Le Couteur: Publications and Papers

PUBLICATIONS

1911

‘Notes on the Great North window of Canterbury Cathedral’, Archaeologia Cantiana, xxix, 323–33, plus plan

1916

‘Notes on the Stained Glass of Gloucester Cathedral Lady Chapel’, unpublished manuscript, 49 leaves, 3 plans, formerly in the library of Sydney A. Pitcher, now Gloucestershire Archives, B227/31997GS

1917

‘Representations of the Blessed Trinity’, Notes and Queries, s12-III, 62 (1917), 168

‘St. Barbara, V.M.’, Notes and Queries, s12-III, 67 (1917), 280 [a response by Le Couteur to earlier correspondence, in which he lists the whereabouts of four examples of St Barbara in stained glass: two at Great Malvern Priory, one in Winchester Cathedral, and another in Fromond’s Chantry in Winchester College]

‘Stained Glass: Its Importation Forbidden’, Notes and Queries, s12-III, 73 (1917), 446 [letter from Le Couteur asking if an act of Parliament of 1483, which forbade the importation of ‘foreign glasses’ into England, was ever repealed, and if so when]

‘Laying a Ghost’, Notes and Queries, s12-III, 75 (1917), 504 [letter from Le Couteur asking if there was a special ritual or order of service used in the church for the ceremony of laying a ghost]

1918

‘Winchester Episcopal Arms’, Notes and Queries, s12-IV, 78 (1918), 75

‘Shield in Winchester Stained Glass’, Notes and Queries, s12-IV, 82 (1918), 188 [letter from Le Couteur describing heraldic glass in Winchester Cathedral featuring the arms of the see dating to c.1460 and 1528, and asking in what year the colour of the field changed from blue to red]

‘Saint and the Devil’, Notes and Queries, s12-IV, 79 (1918), 110–11 [letter from Le Couteur asking for information about the iconography of devils blowing horns, in particular the origin of the idea, and requesting the name of a church in Yorkshire which has a rhyming inscription on a screen: ‘Bewar of the deuyl when he blawis his horn, And eon thy good aurigel saue thee’; ed.: the church is Campsall]

1919

‘Devils blowing horns or trumpets’, Notes and Queries, s12-V, 89 (1919), 48–49 [response to H.C.; Le Couteur argues that the Winchester College copies made by Betton & Evans were probably faithful copies of the original, as it was unlikely that they would have known enough about medieval iconography to create such images by themselves; he also disputes suggestions that depictions of people in Doom paintings were based on real people]

1920

Ancient Glass in Winchester, Winchester

‘John Thornton’, Notes and Queries, s12-VI, 100 (1920), 13 [letter from Le Couteur asking if ‘anything is known which could identify John Thornton, the artist associated with the painting of the Great East window at York Minister 1405-08, with ‘John of Coventry who, in 1353, was one of those engaged about the glazing of the king’s new chapel at Windsor?’]

1921

‘Paintings of King Henry VI’, letter to The Times (London, England), 21 December 1921, col. 8 [including a list of sites where images of Henry VI can be seen]

‘The great west window of Winchester Cathedral’, Hampshire Observer, 3 September 1921

1922

‘Old Stained Glass’, Notes and Queries, s12-VI, 89 (1922), 231–32

‘St. Swithun’s Shrine, Winchester’, Notes and Queries, s12-XI, 243 (1922), 470

‘Marie Celeste’, Notes and Queries, s12-XI (1922), 214 [letter from Le Couteur in reply to correspondence concerning the mystery of the Marie Celeste, a British-American merchant ship famous for having been discovered in the Atlantic Ocean on 4 December 1872 heading towards the straits of Gibraltar, unmanned and apparently abandoned by its crew. While passing no judgement on the mystery himself his letter recalled correspondence in the Daily Express newspaper of some years beforehand, in which it had been suggested that the crew had been kidnapped.]

‘Betton and Evans of Shrewsbury’, Notes and Queries, s12-XI, 232 (1922), 249–50 [letter from Le Couteur asking for information about the Shrewsbury-based glazing firm of Betton & Evans, in particular asking for details of work carried out by them]

1924

(with D. H. M. Carter) ‘Notes on the Shrine of St. Swithun formerly in Winchester Cathedral’, The Antiquaries Journal, iv/4 (October 1924), 360–70

1925

‘The medieval glass painter as a copyist’, Journal of Stained Glass, i/3, 15–19

‘Ancient glass in Timsbury church’, Journal of Stained Glass, i/2, 36–37

1926

English Mediæval Painted Glass, London

1927

‘Long Melford Church, Suffolk and its Portrait Glass’, Journal of Stained Glass, ii/2, 74–77

1929

Ancient Glass in Winchester, 2nd edition with corrections and reproduction of the article published in the Hampshire Observer on 3 September 1921

1978

English Mediæval Painted Glass, 2nd edition

PAPERS

Winchester College

The largest collection of papers relating to Le Couteur is held by Winchester College Archaeological Society, to which the collection was given after his death.

