History of Stained Glass

Introduction

There are many good reasons for the student to study the history of stained glass; first, to truly excel, the student should be aware of the romance of the medium. Henry Willet would talk extensively of the "lust and the lure and the love of stained glass." While this cliché is admittedly melodramatic, it nevertheless gives an accurate feel for the attitude of someone who was passionate about the craft. Second, an appreciation of the history of stained glass will foster a dispassionate, critical approach in the student when appraising stained glass. The student of stained glass is urged to approach the medium with an informed, non-prejudiced understanding of the various styles to be encountered.

Informed observation will free the student's imagination for design, not to copy but rather to inspire. There are many excellent resources available for the study of stained glass and the student is urged to acquire a library of reference books that illustrate and describe specific installations in detail. However, there is no substitute for actually viewing stained glass in situ; that is, in its architectural surroundings.

A comprehensive bibliography follows this chapter. Because this volume is intended as a reference of techniques for the stained glass artist and not as a history of the craft, this chapter should serve only as a starting point for the student who wishes to develop a deeper appreciation of the history of craft.

It should also be noted that there are many periods that are imperfectly documented. For instance, 60 stained glass businesses were listed in Philadelphia's city directories before 1900. None of those studios exist today, and little is known about them.

The Obscure Beginnings of Stained Glass

Many histories of stained glass begin with Pliny's tale of the accidental discovery of glass by Phoenician sailors. The legend recounts shipwrecked sailors who set their cooking pots on blocks of natron (soda) from their cargo then built a fire under it on the beach. In the morning, the fire's heat had melted the sand and soda mixture. The resultant mass had cooled and hardened into glass. Today, though, it is thought that Pliny -- though energetic in collecting material -- was not very scientifically reliable. It is more likely that Egyptian or Mesopotamian potters accidentally discovered glass when firing their vessels. The earliest known manmade glass is in the form of Egyptian beads from between 2750 and 2625 BC. Artisans made these beads by winding a thin string of molten glass around a removable clay core. This glass is opaque and very precious.

Jean Lafond's gripping story tells how, in the desert west of Palmyra in 1937, David Schlumberger, director of excavations, showed Lafond a cache of 115 colored glass fragments that Lafond described as "Greenish white, bluish white, moss green, two tobacco yellows (one more gold than the other), burnt sienna, smokey, three purples (one near wine, one more brown), a garnet of great beauty and two violet purples. A varied thickness adds to their nuances." The greens had been blown in a roundel which he could surmise because of the presence of part of the outer rim. Several pieces showed a right angle and traces of a grozer on the edge. Schlumberger explained that these glasses had decorated claires-voies (literally "clear ways") of stucco designed in elegant interlaced arabesques (Jean Lafond, Le Vitrail, P.20).

In the first century AD, the Romans glazed glass into windows. They cast glass slabs and employed blowing techniques to spin discs and made cylinder glass. The glass was irregular and not very transparent.

One of the oldest known examples of multiple pieces of colored glass used in a window were unearthed at St. Paul's Monastery in Jarrow, England, founded in 686 AD.

The oldest complete European windows found in situ are thought to be five relatively sophisticated figures in Augsburg Cathedral. (These five windows are no longer in their original setting. They have recently been moved into a museum and replaced with copies.) These five windows show fired glass painting which utilizes line and tonal shading and they are made of bright, varied colors of glass. The authors of Stained Glass say, "they are the work of skilled, experienced stained glass artists. Where are the children who are father to these men? Where are the earlier windows?" (Lawrence Lee, Seddon and Stephens. Stained Glass. P. 67)

Authorities believe that Arabian glass windows appeared in the second half of the thirteenth century. Lewis F. Day suggests that Byzantine, Moorish or Arabian glass could have appeared by the tenth century AD. Pieces of glass were either inserted into intricate pierced marble or stone, or glazed in plaster before the plaster had set hard. Ribs of iron were often used to strengthen the plaster.

Arabian filigree windows moved into Europe when the Moors entered Spain. As the fashion moved farther north into areas of more inclement weather, covering became more necessary. This covering usually came in the form of slices of alabaster. In Europe, plates of pierced lead replaced the plaster grillwork. The first of these had no glass in the decorative openings, but later small pieces of glass were attached using strings of lead.

Arabian glass windows' development was slowed because Islam allows no subject other than geometric or vegetal ornament. Traces of cold paint on glass have been found in the mid-east indicating that windows probably stood up better than those windows in damper climates.

