CARVINGS-WORKS OF ART | NEW STOCK
“THE HASTINGS FAMILY MANTICORES”. ENGLISH. MID 16TH CENTURY.
THIS MAGNIFICENT AND PROBABLY UNIQUE PAIR OF 16TH CENTURY CARVED OAK MANTICORES (HALF LION WITH HUMAN HEADS) HAVE BEEN EXTENSIVELY RESEARCHED AND WERE MOST DEFINITELY COMMISSIONED BY FRANCIS HASTINGS THE 2ND EARL OF HUNTINGTON (1514-1561) FOR THE MANOR HOUSE AT STOKE POGES, BUCKINGHAMSHIRE IN 1550-1555.
THE MANTICORES WAS THE HERALDIC FAMILY EMBLEM OF THE HASTINGS FAMILY SINCE WILLIAM HASTINGS 1ST BARON (1431-1483).
OUTSTANDING QUALITY, COLOUR AND PATINATION.
PROVENANCE,
MOST RECENTLY A PRIVATE SURREY COLLECTION FOR THE PAST 25 YEARS AND PURCHASED FROM THE GOLD SECTION AT THE BADA OLYMPIA FINE ART FAIR IN 2000.
I. Overview
Manticores were a staple of English medieval and early modern bestiaries. These creatures are
depicted as big cats with human faces or full human heads. Manticores are often given other
preternatural attributes, including reptilian forelimbs and stinging, scorpion-like or quill-covered
tails.
The popular construction of a manticore in 16th- and early 17th-century England is represented by
the famous woodcut from Edward Topsell’s 1607 The History of Four-Footed Beasts. Here an arch-
backed and unnaturally emaciated cat-like body supports an almost fully human head. The visage
of a contemporary gentleman with well-groomed moustache belies the beast’s savagely toothy
maw.
Manticores are scarcely depicted outside of bestiaries in England, and their appearance as heraldic
devices is even more of a rarity.
II. Historical background
The best-known bearer of a manticore heraldic badge was William, 1st Baron Hastings (c. 1431-
1483). Baron Hastings was a prominent retainer of Richard, Duke of York, and courtier to Edward IV,
as well as an influential magnate and powerbroker in his own right. He was a powerful yet tragic
figure, ultimately losing his life to the machinations of the future Richard III, who had him executed
at the Tower on trumped-up charges in 1483. A drawing of Baron Hastings’ manticore is included in
a c. 1470 manuscript that documents the heraldic badges of prominent English gentry (British
library, London: Add. MS. 40742, fol. 11r).
The 1st Baron Hastings’ great-grandson, Francis Hastings, 2nd Earl of Huntingdon (1514-1561),
reclaimed the manticore badge. In the parish church near the Hastings family seat at Ashby-de-la-
Zouch, Leicestershire, Francis Hastings’ elaborate 1561 table tomb features a manticore serving as
a bestial rest for the feet of his effigy.
Francis Hastings succeeded to the title of Earl of Huntingdon with the death of his father in 1544.
The latter obtained that title through his marriage to Anne Sta ord (c. 1483-1544), Countess of
Huntingdon. Anne Sta ord was the subject of controversial accusations of a airs with both Henry
VIII and Sir William Compton. Her father was another victim of Richard III’s executions, and her aunt
was Edward VI’s Queen Consort, Dame Elizabeth Grey.
Francis Hastings was made a Knight of the Bath in 1533. He had the honour of carrying the sta of
Edward VI at the coronation in 1547. He subsequently aligned himself with John Dudley, Duke of
Northumberland, during the protectorate of Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset. It was Frances
Hastings who led Somerset to the Tower of London for his imprisonment in 1549. In the same year,
he was made a Knight of the Garter. After the death of Edward VI, Francis Hastings supported the
accession of Lady Jane Grey and was briefly himself consigned to the Towey by Queen Mary in 1553.
After his release, he was charged with apprehending the rebellious Henry Grey, Duke of Su olk
(Lady Jane Grey’s father).
Between 1550 and 1555, Francis Hastings oversaw the ambitious, ground-up rebuilding of the early
14th-centry Manor House at Stoke Park, Stoke Poges, Buckinghamshire, which had come into the
ownership of the Hastings Family via Francis’s grandfather’s 1478 marriage to the heiress of the
Earls of Huntingdon.