A2/24. Bound set of College papers, 1924 [includes a detailed report by Le Couteur about works and repairs to the stained-glass windows in the chapel and chantry]

E2/29. Black and white photograph of Le Couteur, 1925

F6/2/24. Le Couteur’s scrapbook I [containing sketches of glass quarries, and some printed and some manuscript material, early 20th century; for scrapbook II, see F6/2/52 below]

F6/2/25. Le Couteur’s scrapbook III [containing black and white photographs of stained glass, early 20th century, including images of the Winchester College glass and a hot roll, November 1924; other locations include monuments in Wales, Yorkshire, Somerset, Oxfordshire, Kent, as well as The Vyne (Hampshire), Fairford Church (Gloucestershire), and Canterbury, Wells and Winchester cathedrals; also photographs of the misericords in Exeter Cathedral]

F6/2/26. Le Couteur’s scrapbook IV [containing black and white photographs of stained glass, early 20th century, including images of the Winchester College glass at Ettington; also images of the glass at Ashton-under-Lyne, Bristol, Cirencester, Deerhurst, Fairford, Gresford, Ludlow, Malvern, Morpeth, Shrewsbury and Tewkesbury, as well as Canterbury, Canterbury, Durham, Gloucester, Wells and Winchester cathedrals]

F6/2/27. Le Couteur’s scrapbook V [containing black and white photographs of stained glass, early 20th century, including images of the glass at Winchester College, and also in Coventry, Fairford, Ludlow, Malvern, Morpeth, Norfolk, Oxford, Shrewsbury, Warwick and Winchester St Cross, as well as Canterbury, Gloucester and Winchester cathedrals]

F6/2/28. Le Couteur’s scrapbook VI [containing black and white photographs of stained glass, early 20th century, including images of the Winchester College glass at Parham, as well as glass at Coventry, Fairford, Lincolns Inn, Malvern, Oxford, Selborne, Tewkesbury and York]

F6/2/29. Le Couteur’s scrapbook VII [containing black and white photographs of stained glass, early 20th century, including images of the Winchester College glass at the Victoria & Albert Museum, and also glass in Cornwall, Fairford, Gloucestershire, Kent, Leicester Museum, Ludlow, Malvern, Shrewsbury, Wales, Westminster, Winchester St Cross and Worcestershire]

F6/2/30. Le Couteur’s scrapbook VIII [containing black and white photographs of stained glass, particularly at Fairford, early 20th century, also including glass at Canterbury, Devon, Kent, Malvern, Salisbury, Somerset and Windsor, as well as in the east window of Fromond’s Chantry]

F6/2/39. Notes for a talk on stained glass in London given to the Winchester College Archaeological Society, n.d.

F6/2/40. Notes for a talk on stained glass in Bristol given to the Winchester College Archaeological Society, n.d.

F6/2/41. Notes for a talk on stained glass in Somerset given to the Winchester College Archaeological Society, n.d.

F6/2/42. Notes for a talk on stained glass in Rouen and Paris given to the Winchester College Archaeological Society, n.d.

F6/2/43. Notes for a talk on glass-painting and stained glass given to the Winchester College Archaeological Society, n.d.

F6/2/52. Le Couteur’s scrapbook III [containing black and white photographs of stained glass, early 20th century, including images of stained glass in Bristol: St Mary Redcliffe; Cumbria: Greystoke; Cumbria: Penrith; Denbighshire: Gresford, Llanrhaiadr; Dorset: Abbotsbury, Melbury Bubb; Gloucestershire: Edgeworth, Fairford, Gloucester Cathedral (the Lady Chapel and the east window); Hampshire: Bramley, Headbourne Worthy, Winchester Cathedral (the east and west windows, plus newspaper cutting), Winchester College (east window of chapel with details of Thomas the Glazier and ‘Albia Rex’), Winchester St Cross; Herefordshire: Credenhall, Ross; Oxfordshire: Oxford (St Frideswide), Yarnton; Somerset: Winscombe; Suffolk: Long Melford; Wiltshire: Westwood; Worcestershire: Great Malvern Priory; York: St John’s Micklegate, All Saints North Street, St Martin’s, Coney Street, St Michael le Belfrey, Holy Trinity Goodramgate, St Michael Spurriergate, St Denis Walmgate; Yorkshire: Almondbury, Thirsk, Thornhill, West Fairfield]