In 1930 at Saint Vitale in Ravenna, Italy, the archaeologist Cecchelli dug up three glass fragments showing Christ with a cruciform nimbus standing between an alpha and omega painted with grisaille. (The word grisaille applies equally to vitrifiable glass paint, as well as a style of lightly toned window that has been painted and stained in a decorative pattern.) It is assumed these fragments date from approximately 540 AD, the time of the construction of the building. 

In 1878 at a dig in a cemetery abandoned about 1000 AD at Sery les Mezieres, Aisne, France, Jules Pilloy found about 30 pieces of glass which had suffered from an apparent fire, a lead strip with two channels and a small slab of bone among some charred wood. The bone (which might have been a holy relic) pre-dated Charlemagne. Edmond Socard arranged the glass into a small, simple window. A cross patee, from which hung an alpha and omega, were painted and fired on it. This symbol was very popular from the sixth to ninth centuries. Unfortunately, this treasure was destroyed in 1918 during World War I.

Fragments of a very early head of Christ were excavated in 1932 at Lorsch Abbey in Germany. This is similar to the better known and more complete head of Christ from the Abbey Church of Saint Peter, Wissembourg, Alsace (c.1060). The latter has more advanced glass painting with both trace line and wash. Because of their size and their aspect -- that is, with the heads forward like the icon called the Panto crater, as well as the lack of any fragments showing bodies -- Catherine Brisac thinks these heads were displayed as icons in the middle of windows in which they would have been the only painted elements.

Christian iconography developed from pagan illustrations found in the catacombs. The beardless pagan god of the underworld, Orphaeus, was transformed into a youthful Christ the Good Shepherd. From the fourth century forward, He had a beard. The pagan phoenix and peacock were used for resurrection symbols.

Wall paintings gave way to mosaics of ceramic tiles, stones and glass bits. Moving from the catacombs, the earliest Christians worshiped in their homes; then, when they became politically secure enough, the Christians built churches. The first churches housed the relics of saints. Architecturally, they were based on the basilica, the Roman law court. The cruciform floor plan developed from the Byzantine square floor plan with a dome added.

European kings and bishops sent to Jerusalem and the east for holy relics. Their emissaries brought back small works of art such as cloisonne , damascene and carved ivory set with jewels and precious glass. Oriental and African craftsmen and glassmakers found their way to Europe as early as the third century. We can no longer agree with Hugh Arnold when he writes, "The making of stained glass windows is one of the arts that belong wholly to the Christian Era. Its traditions do not extend back beyond the great times of Gothic architecture." (Hugh Arnold, Stained Glass of the Middle Ages in England and France. p.3) We can no longer say that stained glass is a purely Christian art form, either at its beginning or in its current usage.

Romanesque Stained Glass

Romanesque architecture is more uniform than the stained glass that adorns it. The walls are thick and the window openings small with rounded tops. Because the glass was set in small openings, it had to let in considerable light. Today Romanesque windows seem darker because of corrosion.

Some figures in Romanesque stained glass stand or sit staring straight ahead. Some are involved in action as witnessed by their billowing garments. Some windows are made up of a series of events enclosed in medallions. The earlier windows of this style are more simple, primitive and rare. They depict well-known saints or stories from the Bible. Reverence for the Virgin Mary is prevalent at this time and she is often depicted as a queen. The windows use stylized vegetal ornament and decorative beading around the scenes and figures. The predominant colors are red and blue. This style of stained glass seems to have developed from cloisonne  enamels and miniature paintings.

Few Romanesque windows remain. Those that do remain are frequently found as illustrations in books; thus, they often seem familiar. Some examples of the Romanesque style are the Augsburg figures mentioned previously, c. 1120; parts of an Ascension scene from Le Mans Cathedral, c. 1140; the Great Crucifixion from Poitiers Cathedral, c. 1165-70; the facade windows and La Belle Verriere from Chartres Cathedral, c. 1150; and, at the end of the era, the great figures in the choir clerestories of Canterbury Cathedral, c. 1200.

Gothic Stained Glass

The medieval Church was the most important patron of the arts. Having made that statement, the name of the single person who most personifies this concept must immediately follow: Abbot Suger of Saint Denis, the royal abbey located just outside Paris. Suger was a fellow student and friend to King Louis VI, minister of Louis VII, and regent during the second crusade. His writings show him to have been a shrewd businessman, a politician with a genius for detail, and a devoted servant to his king. Suger reformed and rebuilt the abbey and augmented its wealth. As its treasures increased, many pilgrims told stories of it and its influence spread. Suger was guided by a philosophy including the mysticism of light; this philosophy compelled him to enlarge the windows and beautify them with colored glass.