After the death of Francis Hastings, the family fell on hard times and the Manor House and Stoke
Park were passed to the crown in 1581. Queen Elizabeth I, herself, took possession of the house and
is known to have stayed there on several occasions. The Manor House was subsequently owned by
Sir Edward Coke, Elizabeth’s last Attorney General and later 1st Lord Chief Justice of England, who
coined the phrase “an Englishman’s home is his castle”. In 1647, King Charles I was imprisoned in
the Manor House while awaiting trial.
In 1760, Thomas Penn (son of Pennsylvania founder, William Penn) acquired the Manor House and
Stoke Park, which passed to his son John, who returned to Stoke Park from Pennsylvania in the
1780s to find the Manor House in a dilapidated condition. All but one wing was demolished. A new,
neoclassical mansion house designed by James Wyatt was built between 1789 and 1801. In 1908,
Stoke Park and the Mansion House were opened as the UK’s first country club.
Basis for Attribution
The present pair of heraldic manticores, carved in the round from oak, almost certainly belong to
Francis Hasting’s 1550-1555 rebuilding of the Stoke Park Manor House. We know from his 1561
table tomb, that Francis Hastings adopted the manticore as his personal badge, just as his great-
grandfather had done. The present manticores resemble the bestial footrest from the tomb, albeit
more stylized, with extreme proportions (broad upper torsos tapering to impossibly narrow hips)
and pronounced reptilian talons that suggest comparisons to earlier 16th-century heraldic animal
sculptures, such as the Dacre Beasts (V&A, London: W.6,7,8,9-2000.) or the so-called “Kyngs’
Beestes” from either Hampton Court or Dartford Palace, c. 1520 (Christie’s, London, 4 December
2013, lot 81; now at Hampton Court). The manticores, with their well-trimmed moustaches, also
appear to prefigure the more naturalistic depiction in Edward Topsell’s The History of Four-Footed
Beasts.
The distinctive sejant posture of the manticores, with their backs arched and abdomens tucked well
out of the way of their strait forelimbs, is paralleled in a distinctive 15th-century carving of a heraldic
lion sejant wearing a crested jousting helm, which sold at Christie’s, London on 6 December 2017
(lot 4). This shows that the manticores are fundamentally late medieval in the conception of their
design as heraldic beasts.
It is likely the manticores were salvaged from the Manor House before its partial demolition and
subsequently reinstalled in John Penn’s new mansion house by its completion in 1801. The Victoria
Country History of Buckinghamshire records that “[a]mongst other objects brought from the old
manor-house is a bell dated 1660 and inscribed, ′Robert Gayer, Esquire,′ with a shield of arms and
the initial ′B.′ Some old glass, probably of late 16th-century date, with representations of Queen
Elizabeth, Mary I (A History of the County of Buckingham: Volume 3, pp. 302-313).” This was
probably just the tip of the iceberg when it came to elements salvaged from the old Manor House
and incorporated into the interiors of James Wyatt’s design. If they remained in-situ at Stoke Park
until the early 20th century, the manticores were probably removed during renovations to prepare
for the opening of the Mansion House as the clubhouse of the newly established Stoke Park Country
Club.
References-
Cokayne, George Edward. The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and
the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct, or Dormant. Vol. 5. London: George Bell & Sons, 1892.
The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom,
Extant, Extinct, or Dormant. Vol. 5. London: The St. Catherine Press, 1926.
Cross, Claire. "Hastings, Francis, Second Earl of Huntingdon (1513/14–1560), Magnate." Oxford
Dictionary of National Biography, September 23, 2004. Accessed May 4, 2025.
https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-
9780198614128-e-12566.
Dennys, Rodney. The Heraldic Imagination. London: Barrie & Jenkins, 1975.
Dunham, William Huse. Lord Hastings′ Indentured Retainers, 1461–1483: The Lawfulness of Livery
and Retaining under the Yorkists and Tudors. Hamden, CT: Archon Books, 1970.
English Heritage. "History of Ashby de la Zouch Castle." Last modified February 2015. Accessed May
5, 2025. https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/ashby-de-la-zouch-castle/history/.
