His entry in the first edition of the Dictionary of National Biography credits him with "the revival of the art of pictorial glass painting, which had become quite extinct in England."
[1] According to the Dictionary of National Biography, "Gyles was not particularly successful in colour or design, and little of his work can now be appreciated, owing to the perishable enamels which he employed.
"[1] Gyles was a friend of the antiquary Ralph Thoresby, who frequently mentions him in his diary and correspondence,[1] at one point describing him as "the famousest painter of glass perhaps in the world".
Other members included fellow artists Francis Place, William Lodge and John Lambert, the doctor and naturalist Martin Lister, and the antiquarians Thomas Kirke and Miles Gale.
[1] Francis Place engraved his portrait in mezzotint (copied by W. Richardson, and again for Walpole's Anecdotes of Painting);[1] a crayon drawing of Gyles in the collection of the British Museum has traditionally been described as a self-portrait, but may be by one of his fellow York Virtuosi.