Window subject treatment grew during the Gothic period, expanding from simple figures to a complex iconography fully understood by only a few experts today. This iconography made use of symbolism based on bestiaries which can be called "unnatural history" and on complicated typology (Old Testament stories that symbolize New Testament events). Today, scholars study these windows to learn about the daily life of the time. Guilds of workmen donated windows that included likenesses of themselves engaged in their businesses. The appearance of heraldry in the windows demonstrates the increasing importance of secular families.

This time saw the formation of new religious orders that needed new buildings. Many cathedrals and churches were built. The relationship between Saint Denis and Chartres is well established through a similarity of style and iconography. Stained glass historians today re-trace the work of traveling studios. Suger wrote, "Moreover we caused to be painted by the exquisite hands of many masters from different regions, a splendid variety of new windows both below and above: from that first one which begins with the Tree of Jesse in the chevet of the church to that which is installed above the principal door of the church's entrance." The latter was a petalled rose window, the first of its kind. A Jesse Tree window was soon after installed in Chartres.

As the studios traveled from job site to job site, they took sketches and models along with their tools. The windows in Laon Cathedral show the influence of the Ingebourg Psalter.

Le Mans Cathedral, Amiens Cathedral, Beauvais and some Canterbury stained glass is stylistically similar to the Paris-Chartres school. Although the cathedral is a contemporary of Chartres, the windows of Bourges are more archaic. Although Chartres' stained glass depends chiefly upon reds and blues, in Bourges, pure whites, yellows and greens are prominent.

The Gothic style was also developing outside France. The stained glass in the cathedral of Lausanne, Switzerland shows a marked French influence. Stained glass craftsmen from France are known to have worked at Canterbury in England, as did the French architect, William of Sens. French influence can be seen in Spanish stained glass of this time, especially in Aragon, Toledo and Castille. The windows in Leon Cathedral are significant although greatly restored.

In Germany, the Romanesque style endured longer than in other areas. Notable windows are in Cologne and Strasbourg Cathedrals and the Franciscan Monastery of Konigsfelden.

The international Gothic style came late to Vienna and Prague. The earliest remaining glass in Italy, in Assisi, is the work of German glaziers. The oculus in the Cathedral of Siena is called the "first modern window" because the subjects are treated as separate scenes. The window is a circle with a metal grid structure, rather than stone mullions, dividing it into petals. By the end of the medieval period, (the second quarter of the fourteenth century), perspective and volume were becoming evident. Subject was more pictorial and not subservient to the architecture

Renaissance Stained Glass

Renaissance stained glass is very different from that of the previous period. The themes are still principally biblical. Because subjects in renaissance stained glass are shown dressed in period clothing, a knowledge of the history of costume helps date windows. Allegorical themes are even more elaborate than medieval iconography. Figures represent abstract ideas. There are secular scenes in church windows.

Stained glass was used in secular buildings during the renaissance period. Historic scenes or heraldry were placed in town halls and small panels (usually silver stain and paint on white glass) were incorporated into clear glass windows in homes. The labors of the seasons are a favorite theme during this period. In large church windows, the scenes extended over the whole, ignoring the mullions. Buildings portrayed in the windows are solid, in classical style, shown with correct perspective. Some action takes place far back from the picture plane with vistas in the distance. Faces have individuality and show emotion.

The way stained glass craftsmen worked also changed. Artists drew cartoons on paper and were able to carry those cartoons to different clients. Sample books of patterns were also transported. Workshops stayed in one place through several generations, often attached to a cathedral that constituted their major employer. Finished windows were shipped to secondary customers at a distance. Studios joined together in corporations or guilds.

Silver stain, flashed glass (abraded rather than acid etched,) and colored enamels were widely used. The diamond cutter was used, making possible larger, more complicated pieces of glass. Leads became thinner and less important to the design. In the fifteenth century, the city of Bruges, Belgium had 80 stained glass operations. The glass painting style of this area shows the influence of woodcuts.

Although Gothic stained glass came late to Italy, the Renaissance style flourished early. It was championed by well-known artists such as Filippino Lippi, Lorenzo Ghiberti, Simone Martini, Taddeo Gaddi, Pietro Perugino, Donatello, Paolo Ucello, Domenico Ghirlandaio, Pacino di Buonaguida, Andrea da Firenze, Giotto, Giovanni Cimabue, Cortona Arezzo and the Gesuati brothers.

