A Pair of English Gothic Oak Beam-End Corbels

A pair of English Gothic beam-end corbels, carved in oak, each corbel takes the form of a winged angel standing upright, robed, and holding a heraldic shield carved in relief with a stylised rose. The figures are truncated at the base and back, designed to be fixed to the ends of structural beams, most likely in the roof or hall of an ecclesiastical or high-status secular building.

The angels’ faces are simply yet expressively modelled, with rounded features and curled hair, in keeping with the late Gothic style of the later 15th century. Their robes are defined with bold, shallow folds, and vestiges of feathering around the shoulders suggest the remains of once more pronounced wings. The shields, with their prominent rose devices, symbolise both divine and dynastic protection, appropriate to both sacred and lordly settings in the years surrounding the Wars of the Roses.

Wear and surface losses consistent with age and function, traces of old surface, minor historic worming. Ancient paint and some original polychrome in places.