Leaded light front door

[JBean]

Hi

We've just bought an Edwardian house with what we fondly imagined might be an original front door. It has a large stained glass / leaded light panel with two smaller ones above and a small side window. They all have the same tulip pattern, although the glass in the main panel appears to be different from the two above and the side.



The door has been patched and mended and had the locks changed and moved many times, so it is clearly fairly old. But we've noticed that (a) no-one else in the street has a similar door and (b) at some point it has been hung to open the other way. So now we wonder if it has been brought in at some point. Whether or not it's original, we like the patterns in the glass, but the colours are badly faded and worn away.

So two questions:

• might this be an Edwardian door, or does it look later?
  what's the best way to restore the paint on the glass?

Thanks.

 

[plasticpigeon]

My view is that it looks like an Edwadian door, but the glass, if solid colours were usually coloured glass not painted glass as far as I know so maybe that is later. Painted glass exists, and I believe even true "stained" glass is a surface treatment, but most coloured glass is through coloured. The door in your house looks odd to me as it doesn't fit the opening, and having a single side light doesn't seem very typical. I would bet that originally your house would have had one wider door or 2 narrow ones. I think the door might well be Edwardian, but not original to your house, or perhaps not originally a front door to your house. Are other front doors on your street solid wooden doors. My rather humble Edwardian house has a solid front door and a glazed inner vestibule door.

 

[JBean]

plasticpigeon, thanks for the thoughts. You're right that the door looks like it doesn't quite fit the space - but our neighbour (we're a semi) has the same strip of glass next to the door (on the mirror side). Looking at a photo now, I can see that actually our semi-circle of glass above the door (sorry, don't know the technical term) is actually very slightly smaller than theirs, which suggests one of us has had the door replaced in quite a complicated way.

Several of the doors near us have a pair of glass panels above solid wood - like our neighbour. But the houses were built at different times, some at Victorian, some Edwardian, so there are bound to be differences.

Interesting about the glass colouring - ours is definitely painted on, on the inside.

 

[plasticpigeon]

The window above the door is a transom light. I really can't see the asymmetry being original. Maybe the house originally had a storm porch and it had a door put on the front to give some extra space or insulation, so your inner door would have been the front door.

Something like this stolen from pinterest.

 

[JBean]

How interesting. We have some "swirly bits" (technical term!) on the ceiling in the hall that might be the sign of an earlier recessed front door.

I've also just noticed that the transom light has the same leaded light / stained glass border as the front door, so clearly they were all installed at the same time. I shall examine our neighbours' tomorrow and see what theirs is like.

This is the first time we've owned an older house, and we are loving the detective work involved (the damp and later bodging, not so much...)

 

[JBean]

Just a couple more shots (sorry, rather blurry ones) - of the way the paint is peeling away, and of the "swirly bits" on the ceiling which I can see now look like the sign of an old internal or recessed door.



Plus I've looked at the transom light on our neighbouring house, and it matches their very different front door - so clearly at least one of us has had the whole opening replaced / redone at some point.

Any advice on painting the glass would be much appreciated.

 

[JBean]

Just to add - I've been in touch with the helpful people at the Creative Glass Guild http://www.creativeglassguild.co.uk who have confirmed plasticpigeon's view that the way the glass is coloured is rather odd. Apparently even enamel paint would be fired into the glass, to make the colour permanent.

They have recommended we try Vitrail Pebeo Glass Paint, which is basically a hobby paint, but will give good results on glass, and may last a fair while. I'm posting the information in case anyone else has a similarly odd front door!

 

[plasticpigeon]

Sounds like you are doing some good research. The swirly bit you mention if it is the bit on the wall is a corbel. It is basically a fancy bracket. It may have ben an original part of your house or it may not. However, the ceiling cornice doesn't go right up to the outer door, but describes an area set back from the door, which would probably have defined the original room shape. Unless of course the cornice has been replaced. It probably hasn't though, that would be a lot of work. I hope the glass painting is a success!

 

[JBean]

Thanks! I'll post a picture of the results, if the painting goes OK.

 

[Feltwell]

Unusual!

We restored our leaded light window & front door, but they have the more usual coloured glass in.

My understanding was that "stained" glass is painted - hence an ecclesiastical glass restorer would be worth asking I'd say. This firm is local to me and were helpful when I was looking at doing my windows, pointing me in the direction of someone more appropriate than them for the job I had.

http://www.williamsandbyrne.co.uk/stained-glass-restoration/

It does look to me like a later modification using a secondhand door, but if you like it, who cares! Our front door, which we think is Victorian, we don't think is original - the glass certainly isn't, you can see where support bars were fitted in a different position originally.

 

[JBean]

Feltwell, thanks. I have contacted Williams and Byrne as you suggested and they have said (slightly sniffily, perhaps unsurprisingly, given the beautiful work that they do) that they cannot help with something like this. They think it is painted with non-firing vitreous enamel paints. They suggest living with it in the short term and commissioning a bespoke replacement. Which is a tempting idea. I still might have a go at repainting in the short term. And if it looks awful, at least I know it's not permanent!