Flemish stained glass designs in the Renaissance are akin to the oil paintings of the Van Eycks; that is, they often show energetic forms and contrasting colors. A characteristic crisp fold in garments is evident in this period. Lierre makes use of much white glass in The Coronation of the Virgin in Saint Gommaire's Church. The drapery used on all of the figures is white, set against colored backgrounds.

Large windows by Bernard van Orley in the Brussels Cathedral show the Coronation of Charles V. Dirck. Wouter Crabeth did windows in Gouda and then went to England to work. Henry VII of England brought Dirck Vellert from Antwerp and Barnard Flower and Galyon Hone from Holland to work on the windows in Kings College, Cambridge. The English glaziers who had a long tradition did not welcome them, but the Flemish had the King's patronage, so the native craftsmen could only protest without redress. The cities of York and Norwich were very prosperous and have many parish churches with fine traditions of Renaissance stained glass. They were famous for their glaziers' workshops.

Spain had no early tradition of stained glass because Moorish occupation limited Christian church building. The Renaissance is its golden age. Italian, Flemish and French glaziers established the craft after the Moors left. Two brothers, Arnao de Vergara and Arnao de Flandres who worked on the Seville Cathedral, are particularly noteworthy.

The Low Ebb

Experts agree that stained glass reached a low ebb sometime between the late medieval age and the nineteenth century. Why did stained glass fall from favor? The reasons were religious, political and aesthetic. The Church had been the principal patron of the arts. The new Protestants were hostile to elaborate art and decoration. Even in the Roman Catholic countries, the Counter-Reformation called for simpler religious buildings. During the Thirty Years War, Cardinal Richelieu ordered all castles and palaces in Lorraine razed. Their destruction saw an end to the glass workshops that centered in the area.

By 1640 colored glass was very scarce. This necessitated painting on white glass with enamels. The little decorative glass that was produced was mostly small heraldic panels for city halls and private homes. Stained glass that had been so popular just a few years before was no longer in demand. The glass craftsmen were in great misery, pushing their barrows from place to place in search of work.

The English Parliament ordered all images of the Virgin Mary and the Trinity removed from churches. The Puritan principles of the Commonwealth inspired English adherents to smash stained glass windows with vigor. (Some fragments of early glass remain in traceries, as they were too high to easily reach.) The cost of replacing stained glass with clear glass finally stopped the destruction. Sometimes shattered pieces, left behind by the vandals, were reassembled into windows with no regard for subject. In Brittany, a congregation covered a window with dung and mud and whitewashed over to avoid spending money to replace it.

In England, church buildings remained churches. This was not always the case in France, where, as a result of the French Revolution, they were often turned to secular uses. For example, Strasbourg Cathedral became a Temple of Reason. Some became museums, but many became stables, arsenals or storerooms.

Several factors turned fashion toward the classic style. Even before the French Revolution, the baroque style was associated with vapid royalty. Ancient Rome became a symbol for a republican, rather than a monarchical government. Europeans became excited by antiquities.

During this period, some windows were made in Oxford. Abraham and Bernard van Linge painted in enamels. William Peckett of York provided figures in enamels for the south transept of the York cathedral.

Sir Joshua Reynold's design in New College, Oxford was executed by an Irish craftsman, Thomas Jervais. The American artist, Benjamin West, provided cartoons for Salisbury Cathedral. An anonymous writer in The Ornamental Glass Bulletin, September 1923, praises Francis Egington's painted glass. The clerestory windows of Saint George's Windsor were then being reinstalled in new frames, and at that time, Egington's fired enamel colors stood firm.

Jean-Adolph Dannecker, a gingerbread baker in Strasbourg, wrote to the Superintendent of the King's Buildings, Charles Nicholas Cochin in 1764, petitioning him to reestablish the stained glass craft. Cochin replied, "In truth use is no longer made of it because in neither apartments nor even churches do people want anything that might diminish the light. Thus in the event of it being proved that it (the art) had been lost and that it had been rediscovered, people would not know what use to make of it." This is perhaps the origin of the term "Lost Art."

The Early Beginnings of Stained Glass in America

Glass making was the first industry set up in America in Jamestown, settled in 1607. The English were running out of wood to fuel their furnaces. The endless forests and sand in the New World dictated the choice. To reassure his English investors, Captain John Smith wrote that the glass-making venture was a success, but the operation was very short lived. Bottles and window glass were the primary glass products of this venture.

