In this volume

Nigel Llewellyn The state of play: Reflections on the state of research into church monuments.
The Society's recent study day 'Renaissance monuments: recent research and new horizons for the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries', organised by Dr Adam White, encouraged reflections on the state of research in our field across all periods, not just the Renaissance. What follows is an edited version of some remarks offered quite informally to the audience at the beginning of the study day. In editing it for publication I have kept some of its informal quality. It is important to stress at the onset that my comments were intended not as complaints but as observations and were  made in a collegial spirit and, in considerable part, to signal my unstinting admiration for the immense scholarly achievements of the Society over several decades. My main messages to the audience at the University of London Senate House were that I believe there is no single way to study church monuments, that our field should not stand still, and that it is always rewarding for scholars to rise to new challenges, even when they seem risky.

Anna Bergman and Ilona Hans-Collas Awaiting eternal life: Painted burial cists in the Southern Netherlands
A phenomenon that we find in the region once known as the Southern Netherlands is the medieval painted burial cist. This type of tomb was produced between the thirteenth and seventeenth centuries but most examples date from the fourteenth and fifteenth. Displaying a range of characteristics and motifs in vivid colours, the walls of these tombs may startle the modern viewer. Many such graves have been discovered to date, but they remain largely unknown and their conservation is a cause for great concern. This article investigates the history, spread, imagery and craftsmanship of these unusual tombs. It also serves to make the readership of this journal acquainted with this unique type of tomb on which so little has been written in English. Many questions, however, remain unanswerable.

Sally Badham and Philip J. Lankester The Daubeney monuments at Brant Broughton (Lincolnshire)
The Daubeney family held manors in Brant Broughton (Lincolnshire) from at least the second quarter of the thirteenth century to the mid-fourteenth century. During this time at least four monuments were laid down to various family members but all that can now be identified with certainty as belonging to them is a 'tomb chest' made up from elements of two original tombs. Antiquarian notes and drawings enable the appearance of several monuments to be reconstructed and an attempt is made to date the monuments and identify the individual family members commemorated.

Sophie Oosterwijk Death or resurrection? The iconography of two sixteenth-century incised slabs in Oudelande (Zeeland) and other Netherlandish shroud effigies

A pair of incised effigial slabs dating from the first quarter of the sixteenth century in the parish church of Oudelande in the coastal province of Zeeland (Netherlands) depict a husband and wife, each in their own coffin. While the wife appears to be wrapped in a very elegant sleeved shroud the husband seems to be wear male civilian dress, at least at first sight: comparisons with shroud memorials elsewhere suggest the Oudelande couple may both be presented in sleeved shrouds. Of particular interest is a cluster of late-medieval shroud slabs of different styles in nearby Kapelle. Other comparable examples can be found elsewhere in the Netherlands, all of them Flemish imports. Analysis of these shroud memorials is used here to address still commonly held assumptions about the appearance, definition and meaning of so-called transi or cadaver figures.

Jon Bayliss The monument of William, Lord Parr, at Horton (Northamptonshire)
It is distinctly possible that the church at Horton will be sold complete with the funeral monuments located in its chancel; covenants that currently protect them will not be enforceable after a subsequent sale. These monuments include one of national importance, that of Queen Katherine's Parr's uncle, William, Lord Parr. This is described and its likely appropriation during the religious upheavals of the mid-sixteenth century discussed.

Andrew C. Skelton 'The best work of my life' Wilfrid Scawen Blunt's effigy of Francis Scawen Blunt in the church of St Francis and St Anthony (RC), Crawley (West Sussex)
The alabaster effigy of Francis Scawen Blunt (2839-72) in the Friary church of St Francis and St Anthony (RC), Crawley (West Sussex) is virtually unknown except to those who have an interest in its creator, the poet and political activist Wilfrid Scawen Blunt (1840-1922), younger brother of the deceased. Using the diary of Wilfrid Blunt's wife Lady Annabella (1837-1917, known in the Blunt family as Anne), daughter of the first earl of Lovelace and granddaughter of Lord Byron, and other documentary evidence, this paper attempts to provide a clearer chronology for the creation of the monument and its subsequent history.

Sir Tony Baldry War memorials and monuments: A centenary approach
The centenary of the beginning of the Great War has been the stimulus for an increased awareness of war memorials and associated material, at both local community and national government levels. This article is intended to focus the attention of members of the Church Monuments Society on these artefacts, as although they are indeed monumental, and frequently within churches, their ubiquity and mass commemorative function have served to render them simply part of the general church cape and landscape. A deeper appreciation of the poignant circumstances in which these memorials were commissioned is overdue therefore; the chief function of the War Memorial Trust in maintaining their relevance in the twenty-first century is also discussed.

Shorter Articles

Oliver D. Harris Beards: true or false
This note draws attention to several instances in which early modern antiquaries mistakenly recorded medieval tomb effigies and figures in glass as wearing beards, and suggests that they were deceived by their lack of familiarity with historic fashions. It places their error in a broader context of perception being shaped by cultural assumptions.

