Stained Glass of Percy Bacon & Brothers

East Window. Christ in Majesty surrounded by Kings, Bishops and Saints.

East window. Saints and a bishop. The only identifiable saint is John the Baptist.

East window. Christ in Majesty.

East window. A saint and two bishops, the one on the right being Gregory the Great.

East window. Three Bees rebus of Percy Bacon & Brothers.

East Window.

Posted 26 April 2026.

Less than two years after his firm was started the Percy Bacon Studio was operating throughout the country, from Northumberland in the north to Cornwall in the south west. The remarkable speed of the success of the firm saw it manufacture and install around 20 windows in 1894 as well as executing various church decorations such as the reredos paintings at Stoneyhurst College Chapel in Lancashire, and at St Mary, Ardleigh, Essex for Ernest Geldart. It is not clear whether Percy Bacon had yet come to the attention of George Fellowes-Prynne the Devon and London architect, or if he had whether he had yet to collaborated with him. If he hadn't by the time he was installing the east window at Mary Tavy, he soon would, his first window under Prynne's supervision being at St James the Great, East Anthony, Cornwall in 1895.

The east window in St Mary's was installed under the supervision of Edmund Sedding, the architect in charge of the restoration of the church.¹ This included renewing or replacing the stonework of the east window. The window's theme is The Church Triumphant and the first of its kind by Bacon, and a theme he would return to many times during his lifetime. In the centre light we see Christ in majesty with flying angels above performing the crowning ceremony. At his feet and kneeling in prayer, the Blessed Virgin. In the side lights kings, bishops and saints look on. The scene runs across the three lights interrupted by the mullions, and is framed overall by wide outer columns and the usual extravagant canopies in white glass.

The window was donate by the incumbent, the Rev. J. K. Anderson, and dedicated on a brass plate fixed to the wall to his wife,

The figurative work in this window is not the usual Percy Bacon style,and was clearly not painted by his hand. Being such an early window in the output of the firm it is possible that it was painted by Percy's older brother, Herbert.

The firm's Three Bees rebus can be seen at the bottom right of the window.

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1. The Builder 06 September 1894. Vol 66, p432. Report on the installation of the window.