Peterborough
Apart from the above, we seem to have no stallwork of earlier date than the fourteenth century. Of that period the earliest and perhaps the most beautiful is that in Winchester cathedral. The pulpit was given by Prior Silkstede, whose name is inscribed on it; he was prior from 1498 to 1524; the desks and stools of the upper tier have the date 1540. The canopies are of one story. Each is surmounted by a straight sided gable or pediment, which is crocketed and finialled and has compound cusping. The upper part of each gable is perforated with a multifoiled trefoil. Below, the stall is spanned by a broad pointed arch, which is subdivided into two pointed and detached arches, with foliated cusps. These two minor arches carry circles with varying tracery. At the back of each stall ([35]) is a broad arch containing a pair of detached pointed trifoliated arches supported by shafts whose capitals are alternately molded and foliated. These two small arches carry a circle within which is inscribed a cinquefoil, cusped and foliated. The spandrils between each pair of containing arches at the back of the stalls are occupied by foliage admirably carved, in which are figures of men, animals, birds, &c. There is no pronounced ogee arch anywhere, though there is a suspicion of one where the open trefoils of the gables rest upon the containing arches. The tracery too of all the circles is geometrical, i.e., composed of simple curves; there is no flowing or ogee tracery with compound curves. It may be assumed therefore that the work is earlier than c. 1315. On the other hand the foliage of the spandrils has pronounced bulbous or ogee curves and the pediments contain compound cusping; both features being characteristic of ornament of the first half of the fourteenth century.
Winchester Cathedral
Winchester Cathedral