Relhan Collection : 336 Wisbech church. Brass of Sir Thomas de Braunstone, 1401

Relhan, Richard, 1782-1844

Relhan Collection

<p style='text-align: justify;'><p>1808</p><p>Drawn and engraved by J Warner for Lysons</p><p>Wisbech was too far for Relhan for to visit and the image was copied from Warner’s engraving. This magnificent London B brass of a knight in armour is probably the largest English single figure memorial, the figure alone being 2.11m in height and the whole brass 3m by 1.2m. It still had a rich Gothic canopy when drawn in 1808 but now the canopy and much of the marginal inscription have been lost, but there is an inscription in Norman French. Sir Thomas de Braunstone had been Constable of Wisbech Castle and is shown with his hands in leather gauntlets and joined in prayer, wears full C14 plate armour, pointed helmet with chain mail hanging over his shoulders, a long sword and dagger. He wears pointed armoured shoes with rowelled spurs, and his feet rest on a lion. In 1743 Cole records that the brass was attached to a marble slab in the S aisle. It was moved to its present position during restoration of the church in 1854.</p><p>Heseltine 1981; Holmes B pers comm; Lysons 1808; Rogers in Hicks 1997; VCH Vol 4 (2002).</p></p>