Jon Bayliss Epiphanius Evesham. A 'new' discovery
Although the signature of Epiphanius Evesham on a monument at Scarning (Norfolk) appeared in print in the nineteenth century, it passed unnoticed in the publicity surrounding Evesham's name and attributions in the 1930's. The monument commemorates an infant, Edward Games, who died the same day he was born. The unclothed figure of the infant is most unusual and is considered in the context of two other contemporary memorials with such figures. What little is known of the infant's parents is also set out.

Review Article

Michael Penman (ed.), Monuments and monumentality across medieval and early modern Europe (Donnington, Shaun Tyas, 2012), xxii + 298 pp., 3 maps, 131 colour and b/w photos. ISBN 9781907730283. Hardback.
SALLY BADHAM

Book Reviews

Carl Watkins, The undiscovered country: journeys among the dead (London, The Bodley Head, 2013) 318 pp., 3 maps, 11 illustrations (8 colour, 3 b/w) ISBN 9781847921406. Hardback
JEAN WILSON

Julian M. Luxford and John McNeill (eds), The medieval chantry in England (Leeds, Maney Publishing for the British Archaeological Association, 2011), ix + 313 pp., 131 b/w and colour illustrations. ISBN 9781907975165 Hardback
D. M. PALLISER

Charlotte A. Stanford, Commemorating the dead in late medieval Strasbourg. The cathedral's Book of Donors and its use (1320-1521), Church Faith and Culture in the Medieval West (Farnham, Ashgate, 2011) 348 pp., 37 b/w illustrations. ISBN 9781409401360
SOPHIE OOSTERWIJK

Gale R. Owen-Crocker, Elizabeth Coatsworth and Maria Hayward (eds), Encyclopaedia of dress and textiles in the British Isles c. 450-1450 (Leiden and Boston, Brill, 2012), 692 pp., 36 colour plates + 101 b/w figures. ISBN 9789004124356 Hardback
MARGARET SCOTT

Karl-Heinz Spieß and Immo Warntjes (eds), Death at court (Weisbaden, Harrassowitz Verlag, 2012) 349 pp., 16 b/w illustrations. ISBN 9783447067607 Hardback
SOPHIE OOSTERWIJK

Jon Cannon and Beth Williamson (eds), The medieval art, architecture and history of Bristol Cathedral. An enigma explored. Bristol Studies in Medieval Cultures (Woodbridge, The Boydell Press, 2011), 350 pp, 11 colour plates and many b/w illustrations. ISBN 9781843836803 Hardback
RHIANYDD BIEBRACH

Stephen Hart, Medieval church window tracery in England (Woodbridge, Boydell, 2012), 184 pp, 16 pages of plates (some colour). ISBN 9781843837602. Paperback
Roger Rosewell, Stained glass (Oxford, Shire, 2012), 88 pp, several colour plates. ISBN 9780747811473. Paperback
ELLIE PRIDGEON

Chris King and Duncan Sayers (eds), The archaeology of post-medieval religion (Woodbridge, Boydell, 2011) xiii + 288 pp, 62 illustrations. ISBN 9781843836933 Hardback
JULIAN LITTEN

Jerome Bertram, Bishops and burgers, dukes and knights, a lecture delivered to the Society of Antiquaries of London on 6 October 2011 (Lulu, 2011) 40 pp, 12 b&w illustrations, 81 colour plates. Paperback
Paul Cockerham, ' "My body to be buried in my owne monument" the social and religious context of Cc. Kilkenny funeral monuments, 1600-2700' in Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, 109C (2009) pp, 239-365
JAMES STEVENS CURL

David J Stewart, The sea their graves: an archaeology of death and remembrance in maritime culture (Florida, University Press of Florida, 2011), 262 pp., 50 b&w illustrations. ISBN 9780813033739. Hardback
BARBARA TOMLINSON

James Stevens Curl, Funerary monuments & memorials in St Patrick's Cathedral, Armagh (Whitstable, Historical Publications Ltd, 2013) xxviii + 132 pp., 62 colour and 28 b/w illustrations. ISBN 9781905286492 (Hardback limited edition of 250 copies); ISBN 9781905286485 (Paperback standard edition). Available from the author at 15 Torgrange, Holywood, Co. Down, BT18 0NG or via www.jamesstevenscurl.com
PAUL COCKERHAM

Richard Wheeler, Oxfordshire's best churches (King's Sutton, Fircone Books Ltd, 2013) ix + 270 pp., 340 colour photos, 1 map and 15 church plans. ISBN 9781907700002 Hardback
SALLY BADHAM

Sally Badham and Paul Cockerham (eds), 'The beste and fayrest of al Lincolnshire'. The church of St Botolph, Boston, Lincolnshire, and its medieval monuments (Oxford, Archaeopress, 2012) ISBN 9781407309330 Paperback
ROBERT A WOOD

Sarah Tarlow, Ritual, belief and the dead in early modern Britain and Ireland (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2011), xii + 226 pp., 34 illustrations. ISBN 9780521761543
JONATHAN FINCH

Obituary
Dr John Frederick Physick CBE DrRCA DLitt FSA