funerals and Requiem masses, a set of green copes used for Eucharist Sundays, and the red set worn for the Order of the Garter service.  Maria was wonderful at showing me the different details on the copes that delineated the dean, canons, and minor canons vestments.

Each set had a special detail that I found especially exciting.  The intersections on the cutwork and the turns in the couching were so beautiful on the Jubilee copes.  Having just finished my RSN Certificate Goldwork Module, the intersections and how they were treated were of special and timely interest to me.   My favorite set were the blue copes used for Advent and Lent that had been created by Liz Thompson, a wife of a former canon, and Wendy Pearson.  To recognize a donation from the Australian Friends of St. George's that partly funded the copes, the motif of the "wattle" was incorporated into the design.  Utilizing cut felt leaves with french knot buds in a heavier thread (appeared cotton?) with goldwork embroidery, the embellishment was such a lovely mix of formal and informal, traditional and non-traditional. 

Here are just a couple images from my visit, shared here with kind permission of St. George's Chapel at Windsor:

The Beryl Dean panels did not disappoint either.  Having only seen them in print before my trip, I was not anticipating how large they were.  They are stored in a cabinet at the back of the Chapel as you walk from the worship area to the gift store/exit.  One is on view at any one time.  I love Dean's depiction of each person's face.  The oversized eyes and color shading in the stitches is very beautiful.

 These are some details of Mary and a Wiseman from the Adoration of the Magi panel (link for a very nice write up on St. George's Chapel website on this panel). 

Correction Notice:  The list of places to visit embroidery is actually in Jane Lemon's Metal Thread Embroidery book (another favorite of mine), not in Mary Brown's book.  Brown's book does have the wonderful history of goldwork at the beginning.  I apologize for the mistake and have corrected the information in my post above.  If you are interested in goldwork embroidery, these 2 books are both on my must have list.