Wippell (J.) & Co. Ltd

J. Wippell & Co. Ltd is a long established Exeter firm of clerical outfitters and suppliers of church furnishings. It traces its Exeter roots to 1802, when Joseph Wippell set himself up as a specialist grocer. The business flourished and expanded into drapery and then tailoring, funeral direction, church decoration, and in 1896 stained glass. The company acquired the Oxford firm of ecclesiastical furnishers and religious booksellers, A.R.Mowbray in 1969 and used an adapted maker’s mark in the 1970s to recognise the association, before reverting to the family’s sixteenth century wool merchant’s mark.

The stained glass department employed a number of notable designers, including A F. Erridge,  George Cooper-Abbs, Frederick W Cole,  Kenneth Bunton and Roy Coomber.

Sadly in the summer of 2023 it was announced that the business would be closing at the end of the year.

Sources:
J. Wippell & Co. Ltd website
Stained Glass Marks & Monograms, complied by Joyce Little, and edited by Angela Goedicke & Margaret Washbourn (NADFAS, 2002)