English School. Midlands. Nottingham. Gothic. Circa 1350 - 1375. 'Virgin' Alabaster sculpture with remnants of polychrome and gilding. 62 x 12 x 13 cm.    It could possibly be Saint Catherine: her attribute, which would be on her feet, is missing. From the mid-14th century until the iconoclastic crisis, which occurred with the Anglican Reformation in the 16th century, alabaster sculpture workshops flourished in central England, especially around Nottingham. There was a great boom in monumental and funerary sculptures, as well as in reliefs or altarpieces intended for the local market and for export. Alabaster carving, mainly extracted from the quarries of Tutbury and Chellaston near Nottingham, took on industrial proportions in England between the mid-14th and early 16th centuries. The market for altarpieces and small devotional images was very extensive. It included not only religious foundations but also bourgeois classes. Hundreds of English alabaster sculptures were exported, some as far as Iceland and Santiago de Compostela.   Bibliographic reference: - Cheetham, Francis. English Medieval Alabasters. Oxford: Phaidon-Christie's Limited, 1984. p. 191 (cat. 118)