Stained Glass of Percy Bacon & Brothers

Nave South 1: BVM, St Cuby, St Peter.

St Cuby. At his feet his relinquished crown, and in the background a representation of Stonehenge symbolising Cuby's conversion to Christianity.

Tracery: Left: Arms of the Diocese of Exeter. Right: Arms of the Diocese of Truro.

Nave South 1: Blessed Virgin Mary, St Cuby, St Peter

Posted 05 September 2022.

The window was placed in the south wall to honour the fiftieth year of Canon Paul Bush's ministry at St Cuby's, Duloe, and dedicated on the 14th October 1900¹. The window cost £60 which was paid by donations received from members of the congregation. The subjects, for which advice was sought from Prebendary Hineston-Randolph rector of Kingmore, Devon, are The Blessed Virgin Mary, St Cuby and St Peter. St Cuby (or Cybi) was a the son of Salomon, King of Cornwall. Cuby renounced his crown and, forsaking the pagan worship of his fellows, embraced Christianity and became a devout teacher. Cuby is represented in this window as a tonsured monk, dressed in a simple habit, and holding a golden crozier in his right hand, with his left raised in benediction. His relinquished crown sits at his feet. In the background is a representation of Stonehenge, symbolic of Cuby's conversion away from Paganism. Above the Virgin Mary a scroll reads, "For generations shall call me blessed", and above Peter, "On this Rock I shall build my Church".

In the outer tracery lights are simple scrolls intertwined with vine leaves with the word, "alleluia". The inner lights contain angels holding the arms of the Diocese of Exeter and Truro.

The inscription reads:

The window is unsigned.

St Cuby's Duloe, South Chancel 1. King David, St Paul & Isaiah.

Cherubs with quote from 2 Timothy 4:7-8. The right hand cherub is probably a photographic likeness of one of the dedicatees family.

South Chancel 1: King David, St Paul & the Prophet Isaiah.

One of Percy Bacons aspirations was to provide church interiors with harmonious decoration. With peicemeal insertion of windows over many years, and using different artists and great varience of subject matter, this aspiration was rarely achieved. In St Cuby's, however, the Bacon Studios have managed to create, in one part of the church, a harmony between adjacent windows in the south wall of the chancel. The openings in the south chancel 1 window are virtually identical to those in the adjacent window (SC2). Although inserted eight years apart, Bacon has retained the very essence of the style of the 1894 window. He has also included two cherubs at the base of the centre light one of which is clearly likenesses of a real person (possibly a child or grandchild of the dedicatee, Canon Paul Bush). The cherubs hold a scroll with a quote from 2 Timothy 4:7-8:

The window, of three lights, depicts, King David, St Paul and the Prophet Isaiah. Each stands on a pedestal under an elaborate architectonic niche. Demi-angels above David and Isaiah hold scrolls with their names. In the simple tracery are white doves descending.

The inscription held by the cherubs below Paul reads:

The window is unsigned.

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1. Western Morning News - Tuesday 16 October 1900, p3. "A Cornish Rectors Jubilee".
2. Cornish Stained Glass website entry.