Note the pinnacles above
Before the renovation – the flower design was in the pinnacles but it was very difficult to see.
Cleo Mullins description,
June 11, 2016
"Beth also took a series of infra-red reflectance photographs and we can see a bit more of the design elements that are still hidden on both the pinnacles and central panel. She also traced what we’d been able to uncover of the pinnacle design. The floral design on the two pinnacles were made with a combination of five separate stencils and on each side, the stencils were placed a little differently, but still maintained the same design. I’ve taken scans of Beth’s tracings, the infra-red photographs, and the color photographs and layered them. By combining then I can see what is left on the two pinnacles and by filling in just a few blanks, I get this design [above]
"What we see is a very early restoration after most of what was there initially was destroyed (probably by water damage). We can’t go back to the original design, because there does not seem to be anything left of it — believe me, we tried. When I have to restore a previous restoration, I always hope that the person who did the restoration had something to go by that I can no longer see. That’s been true of the central panel and I think that it’s also true of the pinnacles. Most of the early Victorian stencils are very symmetrical, but this one is not. This suggests to me, as does the "primitive" quality of the lettering on the central panel, that a parishioner did the decorations and not a professional.
"The field behind the gold leafed stenciling on the pinnacles is darker, more of an ultramarine blue than the cerulean blue of the central panel and is closer in color to the background that I’m finding on the wooden panels."