In 1637 or 1638, Evert Duyckingh came from Borken, a Dutch-German border town, to New Amsterdam (now New York). He was a painter, glazier and "burner of glass". The sort of small house windows he made can be seen in Dutch paintings: a small round, square or oval panel set in a background of clear glass quarries. The subjects, often a family coat of arms, were applied with enamels and silver stain. Several examples of this type of glass are preserved at the New York Historical Society and the Metropolitan Museum of Art; while they are contemporary with Duyckingh's work, it is not certain that they are actually his work.

In 1648, Duyckingh took on Cornelius Jansen as an apprentice. In 1656 he requested payment for glass he put in a church, 2 1/2 beavers for each. Duyckingh also made a window for the City Hall showing the coat of arms of New Amsterdam. He wrote complaining he had not been paid.

Labadist missionaries arrived on a ship in 1679 on which Evert Duyckingh Jr. was mate. Their new church window was made by Evert Sr. and another son, Gerrit. In 1674, the Duyckingh operation passed on to Jacob Melyer.

In 1654, Jan Smeedes set up glass works in lower Manhattan to make roundels. Blowing spun roundels may be seen in old prints such as those in Diderot's Encyclopedia. At first, the outer part of the roundel was in greater demand for glazing windows. The center with the punty mark was cheaper. Later windows of multiple "bullseyes" glazed in quarry patterns were quite popular.

Churches in early America were simple meeting houses of wood or brick and white woodwork. Stained glass was out of fashion or economically impractical. Old Swedes Church in Philadelphia, when it opened, had no glass in the windows, only shutters. Small shutters inside the larger outside ones were used in cold weather.

In the nineteenth century, William Gibson began the earliest known glass business in America around 1834 in New York City. This venture did not last, but he tried again several decades later and would promote himself as the "father of glass painting" in the United States.

Robert Bolton, elder of one of the most interesting families in American stained glass history, came from England when he inherited property in Savannah, Georgia. The family moved for a time to New York State, then returned to England where William Jay and John were born. After a time, the family returned to New York and built a home in Pelham. William was a talented artist and studied with Samuel F.B. Morse. They made some small stained glass windows for their home and followed them in 1843 with the first-known American-made figural window, the Nativity for Christ Church at Pelham, New York. These were followed in 1844 by the tour de force of the fenestration of Holy Trinity Church in Brooklyn, (today Saint Ann's and Holy Trinity).

The elder Otto Heinigke wrote of them: "Let me tell you that there is nothing being done today the world over, that can compare with the vigor, the freedom and the fire of these remarkable windows." Otto Weir Heinigke wrote: "I believe that group of windows to be the finest in this country in nobility of conception as an architectural decoration and as a comprehensive exposition of the history of God's people from the Creation to Christ's glorification in the Apocalyptic vision."

After this job, William Bolton returned to England and opened a stained glass studio in Cambridge where he worked restoring the windows of Kings College. Another window by him was recently rediscovered at West Lynne in Norfolk, England. When he went to Cambridge, William attended classes that were not available in America. While a student, he married, but his wife soon fell ill and died. This so upset him that he studied for holy orders and became an ordained clergyman. He married a second time and had several children.

Meanwhile, his brother John continued to make stained glass in America long enough to do windows for the Church of the Holy Apostles in Manhattan. He, too, became a clergyman, and after one or two other charges, went to Holy Trinity Episcopal Church in West Chester, Pennsylvania. While there, he made the decorative aisle windows. The chancel window in that church is by La Farge and is a memorial to members of the Bolton family.

Many years later, a visitor from Holy Trinity Church in Brooklyn sought out an aged daughter of William's who was supposed to be on her deathbed. She had never heard of her father's earlier career in stained glass. The story so excited her she arose from her bed and traveled from England to the United States to see the windows.

The year 19844 saw the commencement of a set of figurative altar windows for the architect Richard Upjohn's Trinity Episcopal Church. Upjohn contributed to the design that was probably produced by Thomas F. Hoppin. They were fabricated by Abner Stephenson.

In the 1850s several important studios were established that would survive and promote the industry. Henry Sharp, Henry Belcher, Joseph and Richard Lamb of Lamb Studios and William Gibson (who had reentered the field) founded these studios. Despite these advances, the industry was still delicately balanced; it was growing slowly, which was a reflection of individual dedication and struggle. The quality of materials was limited compared to what it would be only a few decades later; further, the window artistry was largely derivative of foreign trends in the trade and decorative furnishings industry. By the 1870s, the economic prospects for the industry were improving. Scotsman Daniel Cottier and Englishman Charles Booth set up firms in New York and New Jersey respectively to capitalize on the expanded American markets.

