C.E. Kempe & Co Ltd (1868-1934)

Charles Eamer Kempe (1837-1907) established his London Studio in 1868, specialising in the production of ecclesiastical furnishings, most notably stained glass, designed and made under his direction. Charles Eamer Kempe came from a wealthy Susses family and was educated at Rugby and then Pembroke College, Oxford, in the 1850s. His earliest artistic works were the painted walls, ceilings and woodwork in churches during the 1860s, mostly in association with the architect G.F. Bodley. Kempe employed a series of senior designers, Wyndham Hope Hughes, John Carter, and John Lisle, under whom his style developed, and his stained glass was made at his own glassworks under the direction of Alfred Tombleson. The Studio’s designers also worked on other church furnishings, such as reredoses and screens, which were often executed by the Sussex firm of Norman & Burt, as well as embroidery for altar frontals and vestments. Kempe left the firm to his cousin (three times removed) Walter Tower, and the firm was reconstituted as C.E. Kempe & Co. Ltd, after which the emblem used by Kempe, the wheatsheaf, had a tower added to it. The retention of Kempe’s designer John Lisle until his death in 1927, and of Tombleson until the closure of the firm in 1934, ensured that the style of the firm’s founder remained largely unchanged.

Website for the Kempe Trust

Further reading

Adrian Barlow, Espying Heaven: The Stained Glass of Charles Eamer Kempe and his Artists (Cambridge: Lutterworth Press, 2019).

Margaret Stavridi, 'John William Lisle (1870–1927)' Journal of the British Society of Master Glass-Painters, vol. xvi, no. 3 (1979–80), 54–60.

Adrian Barlow, Kempe: The Life, Art and Legacy of Charles Eamer Kempe (Cambridge: Lutterworth Press, 2018).

Margaret Stavridi, Master of Glass: Charles Eamer Kempe 1837-1907 (Hatfield: John Taylor Books, 1988).

Philip Collins, The Corpus of Kempe Stained Glass in the UK and Ireland (Kempe Trust, 2000).

Martin Harrison, Victorian Stained Glass (London: 1980), pp. 46–7, 71–3 and further references.

Martin Harrison, 'Wyndham Hughes, C. E. Kempe and the Late Gothic Revival' The Journal of Stained Glass, vol. xviii, no. 3 (1988), 273–4.

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	The Crucifixion with Panels from the Seven Sacraments restorer: C.E. Kempe about 1500, restored in 1876 Church of St Tyrnog, Llandyrnog, Denbighshire east wall of the north nave (window number: I)
	St Paul and St John the Baptist firm/studio: C.E. Kempe designer: probably Wyndham Hope Hughes 1877 Church of St Tyrnog, Llandyrnog, Denbighshire west wall of the north nave (window number: nV)
	The Annunciation firm/studio: C.E. Kempe designer: Wyndham Hope Hughes 1877 Church of St Tyrnog, Llandyrnog, Denbighshire north wall of the chancel (window number: nII)
	Choir of Angels firm/studio: C.E. Kempe designer: Wyndham Hope Hughes 1879 Church of St Cadoc, Llangattock-Vibon-Avel, Monmouthshire west wall of the nave (window number: wI)
	St Michael and St Gabriel firm/studio: C.E. Kempe 1882 Church of St Mary the Virgin, Monmouth, Monmouthshire south wall of the south aisle
	Figures from the Bible and Saints firm/studio: C.E. Kempe 1883 Church of All Saints, Newbridge-on-Wye sanctuary apse (window number: I)
	Musical Angels firm/studio: C.E. Kempe 1883 Church of All Saints, Newbridge-on-Wye south wall of the nave (window number: sVIII)
	The Four Rivers of Paradise firm/studio: C.E. Kempe 1883 Church of St Mary the Virgin, Monmouth, Monmouthshire baptistry
	Saints firm/studio: C.E. Kempe 1884 Church of St Cadoc, Llangattock-Vibon-Avel, Monmouthshire south wall of the south transept (window number: sIII)
	Christ with the Twelve Apostles firm/studio: C.E. Kempe 1884 Church of St Mary the Virgin, Monmouth, Monmouthshire east wall of the chancel

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