BCD SPECIAL REPORT ON
HISTORIC CHURCHES
21ST ANNUAL EDITION
35
VICTORIAN and EDWARDIAN
STENCILLED DECORATION
Kevin Howell
T
HE USE
of stencils for applying motifs
and decoration to surfaces has a history
that stretches back at least to the Upper
Palaeolithic era nearly 40,000 years ago. The
earliest confirmed examples are hand stencils in
the Cueva de El Castillo in Cantabria, northern
Spain, where recent analysis led by Dr Alistair
Pike of Bristol University has determined that
the images are at least 37,300 years old.1 These
negative images of hands were created by
spraying pigment blown from the mouth over
a hand held against the rock, possibly using a
reed or bone pipe to direct the spray. They can
be found all over the world and appear to have
been of great significance to our ancestors.
The development of cut-out stencils
allowed greater versatility. They have been
used for applications as diverse as decorating
buildings and artefacts by the ancient Egyptians,
Greeks and Romans; for producing beautifully
patterned textiles in China and Japan; and, more
recently, for graffiti and the mundane marking
of packing cases and military hardware.
By the Middle Ages stencilling as a
decorative technique had spread to Europe
and England via trade routes from the east
and through crusades and pilgrimages. As
the principal patron of the decorative arts,
the church was quick to adopt stencilling.
One of its many uses was for the decoration
of devotional objects for the flourishing trade
created by pilgrims keen to acquire a memento
of their journey. Perhaps most recognisably
today, however, it was used for the decoration
of churches, cathedrals and other important
buildings.
Stencilling was ideal for painting the
repetitive ornament of friezes, borders, diapers,
the enrichment of mouldings and patterning
of panels. The great advantage was that it
allowed the accurate, speedy reproduction
of designs, supplemented by the graphic
quality imposed by the hard-edged nature
of the technique. Once the design had been
determined, the execution could be entrusted
to any competent craftsman, leaving the more
Late-medieval lead stencil of a six-petalled flower, 80mm
in diameter, possibly used as a centre for each block in
a stylised ashlar pattern. (Photo: ©The Trustees of the
British Museum)
Stencilled decoration above the arch to the Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament; St Giles’ Church, Cheadle, Staffordshire by AWN Pugin 1841–6 (Photo: Kevin Howell)
