CATALOGUE OF CARVINGS

This catalogue uses the numbering and lettering established in 1909 by Prideaux and Shafto. Their system runs east to west then north to south in each block, following the shape of the Cathedral without reference to date or style, and occasionally omitting features. No system could adequately reflect the complex building history by numbering the bosses in the order of their creation, without making it difficult to locate them. The designations familiar to scholars have therefore been retained, although this inevitably results in much cross-referencing and the use of some additional numbers and letters. The designations of sculptures on the West Front follow Prideaux. 51

The Pulpitum and cloister bosses have not previously been individually numbered. As explained in the headings for their respective sections, they are given the prefixes “P” and “C”.

No attempt has previously been made to catalogue small, isolated label-stops and capitals (which abound in the eastern parts of the cathedral, especially in the aisles). We have inserted our lists of these after the adjacent bosses. Such objects are not indicated on the Cathedral plan: details of them are accessible only through the catalogue or use of the search facility. Instead of creating a new tier of numbering we have preceded the description of each object by a brief description of its location: for example, after bosses 24A-28A of the Chapel of St John the Evangelist are listed the label-stops on its north wall. Within such groups small roman numbering is used to identify label-stops on walls and Triforium, moving east to west.

A more orderly procedure is possible in the catalogue of Triforium label-stops, where the numbering moves from north to south and from east to west. As with the corbels and capitals, A' (for example) refers to the north side, and A to the south, while R' is on the east and R on the west.

Readers wishing to locate a particular group of bosses should refer to the List of Contents or the Cathedral Plan, where each chapel or other area of the Cathedral is listed with its boss numbers. These numbers are in strict numerical sequence throughout the catalogue; at the end of each area-group, the relevant corbels, capitals and label-stops are listed with their location letters.

On the Plan, each great boss bears a number, while semi-circles adjacent to clerestory windows and walls, representing half-bosses, are unnumbered. The latter in fact bear the number of the nearest great boss, followed by A: for example, in the North Aisle 285A is adjacent to 285, while in the high vault of the North Transept above, 268A is adjacent to 268. Major corbels and the vaulting-shaft capitals above bear the letter of the pier to which they are attached, those on the south being A-Q, and those on the north being A'-Q', and in the Transepts, R-U are on the west, and R'-U' on the east. The Plan is designed to be used in close conjunction with this catalogue, as the colour on it can only represent general areas, and one level: sculpture lower down the walls is, of course, normally earlier than that in the adjacent vault.

In the catalogue, identification of the stones used in the bosses is partly conjectural. It is not always possible to tell Beer stone from Caen, or Salcombe Regis from Ham Hill, when most of the surface is covered by polychrome. In restorations prior to 1976 no catalogue was kept. Half-bosses in the windows had invariably suffered extensive losses, being below the gutter. Bosses with original colour, in perfect condition requiring no retouching, are asterisked. Pigments identified by analysis of sample are marked by ⁺.

The writers have had the opportunity of studying from the scaffold most of the bosses of the high vault, which is approximately sixty-six feet high: namely, the Chancel—incorporating both Presbytery and Choir, 46-121, the Crossing and Nave, 172-222 (but not 223-252), and the Towers and Transepts, 253-284. It is not always possible to identify in the illustrations details which have been thus detected and recorded in the catalogue. Access to the other bosses, which are at a lower level, has been less consistent, and many have only been inspected with binoculars from floor level. Previous authors who did not have the advantage of a scaffold have made various errors. The present writers, therefore, wish to regard even their most painstaking observations as conjectural unless they have actually handled the carvings.

Confusion may sometimes have been created when bosses were left unfinished or where they incorporate original repairs or alterations resulting from accidents during carving or the Cathedral's construction. Examples showing evidence of such incidents are the half-carved bird on Triforium label-stop C'-D'.v, the uncarved lump of the North Chancel Aisle capital north-east of boss 128 , half-finished foliage on bosses 200 and 201 , a broken face on corbel S which was repaired with pitch, a similarly repaired nose on boss 205 . Evidence of imperfect work may also be seen in the change of angle between the diagonal Transept ribs and their bosses (see the heading for 262A-268A).

The most precious of the bosses are perhaps those which retain original polychromy without overpainting. These include 172-202 and 262-275 already conserved and a number of others whose polychromy ranges in condition from complete to fragmentary. Notable examples are 34A-45A, and 124, also 135-137 and 320-354.

Foliage is present on most of the bosses, often filling spaces in figurative designs. Where it constitutes the design itself, foliage is identified wherever possible. If has no obvious botanical identity, an attempt has sometimes been made to describe its general type and design. Many bosses, however, are described merely as “foliage”, with just enough descriptive detail to enable the reader to recognise an image, since work of this period often aims to reinterpret rather than represent natural forms. A very common type of foliage at Exeter consists of elongated leaves popularly and confusingly referred to both as “seaweed” and as “mugwort”. These are usually arranged in a whorl. In the catalogue, such foliage is simply described as “trailing”. The other very common type of foliage has five or more lobes, each lobe edged with prominent overlapping sub-lobes. In the catalogue, such foliage, where not actually identified from its fruit or flowers, is simply referred to as “five-lobed”. Cross-references flagged by “cf.” refer to similar subject-matter or foliage, not hand.

Many great bosses, especially those near windows, have had holes drilled right through them from above—usually in the centre—presumably for chandeliers or ventilation. Most of these holes were very sooty, and antedated Prideaux and Shafto's photographs; steel chandelier cables which ran through newer holes in 175 and 180 were moved clear of the bosses in 1979, and the same was done for the microphone in 55.

The earliest bosses in the building sequence are 24A-28A.