Fergusson, Frances. “James Wyatt and John Penn: Architect and Patron at Stoke Park,
Buckinghamshire.” Architectural History 20 (1977): 45–55.
George, Wilma, and Brunsden Yapp. The Naming of the Beasts: Natural History in the Medieval.
London: Gerald Duckworth & Co Ltd., 1991.
Historic England. "Manor House, Park Road – 1165194." National Heritage List for England.
Accessed May 4, 2025. https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-
entry/1165194?section=o icial-list-entry.
"Stoke Park, Farnham Royal - 1000363." National Heritage List for England. Accessed May 4,
2025. https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1000363?section=o icial-list-entry.
Horrox, Rosemary. "Hastings, William, First Baron Hastings (c. 1430–1483), Courtier and
Administrator." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, September 23, 2004. Accessed May 4,
2025. https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-
9780198614128-e-12588.
Nugent Bell, Henry. The Huntingdon Peerage: A Detailed Account of the Recent Restoration of the
Earldom; to Which Is Prefixed a History of the House of Hastings. London: Baldwin, Cradock & Joy,
1821.
Ross, Charles, ed. Patronage, Pedigree and Power in Later Medieval England. Gloucester: Alan
Sutton, 1979.
Seward, Desmond. A Brief History of the Wars of the Roses. New York: Carroll & Graf, 2007.
Stoke Poges Parish Council. "The Manor House." Last modified 2025. Accessed May 3, 2025.
https://www.stokepogesparishcouncil.gov.uk/the-manor-house/.
Sutton, Anne F. The Coronation of Richard III: The Extant Documents. Gloucester: St. Martin’s Press,
1984.
Topsell, Edward. Topsell′s Histories of Beasts. Edited by Malcolm South. Chicago: Nelson-Hall,
1981.
Victoria County History. “Parishes: Stoke Poges.” In A History of the County of Buckingham: Volume
3, edited by William Page. London, 1925. British History Online. Accessed May 3, 2025.
https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/bucks/vol3.
Wessex Archaeology. The Manor House, Stoke Poges, Buckinghamshire: Phase 2 Archaeological
Evaluation Report. Salisbury: Wessex Archaeology, 2009
STOCK NO 2059.
THIS MAGNIFICENT AND PROBABLY UNIQUE PAIR OF 16TH CENTURY CARVED OAK MANTICORES (HALF LION WITH HUMAN HEADS) HAVE BEEN EXTENSIVELY RESEARCHED AND WERE MOST DEFINITELY COMMISSIONED BY FRANCIS HASTINGS THE 2ND EARL OF HUNTINGTON (1514-1561) FOR THE MANOR HOUSE AT STOKE POGES, BUCKINGHAMSHIRE IN 1550-1555.
THE MANTICORES WAS THE HERALDIC FAMILY EMBLEM OF THE HASTINGS FAMILY SINCE WILLIAM HASTINGS 1ST BARON (1431-1483).
OUTSTANDING QUALITY, COLOUR AND PATINATION.
PROVENANCE,
MOST RECENTLY A PRIVATE SURREY COLLECTION FOR THE PAST 25 YEARS AND PURCHASED FROM THE GOLD SECTION AT THE BADA OLYMPIA FINE ART FAIR IN 2000.
I. Overview
Manticores were a staple of English medieval and early modern bestiaries. These creatures are
depicted as big cats with human faces or full human heads. Manticores are often given other
preternatural attributes, including reptilian forelimbs and stinging, scorpion-like or quill-covered
tails.
The popular construction of a manticore in 16th- and early 17th-century England is represented by
the famous woodcut from Edward Topsell’s 1607 The History of Four-Footed Beasts. Here an arch-
backed and unnaturally emaciated cat-like body supports an almost fully human head. The visage
of a contemporary gentleman with well-groomed moustache belies the beast’s savagely toothy
maw.
Manticores are scarcely depicted outside of bestiaries in England, and their appearance as heraldic
devices is even more of a rarity.
