Stained Glass Work Part 19

[Ill.u.s.tration: II.--Part of Window. St. Anselm's, Woodridings, Pinner.]

PLATE III.--_Window in St. Peter's Church, Clapham Road--"Blessed are_ _they that Mourn," by Reginald Hallward._ The _whole_ of the work in this instance, including cutting, leading, &c., is done by the artist himself. As an instance of how little photography can do, it is worth while to describe such a small item as the _scroll_ above the figure.

This is of gla.s.s most carefully selected (or most skilfully treated with acid), so that the ground work varies from silvery-white to almost a pansy-purple, and on this the verse is illuminated in tones varying from pale primrose to the ruddiest gold--the whole forming a pa.s.sage of lovely colour impossible to achieve by any system of "copying." It is work like this and the preceding that is referred to on p. 266.

[Ill.u.s.tration: III.--Window. St. Peter's Church, Clapham.]

PLATE IV.--_Central part of Window in Cobham Church, Kent, by Reginald Hallward._ Executed under the same conditions as the preceding.

[Ill.u.s.tration: IV.--Part of Window. Cobham Church, Kent.]

PLATE V.--_Part of Window in Ardrahan Church, Galway--"St. Robert" by Selwyn Image._ From the cartoon. See p. 83.

[Ill.u.s.tration: V.--Part of Window. Ardrahan, Galway.]

PLATE VI.--_Two Designs for Domestic Gla.s.s, by Miss M. J. Newill._ From the cartoons.

[Ill.u.s.tration: VI.--From Cartoons for Domestic Gla.s.s.]

PLATE VII.--_"The Dream of St. Kenelm," by H. A. Payne._ The author had the pleasure of watching this work daily while in progress. It was done entirely by the artist's own hand, by way of a specimen "masterpiece" of craftsmans.h.i.+p, and the aim was to use to the full extent every resource of the material.

[Ill.u.s.tration: VII.--Window. "The Dream of St. Kenelm."]

PLATE VIII.--_Six "Quarries"--"Day and Night," "The Spirit on the Face of the Waters," "Creation of Birds and Fishes," "Eden," and "The Parable of the Good Seed," by Pupils of H. A. Payne, Birmingham School of Art._ These lose very much by reduction, and should be seen with a lens magnifying 2-1/2 diameters. They are the designs of the pupils themselves (boys in their teens), and are examples of bold outline _untouched after tracing_. They are more elaborate than would be desirable for _ordinary_ quarry glazing; being intended for interior work on a screen, to be seen close at hand with borrowed light.

[Ill.u.s.tration: VIII.--Quarries. (Size of originals, 4-1/2 by 4 ins.)]

PLATE IX.--_Micro-photographs_. 1. _A piece of outline that has "fried"

in the kiln._ Magnified 20 diameters. See p. 104.

2. _A small Diamond seen from above._ Magnified 10-1/2 diameters. The white horizontal line is the cutting edge.

3. _A larger Diamond that has been "re__set_." That is to say, _re-ground_: the diagonal marks like a St. Andrew's Cross show the grinding down of the old facets by which the new cutting edge has been produced. Magnified 10-1/2 diameters.

4. No. 2 _seen from the side_. Magnified 10-1/2 diameters; the cutting edge faces towards the left.

[Ill.u.s.tration: IX.--Micro-photographs from details connected with Gla.s.s Work.]

PLATE X.--_Micro-photographs of Gla.s.s-cutting_ Very difficult to explain. "A" is a sheet of gla.s.s seen _in section_ multiplied 15-1/2 diameters. The black marks along the _top edge_ are diamond-cuts, good and bad, coming _straight towards the spectator_. The two outside ones are very _bad_ cuts, far too violent, and have split off the surface of the gla.s.s. Of the two inner ones the left-hand one is an ideally good cut, no disturbance of the surface having occurred; the right-hand a fairly good one, but a little unnecessarily hard. Pa.s.sing over B for the present--C is a similar piece of gla.s.s also magnified 15-1/2 diameters, with _wheel-cuts_ seen endwise (coming towards the spectator). The one on the left is a very bad cut, the surface of the gla.s.s having actually split off in flakes, the next to it is a perfect cut where the surface is intact, and note that though not a quarter so much pressure has been employed, the split downward into the gla.s.s is deeper and sharper than in the violent cut to the left, as is also the case with the two other moderately good cuts to the right.

