Victorian Stained Glass

[walker]

I am about to replace stained glass in an original door (currently dolphins) and want to make it as close to an original victorian design as possible. Would anyone know where I could find pictures of original victorian stained glass.

Don't want anything remotely churchie looking tho.

 

[Feltwell]

This sort of thing?

This is mine - strictly speaking it's a leaded light, not stained glass. Put "Victorian leaded light" and "Victorian stained glass" into Google images, there's plenty on there.

 

[JoceAndChris]

That's pretty!

This website looks like it might be helpful:

http://www.stained-glass-studio.co.uk/Victorian%20stained%20glass.htm

 

[walker]

Yes thats pretty. Thanks for that.

 

[Penners]

I am about to replace stained glass in an original door

Is it the original stained glass? If so, it would be nice to think that it's earned the right to stay where it is.

 

[Feltwell]

As Walker said the current glass design is of dolphins, I presumed it wasn't original.

The chap who did the restoration of my window showed me some technically excellent, but hideously naff, new work that he was doing for other people. A West Highland Terrier and a horse immortalised in your door? I've nothing against either westies or horses, but not depicted in that way! He hated doing them as well, but it all pays the bills.

 

[JoceAndChris]

:lol: There is opportunity for eyesores here, I agree.

My favourite are the painted birds, I used to love looking at them on the doors in Highgate.

http://genuinestainedglass.com/painted_vic_bird.jpg

 

[Penners]

I've nothing against...westies

I should hope not! The retribution of Mrs P on Westie-haters isn't a pretty sight.

The Pennershound at full alert:

 

[Feltwell]

No need for Mrs P to vent her wrath on me. I am more of a "big dog" person, but I do have a soft spot for West Highland terriers.

I quite fancy a greyhound next time - another border collie would just wear me out! Plenty of greyhounds need good homes, they are supposed to be very good family dogs - good with kids and naturally lazy, they like to spend most of their time asleep on the sofa I hear.

 

[biffvernon]

That dog has very little to do with Victorian Glass.

Neither has this website but there's a lot about older glass:

Corpus Vitrearum Medii Aevi

 

[Penners]

That dog has very little to do with Victorian Glass.

Oh no! Did I wander off-topic?

There's a novelty.

 

[JoceAndChris]

:lol:

 

[Feltwell]

Oh no! Did I wander off-topic?

There's a novelty.

A meandering path has so much more to offer than a straight one Penners!

 

[walker]

If it was original it'd be staying but dolphins ain't original!!

 

[essexbearhunter]

There is a restaurant in Ironbridge that has collected animal, bird & flower-themed stained glass and used them to frame a large window.

Unlike some that use insipid pale pink and blue glass to pad out the space, these have interest all over. I suspect that they may be composites of several windows, but imho are all the better for it


View attachment 1

 

[essexbearhunter]

I lived for a year in Goodmayes (near Barking/Ilford) and, fronting onto the park at the end of the road, was a victorian house with a glazed iron-framed porch. The stained/painted glass in it had tendrils going up, with leaves -and probably grapes and birds.
It was just so delightful and different from the normal Church stained glass, that the goal of creating something vaguely similar here has remained.

The quality of the painting available varies considerably - from the cursory brush strokes perhaps intended to evoke naive mediaeval glass to full-blown highly-finished pictures that would hold there own with those on Worcester porcelain.

I have tried for the middle ground

View attachment 2

View attachment 1



The intensity and detail of the Yorkshire Rose demand that it remain as a solo panel, but the Skegness window has a looseness and movement that would build up into something very light & garden-like once the more sombre border is removed.

I find Tomkinson's site a good source on inspiration ....and temptation.
http://www.vitraux.co.uk

 

[Feltwell]

Very nice indeed. Am I right in saying that "stained glass" usually means painted glass (as above), whereas "leaded lights" are more what I have - different coloured & textured glass arranged to a pattern, without any painting. Most people call them all "stained glass" which I don't think is right, but my knowledge is limited and I'm happy to be corrected on this.

 

[essexbearhunter]

Am I right in saying that "stained glass" usually means painted glass (as above), whereas "leaded lights" are more what I have - different coloured & textured glass arranged to a pattern, without any painting.

That is broadly the way that I would go. Whether the terms "stained glass" and "painted glass" are viewed as interchangeable depends on which period you look at and how "purist" you wish to be. For much of their time, the key elements were both stained AND painted, so the two came to be put under the single heading.

Strictly the STAIN is a colour that goes through the entire thickness of the glass and is caused by the addition of
1/ Silver nitrate (for yellow/ orange)
2/Gold (red )
3/Cobalt (blue)
4/Copper oxide (green)

A less saturated colour could be achieved by "flashing" the glass - that is, dipping molten clear glass in another colour before hammering it out, to form a laminated sheet.

Painted glass, in contrast, is purely surface work but done in vitrifiable paints which, when the glass is reheated, will fuse to the base layer.

Since figurative painting would require both a stained base and painted details, the two have merged. Some would claim that a window, totally constructed on unstained glass that has been painted, is not strictly "stained glass" - particularly in the more modern windows.

Your description of "Leaded-lights" is spot on.

 

[biffvernon]

Oooh, someone who knows something. Excellent.

As a rough guide to the ages of old glass the oldest medieval stuff just had black lines painted on the either clear or coloured glass. Then they discovered silver stain, allowing yellow shading often found in saint's haloes. Post-medieval saw the enamel surface paints that meant all sorts of pictures could be painted on glass.

I like the earlier glass best.

Essexbearhunter, do you have a high res version of that Ironbridge restaurant picture you could send me, please?

 

[piper]

Another link you may already have found, for both restoration and new designs. Highly recommended, with usual disclaimers, though I do know Sarah.
http://www.northernlights-stainedglass.co.uk/