Detail of the west windows of the the tea room (Old Hall Room), (late seventeenth century), Tabley House, Knutsford, Cheshire.

Photo: Penny Hebgin-Barnes

Detail of the west windows of the the tea room (Old Hall Room), (early eighteenth century), Tabley House, Knutsford, Cheshire.

Photo: Penny Hebgin-Barnes

Tabley House, Knutsford, Cheshire

Address

Tabley House, Tabley Lane, Chester Road, Knutsford, Cheshire, WA16 0HB

Recommended by

Penny Hebgin-Barnes (10)

Highlight

Five west windows of the tea room (Old Hall Room)

Artist, maker and date

17th and 18th century glaziers. The original monarchs series was commissioned by the Royalist antiquary Sir Peter Leicester (d.1680) of Tabley and the second continuation was probably executed shortly after 1727.

Reason for highlighting

The first three west windows contain a fine although incomplete seventeenth century series of rectangular quarries depicting English monarchs from the Conquest to the Tudors, evidently modelled on prints and accompanied by inscriptions giving brief details of their lives and reigns. All hold royal regalia and wear crowns which in some cases perch rather ludicrously atop their hats. The last two windows contain two separate attempts to continue this series, the first consisting of cruder images of James II and Anne, and the second of accomplished copies of contemporary portraits of all the monarchs from James II to a youthful-looking George II. Unfortunately some quarries are marred by unsightly mending leads.

The series is a rare survival of seventeenth century domestic glazing, and the continuations provide an even rarer example of an eighteenth century family’s sustained interest in a scheme which most of their contemporaries would have discarded as old-fashioned.

Other comments

There is plenty more old glass both in the tea room and in the adjacent chapel which was built during the 1670s and has dark wooden furnishings. The tea room contains armorials of the Leicester family and their associates and sixteenth century Netherlandish panels in poor condition depicting religious subjects. It also houses a collection of teapots and an extraordinary carved overmantel dated 1619 which, like much of the glass, originated in the now demolished Tabley Old Hall. The chapel retains two large enamel-painted panels in poor condition depicting the Crucifixion and Ascension from its original glazing scheme, and more armorials including many eighteenth century diamond quarries depicting shields set on scrollwork grounds. There are also two windows by Carl Edwards and one by Morris & Co.

Tabley House itself, a Palladian mansion containing a collection of paintings and furniture, is open to the public from April to October for a fee, but the tea room and chapel are free to enter.

Sources:
P. Hebgin-Barnes, The Medieval Stained Glass of Cheshire, Oxford, 2010, pp. 212-35.

Artist/maker notes

The workshop responsible for the first series of monarchs also produced two series of quarries depicting twelve sibyls for two other Cheshire country houses now belonging to the National Trust: Lyme Park, where they can be seen in the Drawing Room bay window, and Dunham Massey library where they are permanently hidden behind blinds.

Highlighted dates at this location

1660-1730 (Go to date search)