Painted And Stained Glass

( Originally Published In 1924 )

I had an opportunity some time ago of seeing a collection of pieces of stained and painted glass that had been made by an antiquary specially interested in that subject. A great walker, he made a habit of walking and driving about various country districts of the South of England, and in various placeshe picked up, from time to time, examples of old stained and painted glass.

Pursuing this hobby for many years, he eventually disposed of several of his choicer pieces for a considerable sum: He made a point of visiting churches that were to be restored, well knowing byexperience that both incumbents, architects and builders were often very careless respecting old glass.

Sometimes they cared very little about it, sometimes they forgot all about it, and he was able to buy pieces that were discarded and, sometimes more or less complete lead lights, that were considered unimportant.

He used to talk to the various cottagers, and sometimes found that during previous restorations, they had rescued odd bits of glass, or lights, and had set them into their own windows, or had preserved them in some other way. By dint of exploring out-of-the-way villages, he gathered together a collection quite remarkable and important.

In later years there has been a wider appreciation of the beauty of old glass. It is not as easy as it was in his time to form such a collection, but the beauty of the objects is undeniable.

There is still, unfortunately, a great deal of carelessness and indifference regarding the more or less damaged windows, or odd lights, which appear here and there, and which are regarded by those whoare repairing or restoring ecclesiastical buildings as of small importance.

I should be the last person to advise that glass which has appeared in any ecclesiastical building should ever be removed, but this is certainly very often done, and a collector who has time to spare,and who is inclined to cycle about the more remote parts of England, could, I am convinced, gather together quite as beautiful a collection as did the man to whom I refer, obtain great joy from his collection, and, eventually, if he thought fit, derive considerable benefit therefrom.

It is important, if possible, to preserve some knowledge of where the glass came from, especially when the medallions represent heads or coats of arms, because a great deal of additional information is obtained when the district is known, and there is then always the possibility of being able to identify either the persons or the heraldic achievements.

The collector will soon be able to determine something of the age of the glass which he picks up, and in the fine early pot metal, he will discover some gorgeous colours, and if able to use the lead slips with which the windows are put together, he can, by contrasting colour with colour, have in his own house, some glorious jewelled light effects from pieces of this glass, however small they may be.

He should be advised to reject nothing in the way of old glass that is offered him, however insignificant in size it may be; some of the smaller pieces of the red and blue, such as was used with gorgeous effect in some of the smaller churches in York, are very desirable.

Sometimes it may be possible to find out actually who was the glass maker who was responsible for it, for instance, in York, the work of a man named Peckitt is often to be found, and his colours can almost certainly be identified.

It will be very seldom that the collector will be able to get hold of anything like a complete panel or part of a window, but he will often find pieces that can be put together, and sometimes, even in the same village, various persons may possess bits of glass which have all come from some discarded lancet in the village church.

Some of the curiosity shops yield panels of Swiss or German stained glass, which have been brought over by collectors and then eventually discarded, and considerable excitement may be obtained in wandering from shop to shop, and finding pieces of stained glass worthy of being added to a collection, and leaded together for the decoration of one's own house.

There are probably not many persons who are able to take the long walks or rides that are necessary in order to obtain glass, and every collector must be prepared for many disappointments.

Many a village will be found to have nothing whatever to offer him, and he will draw blanks on frequent occasions, but it is surprising how much glass has escaped from the parish churches, through careless restoration, and how often small houses have, either fastened into the window, or set up against it, bits of glass of no particular importance to the owner, that never ought to have been removed from the ecclesiastical buildings in the village, and which will be spoils of great delight to the collector of stained glass.

Twice at least in my experience I have seen in ugly vicarage windows, pieces of old glass set in to lights or corners, which generations ago were removed from the parish church, and, in at least two cases, had I been a collector, the incumbent was perfectly willing to sell to me these odd pieces of glass, which he deemed ugly and of small importance, if in return I could have supplied him with a piece of plain, good coloured glass in their stead.

I remember, on one occasion, finding a heraldic window, comprising a whole series of coats of arms of one family, missing in two of the more important heraldic achievements, and discovering that, a generation before, the window had been cut to fill a smaller space, and that the two missing coats,which eventually were restored to the window, were in the possession of a man whose grandfather had been churchwarden at the time.

In another case some beautiful pieces of heraldic glass, going back probably to the sixteenth century, were found in the possession of some children who were playing with them, and using them as toys. These were rescued by a collector, who was able by piecing them together, to find out whose arms they represented, and eventually to give himself the pleasure of returning them to the church from whence they had been originally extracted.

The collector may be advised not to turn his back upon any glass on account of its bad condition, the enamel on glass frequently chips and crumbles away, and the appearance is unsatisfactory, but old stained glass, however poor its condition, is always delightful in colour, and well worth securing and retaining.

There are two well-known heraldic windows that certainly existed until comparatively recent times that have entirely disappeared. Of one of them there is a drawing by Dugdale in the library of the College of Heralds. It depicted various heraldic coats belonging to the Clifford family. The window is known to have been removed from a private chapel in Appleby Castle, but has entirely disappeared. In another case a sixteenth century window, with some fine figures in it, and some splendid coats of arms, disappeared from a village church in Northamptonshire, and has never since been traced. There would be considerable satisfaction if any collector were to hear of either of these windows, or of any portions of them. Old stained glass, if ever it does find its way into the auction-rooms, fetches year by year an increased and ever-increasing price, and there are several well-known collectors always on the look-out for good examples of it.