F8/65. Glass negative of workmen in College Mill, with Le Couteur repairing some of the college glass, 1920s

M7/104. Black and white photograph of the men who worked on the repair of the chapel glass, 1922, including Le Couteur, H. J. Moreton, Charles and Stephen Patterson, and Frank Andrews

M7/153. Two black and white photographs of the interior of Old Mill, showing men working; one is labelled Le Couteur, early 20th century

P6/1. Bundle of papers and notes about the Winchester College stained glass and other medieval glass, originally belonging to Le Couteur, 1920s–1930s, including a letter to Herbert Chitty from Mrs Le Couteur thanking him for sending an account of the new windows at Winchester College, n.d. (item 1); letter to Chitty from C. G. Stevens, Oxford, 23 October 1930, concerning his discovery of some notes by Le Couteur (item 2); correspondence and papers of Le Couteur and C. G. Stevens concerning Winchester College and other medieval glass, 1920s (items 3–7), including a sketch and a description of the Winchester College glass found at the Victoria & Albert Museum (item 3); newspaper cuttings relating to the discovery of medieval glass, fake stained glass, the restoration of glass at York Minster, etc., 1920s (items 8–14); notes by Le Couteur concerning the painted glass in St Peter’s Church, Bexhill, 1923 (items 15–18); notes concerning the stained glass in St Mary’s Church, Tilehurst (items 17–21); notes and sketches concerning the glass in St Mary’s Church, Battle (items 22–23); and more notes/sketches concerning the glass at St Oswald’s Church in Hove (items 24–26)]

P6/16. Supplement from The Wykehamist, 21 November 1922, with an article by John Le Couteur, ‘Notes on the East Window of College Chapel’, concerning discoveries made during the course of repairs and the history/imagery of the glass

P6/100. Notes or text for a lecture on the glass in Fromond’s and Thurbern’s chantries at Winchester College, 1916, in 3 parts: one on Thurbern’s Chantry, one on Fromond’s Chantry, and the final part on the ancient painted glass in Fromond’s Chantry ‘as it is today’

P6/116. Herbert Chitty’s correspondence and papers relating to Winchester College glass, 1920s, including a letter from J. A. Knowles in York, 31 July 1920, with details of the errors he has so far found in Le Couteur’s book on Winchester glass; letter from Le Couteur about the Earle memorial glass, May 1920; notebook compiled by Le Couteur with his notes on the glass in the west window of Fromond’s Chantry, May 1920; sketch of the east window at Winchester College, with annotations to show which panels survive at Ettington or were recorded by Lowth; report by L. R. Kenyon, July 1922, on the condition of the Jesse panel at a house near Shrewsbury and an assessment as to whether the glass originally came from Winchester College; letter from Le Couteur about his assessment of glass at St Mary’s Church in Shrewsbury, July 1922; copy of a letter to Mr Kienbusch from Chitty, November 1923, thanking him for sending photographs of the old Winchester College glass in his possession; letter from Mrs Le Couteur about her son’s death, October 1925; 22 items]

P6/125. Report submitted by Le Couteur, ‘The remains of ancient glass from Winchester College now at Ettington Park, Warwickshire’, 1920; discusses the possible purchase of this glass and where it might be used at Winchester College; typed and handwritten copies

T2/42. Newspaper cuttings of obituaries of Le Couteur, 1925 [3 items]

Great Malvern Library

For the correspondence from Le Couteur to Rushforth, see the catalogue of papers of Gordon McNeil Rushforth held by Great Malvern Library by Jane Renton, 1994.

Hampshire Record Office

91M72/PZ13. Letter to the rector of Michelmersh church about parish records, deed box etc., 1934, 1934–1979

77M84/PI30. Five letters to rectors of Stoke Charity church from Le Couteur concerning stained glass, 1917–19

77M84/PW36. Report on the remains of ancient painted glass in Stoke Charity Church, August 1917

77M84/PW37. Report on the ‘present condition of the ancient painted glass’, in Stoke Charity church with recommendations for restoration, August 1917

77M84/PW38. Report on the releading and restoration of the glass, at Stoke Charity church, n.d. [c.1917]

21M85W/10/1921. Newspaper cuttings relating to local affairs, 1921, including a letter dated 24 August 1921 from the Dean of Winchester thanking le Couteur for his report on the restoration of the Cathedral’s great west window glass together with a copy of le Couteur’s report published together on 3 September 1921.

111M94W/H68. Architect’s reports to the Trustees of St Cross Hospital, Winchester, 1910–1940 and n.d.