The Trust Return to Lastingham

3 April 2019

The YGT have returned to the Church of St Mary, Lastingham, on the southern edge of the North York Moors to reinstate the final two windows that have recently been under conservation in York. This has been the culmination of a four year association with the church and its dedicated parishioners. Lastingham's apse contains five exceptionally rare nineteenth-century windows by Italian artist Ulisse de Matteis (1827-1910), who founded his stained glass business together with his brother Sergio and business partners Guiseppe Francini and Natale Bruschi in 1859 at 97 Via Guelfa in central Florence. These windows, executed in a distinctive Renaissance style, are prime examples of only a handful of works by the de Matteis workshop executed for clients in Britain. The only other de Matteis windows known to be in existence are those at All Hallows' Church, Harthill, in South Yorkshire, and at the Church of St Mary, Credenhill, in Herefordshire.