Left to right: (a) Whole window. (b) Tracery lights. (c) Close-up of right-hand panel showing the Ascension.
Nativity, Crucifixion, Ascension, St James' Church, Weybridge, by William Wailes. This lovely window was installed in memory of Elizabeth Feetham, who died on 14 January 1850, aged 59. The tracery angels carry the consoling text, "If we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them that sleep in Jesus will God bring with him" (1 Thessalonians 4, 14).
Three angels in the lower sections of the panels.
The angels carry scrolls with texts appropriate to the scenes above: "Unto us a child is born" (Isaiah 9, 6) for the Nativity; "It is finished" (John 19, 30) under the crucifixion; and "He hath ascended up on high" (Ephesians 4, 10) below the ascension. The windows should be read upwards, so this is the introduction to the key events pictured here. Wailes has "signed" the window in the lower left-hand corner with his monogram of two entwined "W"s, and has dated it underneath, 1851. Stanley Shepherd points out that there is no "direct evidence" that he designed any of the firm's windows himself: "Rather, he showed shrewd judgment in selecting artists to do such work for him" (29). But Wailes had liked landscape painting, and some of his windows were signed, while some (like the other one in St James') were not. Possibly the signed ones were of his own design.
Photographs, text and formatting by Jacqueline Banerjee. You may use these images without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the photographer and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.
Bibliography
Eberhard, Robert. "Stained Glass Windows at St James." Church Stained Glass Windows. Web. 5 August 2014.
Forge, J. W. Lindus, and J. L. Pulford. Monumental Inscriptions, Saint James, Weybridge. Walton and Weybridge Local History Society, 1979.
Shepherd, Stanley A. The Stained Glass of A. W. N. Pugin. Reading: Spire Books, 2009.
Last modified 5 August 2014