The Gothic Revival in the United Kingdom

The English admiration for the medieval period is embodied in literature such Sir Walter Scott's Ivanhoe, Goethe's Faust, Tennyson's The Idylls of the King, and as Victor Hugo's The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

The wealthy built castles for themselves modeled on those described in the Gothic novels. As early as the 1740s, Horace Walpole collected medieval stained glass and employed one of the few stained glass craftsmen left in England, William Price, to restore it and install it in his fashionable Gothic mansion, Strawberry Hill. Many windows were sent to England from the continent. A few enthusiasts kept their interest in medieval stained glass and assiduously collected pieces being discarded that would otherwise have been lost. Some of these panels are in museums today, in better shape than if they had remained in situ. In 1802, an exhibition held in London consisted of glass that was saved from the French Revolution.

Since colored glass had gone out of fashion, little was made and the quality was generally poor. When the British studios became interested in restoring antique glass and providing new stained glass for Neo-Gothic churches, there was almost no appropriate glass. The person who is most credited with rectifying this situation was not a stained glass man at all, but a lawyer, Charles Winston. Stained glass was his hobby. He wrote a book containing his faithful drawings of medieval stained glass. His book included a translation of the monk Theophilus' description of the process of creating stained glass. In 1849, he had fragments of beautiful old glass chemically analyzed and encouraged James Powell and Sons, Whitefriars Glassworks, to produce excellent colored glass. William Edward Chance also began experimenting with colored glass at that time, and in 1863, succeeded in producing an excellent red.

Although Winston's book was about medieval stained glass, he also appreciated the pictorial style windows such as were being made in Germany in his own day. He was opposed in this opinion by Pugin and his followers.

Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin, was the architect who, almost single-handedly, established the Gothic style as the only viable ecclesiastical architecture. He started to build his first church in 1837. He then wrote Contrasts in which he stated that the classic style was pagan and unsuitable for the buildings of a Christian nation.

He thought the Gothic style to be both more desirable aesthetically and more moral. Pugin also designed stained glass windows. Various studios fabricated his windows, most often John Hardman of Birmingham. At the time, the revival Oxford Movement (within the Church of England) aimed at restoring high church ideals. This was evidenced by increased elaboration of both worship services and the church buildings in which the liturgy was conducted. Demand for stained glass quickly increased. The Cambridge Camden Society published a magazine, The Ecclesiologist, which circulated Gothic architectural principles.

Well before Pugin's early death in 1852, other architects were taking up Gothic revival styles. Stained glass again contained flat decorative designs and lead lines that outlined and separated colors. Important studios and craftsmen were Thomas Willement, J.H. Miller, Betton and Evans of Shrewsbury, John Hardman, and William Wailes.

Twenty-five English firms showed stained glass at the great Crystal Palace Exhibition in 1851. It is sometimes difficult to trace the studios that made the windows of this period. Parish records tell the donors more readily than the makers.

Other notable studios begun in this period include Burlington and Grylls, 1868; Clayton and Bell, 1855; Gibbs, founded 1813, stained glass production started 1848; Heaton, Butler and Bayne, 1855; Lavers, Barraud and Westlake, 1855; Shrigley and Hunt, 1875; James Powell and Sons, makers of glass since the 17th century, began production of stained glass 1844; Ward and Nixon, later Ward and Hughes, 1836. William Warrington started a stained glass business in 1833, but went out of business in 1875. The others continued well into the 20th century.

Many of these English studios still in business during World War II lost their archives either as a result of bombing or because they gave them up for pulp to make new paper. English magazines record that some firms had employed over 100 men. They may have done other decorating work in addition to stained glass. Their work is still treasured today. Some of its characteristics are flat treatment even in scenic windows, greenish white flesh, delicate painting, quarried backgrounds with a decorative silver stained motif in each pane, graceful architectural framing (canopy) or borders and liberal use of silver stain.

A change in the philosophical climate was taking place in England and the world. In 1854, F.D. Maurice founded the Workingmen's College in London's East End. John Ruskin taught an evening course in drawing and design, and encouraged others to teach there also. When he was young, Ruskin often visited a friend, Charles Milnes Gaskell, who lived in a medieval priory. This probably awakened his admiration for medieval art and architecture.

