Willement, Thomas
An account of the restorations of the Collegiate Chapel of St. George, Windsor. With some particulars of the heraldic ornaments of that edifice.
London, William Pickering 1844.
Full Description
4to. 55+(1)pp, engraved frontispiece and 1 engraved plate. Early twentieth century green cloth. Some light spotting on text pages and plates. Large paper copy.
A scarce published account of restoration work carried out by the author at St. George’s Chapel, Windsor, and of the chapel’s mostly mediaeval heraldic ornament. Willement (1786-1871) was a decorator, stained glass artist and antiquary, with a special interest in heraldry. He worked with Gothic Revival designers and architects such as Pugin, and enjoyed a long and successful career, becoming George IV’s heraldic artist and later receiving commissions for stained glass work from Queen Victoria. Although Willement’s main aim in the book is to provide a detailed description of the state of the chapel before work was begun, and to note his alterations, he took advantage of the scaffolding in place at the time to examine and record the numerous heraldic bosses on the vaults. At the end of the book, neatly printed for him by William Pickering, Willement adds his own medieval-esque monogram and motto. The book is rare – we have had only two copies through our hands up till now, and it never featured in any of the catalogues issued by the Weinreb firm – and a large paper copy, such as the present one, must be particularly scarce, although it so happens that Sir Howard Colvin’s copy, the most recent one handled by us, was also large paper.