II. Historical background
The best-known bearer of a manticore heraldic badge was William, 1st Baron Hastings (c. 1431-
1483). Baron Hastings was a prominent retainer of Richard, Duke of York, and courtier to Edward IV,
as well as an influential magnate and powerbroker in his own right. He was a powerful yet tragic
figure, ultimately losing his life to the machinations of the future Richard III, who had him executed
at the Tower on trumped-up charges in 1483. A drawing of Baron Hastings’ manticore is included in
a c. 1470 manuscript that documents the heraldic badges of prominent English gentry (British
library, London: Add. MS. 40742, fol. 11r).
The 1st Baron Hastings’ great-grandson, Francis Hastings, 2nd Earl of Huntingdon (1514-1561),
reclaimed the manticore badge. In the parish church near the Hastings family seat at Ashby-de-la-
Zouch, Leicestershire, Francis Hastings’ elaborate 1561 table tomb features a manticore serving as
a bestial rest for the feet of his effigy.
Francis Hastings succeeded to the title of Earl of Huntingdon with the death of his father in 1544.
The latter obtained that title through his marriage to Anne Sta ord (c. 1483-1544), Countess of
Huntingdon. Anne Sta ord was the subject of controversial accusations of a airs with both Henry
VIII and Sir William Compton. Her father was another victim of Richard III’s executions, and her aunt
was Edward VI’s Queen Consort, Dame Elizabeth Grey.
Francis Hastings was made a Knight of the Bath in 1533. He had the honour of carrying the sta of
Edward VI at the coronation in 1547. He subsequently aligned himself with John Dudley, Duke of
Northumberland, during the protectorate of Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset. It was Frances
Hastings who led Somerset to the Tower of London for his imprisonment in 1549. In the same year,
he was made a Knight of the Garter. After the death of Edward VI, Francis Hastings supported the
accession of Lady Jane Grey and was briefly himself consigned to the Towey by Queen Mary in 1553.
After his release, he was charged with apprehending the rebellious Henry Grey, Duke of Su olk
(Lady Jane Grey’s father).
Between 1550 and 1555, Francis Hastings oversaw the ambitious, ground-up rebuilding of the early
14th-centry Manor House at Stoke Park, Stoke Poges, Buckinghamshire, which had come into the
ownership of the Hastings Family via Francis’s grandfather’s 1478 marriage to the heiress of the
Earls of Huntingdon.
After the death of Francis Hastings, the family fell on hard times and the Manor House and Stoke
Park were passed to the crown in 1581. Queen Elizabeth I, herself, took possession of the house and
is known to have stayed there on several occasions. The Manor House was subsequently owned by
Sir Edward Coke, Elizabeth’s last Attorney General and later 1st Lord Chief Justice of England, who
coined the phrase “an Englishman’s home is his castle”. In 1647, King Charles I was imprisoned in
the Manor House while awaiting trial.
In 1760, Thomas Penn (son of Pennsylvania founder, William Penn) acquired the Manor House and
Stoke Park, which passed to his son John, who returned to Stoke Park from Pennsylvania in the
1780s to find the Manor House in a dilapidated condition. All but one wing was demolished. A new,
neoclassical mansion house designed by James Wyatt was built between 1789 and 1801. In 1908,
Stoke Park and the Mansion House were opened as the UK’s first country club.
Basis for Attribution
The present pair of heraldic manticores, carved in the round from oak, almost certainly belong to
Francis Hasting’s 1550-1555 rebuilding of the Stoke Park Manor House. We know from his 1561
table tomb, that Francis Hastings adopted the manticore as his personal badge, just as his great-
grandfather had done. The present manticores resemble the bestial footrest from the tomb, albeit
more stylized, with extreme proportions (broad upper torsos tapering to impossibly narrow hips)
and pronounced reptilian talons that suggest comparisons to earlier 16th-century heraldic animal
sculptures, such as the Dacre Beasts (V&A, London: W.6,7,8,9-2000.) or the so-called “Kyngs’
Beestes” from either Hampton Court or Dartford Palace, c. 1520 (Christie’s, London, 4 December
2013, lot 81; now at Hampton Court). The manticores, with their well-trimmed moustaches, also
appear to prefigure the more naturalistic depiction in Edward Topsell’s The History of Four-Footed
Beasts.
The distinctive sejant posture of the manticores, with their backs arched and abdomens tucked well
out of the way of their strait forelimbs, is paralleled in a distinctive 15th-century carving of a heraldic
lion sejant wearing a crested jousting helm, which sold at Christie’s, London on 6 December 2017
(lot 4). This shows that the manticores are fundamentally late medieval in the conception of their
design as heraldic beasts.