Ruskin so loved the priory that he supposed the workmen who created it had been happy. He widely promulgated Pugin's view about the morality of Gothic style. He wrote Fors Clavigera (Fortune the Nail Bearer), A Series of Letters to the Workmen and Laborers of Great Britain. It was never read much by those for whom it was written, but it influenced British socialism to a Christian rather than an atheistic basis like Marx's.

William Morris' philosophy was also socialistic. William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones went to Oxford in 1853 intending to become clergymen, but as the impetus of the Oxford Movement was then diminishing, they took up art. Ruskin and Morris would influence arts and crafts movements world wide

In 1857 William Morris, then a young man of 23, took part in the painting of the Oxford Union frescoes which depict King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. Characteristically, he felt he could not portray knights in armor unless he had experienced the feeling of wearing armor; he had a helmet and a suit of mail made to his own design by a surprised Oxford blacksmith. To the delight of his friends he insisted on wearing the suit to a dinner party and succeeded in getting his head stuck in the helmet.

Morris soon realized his talent was not as a fine arts painter. The firm of Morris, Marshall and Faulkner was founded in 1861 because Morris could not find appropriate furnishings for the new home just built for him by Philip Webb. While the firm was a decorating company, stained glass was prominent from the first.

Burne-Jones and Ford Madox Brown had some previous experience designing for stained glass, but at first, the group knew little about fabricating. Their first designs were produced as a joint effort. Burne-Jones was a master of line and composition. Morris, a less expert draughtsman, was unmatched at selecting color, so they complemented each other's skills. The glaziers put the lead lines in the cartoons. Ultimately, they employed over a dozen craftsmen who also did decorating work. Their wives and sisters were pressed into helping, especially painting tiles and executing embroidery.

In 1857, the original firm dissolved and the company was completely under Morris' control. Burne-Jones and Webb stayed on. As Morris' share of the actual work diminished, Burne-Jones was deluged with work. He accomplished a number of paintings as well as his work for the company. Evidence in their account books derived from payments made to photographers indicates that they began to use photographic enlargements of small sketches and repeated the same designs over and over. Morris died in 1896 and Burne-Jones in 1898.

The company continued under John Henry Dearle, who had worked with Burne-Jones for many years as chief designer. Morris and Burne-Jones were so opposed to copying medieval styles that they would not accept any commissions supplying windows for old churches. Although most of their stained glass was done for churches, they also did secular installations since they provided complete decorating schemes. Favorite secular subjects were illustrations of medieval romances and ladies personifying virtues, the seasons and the arts, especially music.

Ford Madox Brown designed a series of accurate historical portrait figures for Peterhouse, Cambridge University. While Brown and Morris were interested in medieval subjects, their style was uniquely their own, noble figures in classically inspired drapery on Morris' leafy backgrounds or energetic flatly painted illustrations

Many stained glass artists were influenced by William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones, including Henry Holiday, at first exclusively a designer, he set up his own studio in 1891; Charles Eamer Kempe, who set up a studio in 1869; and Christopher W. Whall, who founded a studio in 1897.

Scotland also occupies a conspicuous role in the Gothic revival. Its style was different from the English. It was centered in Glasgow, which retains a greater proportion of its nineteenth century church and domestic glass than any other city in the British Isles. The People's Palace, a museum, has a large, permanent collection.

Ballantine and Allen founded their firm in 1837. Ballantine learned the trade in England. Francis Wilson Oliphant designed for Wailes and fabricated for Pugin. He published a small volume on stained glass in 1854, earlier than Winston's. Other studios were William Cairney and Sons, 1828; Hugh Boyle and Company, 1850; David Kier and Sons, 1847.

Kier was master glazier to the Glasgow Cathedral when it ordered windows from Munich on Winston's recommendation and caused an uproar. Kier copied the Munich style.

Daniel Cottier was born in Glasgow and apprenticed to Kier in the 1850s. He went to London and enrolled in F.D. Maurice's Workingmen's College where he heard lectures by Ruskin, Rossetti and Ford Madox Brown. He returned to Scotland as a designer for Field and Allan of Leith. He set up his own studio for decorating in 1865.

In 1867, Cottier moved from Edinburgh to Glasgow. In 1869, he moved to London to open a branch, leaving his assistant, Andrew Wells in Scotland. Cottier's style was greatly influenced by Morris. He founded Australian and American branches in 1873 and imported and dealt in French and Dutch art and furniture.

