( fl 1414–19). English sculptor. In 1414 he was living in Chellaston, Derbys, from where he sold alabaster to Alexandre de Berneval, the foremost mason of Rouen, for use at Fécamp Abbey. The French mason visited the village specifically to buy the alabaster, testifying to its high reputation. At least one alabaster tomb and several images are recorded as having been exported in the late 14th century and early 15th, but this case shows that unworked material, which was certainly supplied to London workshops, could also be sold to foreign craftsmen. In February 1419 Prentys and Robert Sutton contracted to supply the alabaster tomb of Ralph Greene and Katherine Mallory for St Peter’s, Lowick, Northants, at a cost of £40. The monument still exists, though deprived of its colouring and canopy. St John Hope ascribed a large number of other monuments to the same workshop, including the tombs of Thomas, Earl of Arundel (d 1415) and the Countess of Arundel (d 1439) in St Nicholas’s, Arundel, Henry IV (d 1413) and Queen Joan at Canterbury Cathedral and Ralph Neville, Earl of Westmorland (d 1425) with his Two Wives in St Mary’s, Staindrop, Durham. To this group Gardner added the monument to Sir Edmund Thorpe (d 1417) and Lady Thorpe in All Saints, Ashwellthorpe, Norfolk, while a more loosely defined ‘Chellaston’ group has been supposed by Crossley. The dominance of Prentys and Sutton has been doubted by Stone, who reattributed many works previously ascribed to them to London, Nottingham and York workshops.

• Prentys, Thomas
  • Alabaster, §2(ii)(a): Europe, before c 1540
  • Alabaster, §2(ii)(a): Europe, before c 1540