A monumental 17th-century painted wooden panel stolen from a Hertfordshire church in 1996 has been returned 30 years later, thanks to a keen-eyed Australian heraldry enthusiast.
The panel measures 2’8″ x 2’2″ and has a clearly painted coat of arms above a neat lettering dedication. The inscription reads:
” Interposed at the upper end of this middle ile lyeth.
The body of George Cordell Esquire, who served the Queen.
Elizabeth and Every-Toe had a sergeant.
King Imes and the late King Charles, in all sixty years:
who married Dorothy’s only daughter and Hare.
Francis Prior of this parish, with whom he resides 57 years.
years and died on 25 May 1653.
At the age of 84.
Cordell and his wife’s families had close ties to Flamstead and, after serving as courtiers to three kings (Avery’s sergeant was in charge of all royal table cloths and silverware), he was buried in St Leonard’s Church. This marker was placed on the wall of the north aisle.
The panel disappeared from St Leonard’s Church in Flamstead in April 1996. Authorities were notified at that time, and the theft was recorded in the Art Loss Register database in May. There was no sign of it for decades, and eventually new staff and parishioners forgot about the purloined panel.
Then, suddenly on New Year’s Eve the Vicar of St Leonards, the Reverend Joe Burke, received an email from Richard D’Apes, a member of the Australian Heraldry Society in Sydney. He had studied the online catalog of an auction at Dreweatts and noticed a panel with an elaborate coat of arms and a funerary inscription. This sparked his naïve suspicions, and a little detective work online led him to a description of the panel in the March, 1812 issue of The Gentleman’s Magazine that recorded it at St. Leonard’s Church in Flamstead. The entire dedication is quoted in the article, so there is no mistaking it for another piece.
After getting over his initial suspicions that this was a very peculiar new email scandal, Reverend Burke had the church archivist dig through old church files. They found the image of the panel and the ALR database information. On January 9, Burke notified the Drewetts that the lot was stolen property. The company immediately withdrew it five days before the scheduled auction.
The seller had no idea it had been stolen and when Dravitts did his standard due diligence search in the ALR database, the panel slipped through the search threshold. ALR sent a letter to the seller confirming that the panel was stolen in 1996 and has been registered with them since May this year. The seller made arrangements to pick up the panels for the church, and two weeks later he returned home.
The church is delighted as the panel is a “fascinating piece of local history”. The panel is now back with St Leonards and is in a secure location until a suitable display method can be procured.
Burke added: “Our archivist and a member of our parochial church council are retired curators of the British Museum and continue to liaise with the museum. We are seeking advice on how to safely display it.”