J. and W. Guthrie founded a decorating studio in 1860 which grew to prominence after Wells moved to Australia for Cottier, leaving them its work. John Guthrie moved to London to operate a branch studio while William Guthrie stayed in Scotland. They employed C.W. Whall in 1890 and Charles Rennie Mackintosh about 1893 to produce decorative schemes and what are now Mackintosh's earliest identifiable designs for stained glass.

The Glasgow School of Art became an important factor in the cultural life of the city. When Fra Newberry became its director in 1885, he introduced decorative arts to supplement the conventional easel painting. Mackintosh attended the school from 1885. He was influenced by the Pre-Raphaelites and the Japanese, but is not thought to have been very dependent on any outside influences.

George Walton got the first commission for Miss Cranston's Tea Rooms, which he designed with Mackintosh. James Herbert MacNair and Mackintosh married the two MacDonald sisters, also artists. Mackintosh was an architect, but made himself responsible for the decoration of his buildings. His windows were in abstract patterns. His designs were published, and influenced the Vienna Secession school of art nouveau.

Charles E. Stewart, son of a stained glass craftsman, invented a "cameo process." Instead of glass painting, heads and hands were cut and etched. In 1903 this was supplanted by the invention of acid etching, developed from the chemical isolation of fluoride in 1886.

An Irish stained glass craftsman, Michael O'Connor won a gold medal in the Exhibition International in Kensington, London, 1862. He was a heraldic painter from Dublin who moved to London in 1823 to study with Willement. He returned to set up his own studio in Dublin and moved in 1842 to Bristol, then in 1845, to London. Near the end of the nineteenth century, Edward Martyn ordered a stained glass window from Christopher Whall for his family's church at Ardrahan, Ireland.

Martyn, who had founded the Palestrina Choir and the Abbey Theatre of Dublin, was interested in starting an Irish school of stained glass. He wrote, "If we are determined to have bad work, it is better to have it bad Irish than foreign." He arranged for three windows in the new Cathedral of Loughrea to be executed by Whall in Ireland using Irish craftsmen. Whall was not able to stay continuously supervising the work in Ireland, so in 1901, he sent his chief assistant A.E.Child and two glaziers.

Child and Sarah Purser, a portrait painter who had become interested in the project, then set up a stained glass department in the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art. The students helped in the execution of the Loughrea windows. In 1903, Sarah Purser and Edward Martyn organized An Tur Gloine (The Tower of Glass), a cooperative workshop for stained glass, mosaics and other related crafts. Purser ran the business until her death at the age of 94 in 1943, at which time, Catherine O'Brien took over the ownership.

Harry Clarke was the only Irish stained glass artist of the time not associated with An Tur Gloine. When Clarke was young, Irish stained glass was poor and usually ordered from pattern books. When A.E. Child began to teach at the Metropolitan School of Art, Clarke became one of his students at night while working by day in his father's decorating business. He won a traveling scholarship and visited French cathedrals. A series of windows depicting Irish saints for Cork University's Honan Hostel Chapel established his reputation. He is also well known for his book illustrations. At his father's death, he and his brother continued the business. Clarke's designs are mystical, otherworldly and opulently detailed. There is nothing else like them. Considering that Clarke died of tuberculosis at the age of 42, he accomplished a large body of work, mostly based on themes from Irish literature.

The Gothic Revival in France, Germany and Italy

The art of stained glass died out more completely in France and Germany than in England. It was first revived in France in 1800 at the Royal Porcelain Manufactory at Sevres under a Mr. Dihl, who came from England. Guillaume Brice researched early methods. The chemist, Alexandre Brogniart, director of manufacture at Sevres, conducted much research to discover medieval techniques. He wrote in 1802, "the art of painting on glass is not lost: we have all the means to exercise it." Nevertheless, it took him 20 years after that to find the formulas. (Catherine Brisac, A Thousand Years of Stained Glass, p. 145)

From 1828 to 1854 Brogniart, with the patronage of King Louis Philippe, produced windows for the royal chapel at Dreux. They are painted with enamels on sheets of glass so large that firing them must certainly have been difficult. Artists Ingres and Delacroix, supplied the designs for the figures, and the surroundings were by Viollet-le-Duc.

A giant in the French Neo-Gothic movement is the architect and artist, Eugene Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc. Viollet-le-Duc worked all his life to restore historic buildings such as the Chateau de Pierrefonds, the walled city of Carcassonne, and the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris. He was interested in all periods, but the medieval was scorned at the time, and he felt he had to save it. He thought of it as the French national style. Though