A standing female saint, possibly Saint Etheldreda

The industry for producing alabaster carvings in England flourished from the mid-14th to the mid-16th centuries. While most of these carvings were produced in Nottingham, workshops also existed in London, York and Burton-on-Trent. Compared to works in stone or marble, alabaster carvings were less expensive to create because of the ease with which the material could be carved and thus were very attractive to a broad client base, both ecclesiastical and domestic. Throughout the two centuries of their production, English, and specifically Nottingham, alabasters were hugely popular on the local market and for export overseas. Dealers located in ports such as Hull, Southampton and Bristol represented the carvers and saw to the exportation of their works across Europe and in particular to France and Spain, where even today some churches retain their English alabaster altarpieces. Unfortunately, the Dissolution of the Monasteries in England from 1536 onwards saw the total collapse of the industry and thereafter even larger numbers of English alabasters were shipped off to Catholic Europe to be sold at vastly reduced prices.

The most common examples of Nottingham alabasters surviving today are rectangular panels carved in high relief that were often produced as part of a narrative series depicting episodes from the Passion of Christ or the life of a saint. Single figure alabasters are more unusual, and those as large as the present lot are exceptionally rare. Given the scale and the quality of the carving it is probable that this lot was part of a highly important commission, perhaps serving as the central figure of an alabaster altarpiece. One comparable example is a standing figure of Saint Catherine, also dating to the second half of the 15^th century, which shares a similar facial type with the present lot (see Cheetham, 2001, loc. cit.).

Saint Etheldreda, also known as Æthelthryth or Audrey, was a 7^th century Anglo-Saxon princess and the daughter of King Anna of East Anglia. She is best known for founding the double monastery of Ely, where she served as abbess. Her shrine at Ely Cathedral became a significant pilgrimage site after her death in 679. The suggestion that the present lot could represent Etheldreda is due to the figure’s iconographic attributes of a crown, book and rosary, all of which one might expect to see in a depiction of the abbess. However, it is notable that in other contemporary representations Etheldreda's hair is covered by a wimple and she sometimes carries a crosier (see the Nottingham alabaster relief depicting Nine Female Saints in the treasury of St Peter Mancroft Church, Norwich and the pair of painted panels with scenes from the Life of Etheldreda attributed to Robert Pygot of Bury St Edmunds, circa 1455, Society of Antiquaries collection, Burlington House, London). To add further intrigue to the question of the present saint’s identity, she appears to be wearing sabatons, a type of armoured shoe worn in the 14^th and 15^th centuries, an attribute not known to be associated with Etheldreda. What is certain, however, is that an alabaster carving on this scale, of this calibre and remaining in such good condition is a remarkable survival and a testament to the skill and artistry of the so-called ‘alabastermen’ of late medieval England.