The present location of the carving is given first.Where English counties are included, they are usually those so named before the local government reorganisation of 1974, as the majority of references date from before this change.

Measurements, where known, are in centimetres; first height, then width.

Generally only one published reference is given, and that is the one which, if possible, includes an illustration. ‘Unpublished’ means the author does not have any information; it may have been published unknown to the author.

Many of the published works referred to were written before World War II (1939–45), but most recorded alabasters appear to have survived intact. A notable exception appears to be the Passion altarpiece in the museum of Orléans, mentioned by Prior and Gardner (1912, 488), which was possibly destroyed when the ‘musée historique’ was bombed in 1940. Others have disappeared, mainly from churches in France, but these occasionally reappear in sales and private collections.

Every effort has been made to avoid recording a piece twice. This is especially important with those carvings in private collections which may have been included in a number of different auction sales. The full address is given of dealers, but not of private individuals.

The list is basically divided into Saints, arranged alphabetically, and the Life of the Virgin and the Life of Christ, set out chronologically. They are followed by a few other shorter sections such as the Heads of St John the Baptist. The Life of the Virgin includes the infancy of Christ and commences with the Tree of Jesse. The Life of Christ commences at his Baptism. Since the Lives of the Virgin and of Christ inevitably intertwine, a few arbitrary decisions have been taken about placing a particular event in the appropriate Life. For example, the Ascension is included in the Life of Christ, but in the alabaster altarpieces the Ascension is usually included in the Life of the Virgin series.

The number of different panels and images shown here is an updated revision of the short list published in Cheetham 1984 (55, 56) which it now supersedes.

Figures in bold refer to the colour plates (roman numerals) and to the black and white plates for each section (arabic numerals).