D, E--_Wheel-cuts._ In these we are looking down upon the surface of the gla.s.s. They are bad cuts, multiplied 20 diameters; the direction of the cut is from left to right. In the upper figure the flake of gla.s.s is split completely off but is still lying in its place. In the lower one the left-hand half is split, and the right-hand only partially so, remaining so closely attached to the body of the gla.s.s as to show (and in an especially beautiful and perfect manner) the rainbow-tinted "Newton's rings" which accompany the phenomenon of "Interference," for an explanation of which I must refer the reader to an encyclopaedia or some work on optics. _Good_ cuts seen from above are simply lines like a hair upon the gla.s.s, but the diamond-cut is a coa.r.s.er hair than the wheel-cut.

If you now hold the ill.u.s.tration _upside down_, what then becomes the top edge of section C shows a wheel-cut seen sideways along the section of the gla.s.s which it has divided, the direction of this cut being from left to right.

In the same way section "A" seen upside down gives the appearance of a _diamond_-cut, also from left to right, and multiplied 15-1/2 diameters, while "B" held in the same position gives the same cut multiplied 78 diameters. The nature of these things is discussed at p. 48.

In their natural colour, and under strong light, they are very beautiful objects under the microscope. Even a 10-diameter "Steinheil lens," or still better its English equivalent, a Nelson lens, will show them fairly, and some such instrument, opening out a new world of beauty beyond the power of ordinary vision, ought, one would think, to be one of the possessions of every artist and lover of Nature.

The ill.u.s.trations that follow are from the work of the author and his pupils conjointly. Those in which no _design_ has been added are for clearness' sake described as "by the author"; but it is to be understood that in all instances the transcribing of the work _in the gla.s.s_ has been the work of pupils under his supervision. All design of diaper, canopy, lettering, and quarries is so, in all the examples selected.

[Ill.u.s.tration: X.--Micro-photographs. Diamond and Wheel Cuts seen in Section and Plan.]

PLATE XI.--_From Gloucester Cathedral--"St. Boniface" by the author and his pupils._

[Ill.u.s.tration: XI.--Part of Window. Gloucester Cathedral.]

PLATE XII.--_From the same--"The Stork of Iona" and "The Infant Church,"

by the same._ Canopies from Oak and Ivy.

[Ill.u.s.tration: XII.--Part of Window. Gloucester Cathedral.]

PLATE XIII.--_Portion of a Window in progress (destined for Ashbourne Church), by the author._ This has been specially photographed _on the easel_, to show how near, by the use of false leadlines, &c., the work can be got, during its progress, to approach to its actual conditions when finished.

[Ill.u.s.tration: XIII.--Portion of Unfinished Window, photographed from Work on the Easel.]

PLATE XIV.--_Drawings from Nature, by the author's pupils._ Pieced together from various drawings by three different hands; made in preparation for design of Oak "canopy." See p. 324 and Plate XI.

[Ill.u.s.tration: XIV.--Drawings from Nature, in Preparation for Design.]

PLATE XV.--_Part of East Window of School Chapel, Tonbridge, by the author._ From the cartoon: the figure playing the dulcimer is underneath the manger, above which is seated the Virgin and Child.

[Ill.u.s.tration: XV.--Part of Window. Tonbridge School Chapel, photographed from the Cartoon.]

PLATE XVI.--_Figure of one of the Choir of "Dominations." From Gloucester, by the author and his pupils._

[Ill.u.s.tration: XVI.--Part of Window. Gloucester Cathedral.]

The names of the pupils whose work appears in Plate VIII. are J. H.

Saunders and R. J. Stubington. In Plate XIV. A. E. Child, K. Parsons, and J. H. Stanley; and in the Plates XI. to XVI. J. Brett, L. Brett, A.

E. Child, P. R. Edwards, M. Hutchinson, K. Parsons, J. H. Stanley, J. E.

Tarbox, and E. A. Woore. The cuts in the text are by K. Parsons and E.

A. Woore.

GLOSSARY

_Antiques_, coloured gla.s.ses made in imitation of the qualities of ancient gla.s.s.

_Banding_, putting on the copper "ties" by which the glazed light is attached to the supporting bars.

_Base_, (1) the light-tinted gla.s.s, white, greenish or yellow, on which the thin film of ruby or blue is imposed in "flashed" gla.s.ses; (2) the support of the niche on which the figure stands in "canopy work."

_Borrowed light_, a light not coming direct from daylight, but from the interior light of a building as in the case of a _screen_ of gla.s.s. (The result is similar when a window is seen against near background of trees or buildings.)

_Calm_ (of lead), the strip of lead, 3 to 4 feet long, as used for leading up the gla.s.s.

_Canopy_ or "tabernacle work," the architectural framing in imitation of a carved niche in which the figure is placed. The vertical supports (sometimes used alone to frame in the whole light) are called "shafting."