It is likely the manticores were salvaged from the Manor House before its partial demolition and
subsequently reinstalled in John Penn’s new mansion house by its completion in 1801. The Victoria
Country History of Buckinghamshire records that “[a]mongst other objects brought from the old
manor-house is a bell dated 1660 and inscribed, ′Robert Gayer, Esquire,′ with a shield of arms and
the initial ′B.′ Some old glass, probably of late 16th-century date, with representations of Queen
Elizabeth, Mary I (A History of the County of Buckingham: Volume 3, pp. 302-313).” This was
probably just the tip of the iceberg when it came to elements salvaged from the old Manor House
and incorporated into the interiors of James Wyatt’s design. If they remained in-situ at Stoke Park
until the early 20th century, the manticores were probably removed during renovations to prepare
for the opening of the Mansion House as the clubhouse of the newly established Stoke Park Country
Club.
References-
Cokayne, George Edward. The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and
the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct, or Dormant. Vol. 5. London: George Bell & Sons, 1892.
The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom,
Extant, Extinct, or Dormant. Vol. 5. London: The St. Catherine Press, 1926.
Cross, Claire. "Hastings, Francis, Second Earl of Huntingdon (1513/14–1560), Magnate." Oxford
Dictionary of National Biography, September 23, 2004. Accessed May 4, 2025.
https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-
9780198614128-e-12566.
Dennys, Rodney. The Heraldic Imagination. London: Barrie & Jenkins, 1975.
Dunham, William Huse. Lord Hastings′ Indentured Retainers, 1461–1483: The Lawfulness of Livery
and Retaining under the Yorkists and Tudors. Hamden, CT: Archon Books, 1970.
English Heritage. "History of Ashby de la Zouch Castle." Last modified February 2015. Accessed May
5, 2025. https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/ashby-de-la-zouch-castle/history/.
Fergusson, Frances. “James Wyatt and John Penn: Architect and Patron at Stoke Park,
Buckinghamshire.” Architectural History 20 (1977): 45–55.
George, Wilma, and Brunsden Yapp. The Naming of the Beasts: Natural History in the Medieval.
London: Gerald Duckworth & Co Ltd., 1991.
Historic England. "Manor House, Park Road – 1165194." National Heritage List for England.
Accessed May 4, 2025. https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-
entry/1165194?section=o icial-list-entry.
"Stoke Park, Farnham Royal - 1000363." National Heritage List for England. Accessed May 4,
2025. https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1000363?section=o icial-list-entry.
Horrox, Rosemary. "Hastings, William, First Baron Hastings (c. 1430–1483), Courtier and
Administrator." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, September 23, 2004. Accessed May 4,
2025. https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-
9780198614128-e-12588.
Nugent Bell, Henry. The Huntingdon Peerage: A Detailed Account of the Recent Restoration of the
Earldom; to Which Is Prefixed a History of the House of Hastings. London: Baldwin, Cradock & Joy,
1821.
Ross, Charles, ed. Patronage, Pedigree and Power in Later Medieval England. Gloucester: Alan
Sutton, 1979.
Seward, Desmond. A Brief History of the Wars of the Roses. New York: Carroll & Graf, 2007.
Stoke Poges Parish Council. "The Manor House." Last modified 2025. Accessed May 3, 2025.
https://www.stokepogesparishcouncil.gov.uk/the-manor-house/.
Sutton, Anne F. The Coronation of Richard III: The Extant Documents. Gloucester: St. Martin’s Press,
1984.
Topsell, Edward. Topsell′s Histories of Beasts. Edited by Malcolm South. Chicago: Nelson-Hall,
1981.
Victoria County History. “Parishes: Stoke Poges.” In A History of the County of Buckingham: Volume
3, edited by William Page. London, 1925. British History Online. Accessed May 3, 2025.
https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/bucks/vol3.
Wessex Archaeology. The Manor House, Stoke Poges, Buckinghamshire: Phase 2 Archaeological
Evaluation Report. Salisbury: Wessex Archaeology, 2009
STOCK NO 2059.
Dimensions:
Height: 28 inches (71.1 cms)
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