Vandalism on Historic Windows

I was called out to view and advise on the necessary repairs to an historic window recently.

Right side light undamaged

As I approached the building, I finally knew where the image a photographer had given me years ago as he was cleaning out his files.  He did not remember where the photo was taken other than in Glasgow.

The painted and leaded figure of the right panel.

This pair of windows are almost certainly designed by David Gauld (1865-1936) "an important Scottish artist (in both oils and stained glass), being one of the great innovators within the Glasgow Boys. a painter who designed a number of windows for stained glass firms in the 19th century". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Gauld

He was one of the group of artists known as the "Glasgow Boys" and did most of his stained glass designs for Guthrie and Wells.  These elements make this window one of the important windows from the period in private hands.

Of course, vandals do not question the beauty or importance of the objects they deface or destroy.  In this case the painted figure was left undisturbed, but the lower parts were badly damaged.

Upper part of the damaged section of the left panel

Lower section of the damage

Fortunately, the coloured glass is largely unbroken.  However a large seedy roundel with a green tint is broken and a replacement will have to be made by a company that can reproduce both the colour and the "seedyness" of the original.  Matching the texture and tints of the more common glass will prove difficult too.

It is a window with such a pedigree, that I hope various historical trusts will contribute to the expense of a proper repair.

Just a Note

Just a note of self promotion.

My recent blog post has been taken up by The Ecclesiastical and Heritage World for re-publication.
you can see it here.

Ninteenth Century Glasgow Domestic Glass

An area of Glasgow known as Woodside was developed as a westward expansion of Glasgow in the mid 19th century flourishing of Glasgow's developing industrialisation.  Much of this area of large terraced houses has been converted into office space.  My involvement was to repair some stair landing windows in an expanding business.  Next to the stair I worked in was this stunning window done in the Aesthetic Revival style.  The maker is not known, but seems to me to be done by the Stephen Adam studio in the middle of the century.

The whole window on the half landing with the obscured urban skyline behind

"Industry" on the right of the window

"Peace" on the left

The decorative top left panel

The top right decorative panel

The windows of this nature seem to have been used to conceal the view over the backs of other houses across the service lane for stabling the horses, and delivery of supplies and services to the houses.  It is wonderful to see some of these still existing a century and a half after being installed.19th

Repair of Leaded Glass Panels

I have not posted anything about the classes I offer from time to time before, but this course will include elements to help people care for their windows as well as make repairs to them.

This two day course will give you the initial skills required to undertake the repair of a damaged panel. You will learn of cartoon making, methods to disassemble panels, in situ repairs, glass selection, repair choices, and a number of other things needed to make a panel whole again. Although tools will be provided, you may wish to bring your own as well. You can also bring your own panel for diagnosis, but we will be working on a number of small panels that require repairs.

As well as being pushed in, this panel has a cracked roundel in the middle and a piece missing. Learn how to replace and repair without taking apart

This panel has several pieces broken throughout. Also it needs to be cleaned to bring it back to its former glory. Learn these "trade" secrets and more on this course

Saturday 11 - Sunday 12 October, 10:00 am to 4:00 pm.

The price of £160 covers tools, materials, and lunches.

Email me at stephen.richard43@gmail.com for bookings or further information.

Door Repair

A previous client brought me a whole door to do repairs on last week.  It used to be an inner door for a pub and is very solid.  This is a picture of the repaired glass back in the door, ready for collection.

Repaired Door panel,  re-installed

I hope you cannot see the four repairs.

Historic West Coast House Repairs

Last year I conducted repairs on the windows of an Alexander (Greek) Thomson designed house, and for the last six months or so, I have been involved in repairs and other work on a Lutyens designed house.

The stair windows had some cracks and was producing a lot of condensation.  As the roof was being repaired, the opportunity was taken to have something done about the window.

As you can see the window is awkward to get to so the roofer's scaffolding was essential.  The window panel was bowed with a number of broken lead joints.  The window is also installed directly into the stone, so there were additional breaks in getting them out. The iron work of the opening panel was completely corroded and covered in putty to try to weather proof it.

The decision was taken to re-lead and replace the broken pieces with a very good match of glass made in Poland (locally called Tatra glass). The opening panel was remade to be fixed into the stone.  The weep holes were cleared to disperse the condensation as originally intended.

The resulting finished window appears to be the same as the original.  The repairs are not distinguishable except by close examination.



The house also has a heavy external door that previously was solid.  The owners wanted more light into the hallway behind and proposed opening the wood panels to accept leaded glass.

After looking at some of the leaded window designs around the house a lozenge and diamond design was chosen.  This shows the completed door from the interior.

The door from the exterior still maintains an imposing presence, although softened by the insertion of the four panels.

Auchtertool Church

The refurbished and re-leaded window of Mary will be placed in Auchtertool Church, East Lothian.  It is a church set on a small hill top over looking the valley toward the sea.

The modern approach by road is from the North East.

The original approach was from the south and below the church to approach from the south west.  The entry porches can be seen on the right.

The main stained glass windows are in the East and South windows.  This window of St Andrew and St John is probably the oldest of them.  It is behind the pulpit.

The next window was probably this one, in memory of the Minister's wife and children.

There is a window in memory of several young railway workers funded by their fellow workers.  These young men were killed in an accident while working on the railway that runs near the church.

The final window on the South is a WW1 memorial window.

There seems to be no record of who designed and built these windows, and nothing can be seen on the windows themselves.  They are good examples of late 19th and early 20th century work. Though it is obvious there was less money to spend on the borders of the railway workers window, the clarity of the image is enhanced by the simple border.

As you can see, this new window with Mary as its subject will be a big contrast to the existing windows with their traditional imagery.

Artist Panel Refurbishment

I was asked by an Edinburgh client to restore and repair a three panelled window made by her artist father in the late 1950's.  It had a number of pieces of broken and missing glass, and broken lead joints.

It needed to be completely taken apart, cleaned and re-leaded.  A couple of dozen pieces needed to be glued, and another dozen or so replaced and painted.  The plated pieces needed to be cleaned on their "insides" too, and then copper foiled to keep the cement from getting between the layers.

Dismantling the upper panel.  Rubbing of the panel is in the upper right corner

Placing the unleaded pieces on a second rubbing of the panel. The tape holding broken pieces together can be seen as white strips across the glass.

The glass used was all hand made, and often up to 6mm thick.  Where the colour of the thinner glass was not of sufficient density or a change of tone was required, the artist had double plated the piece with another colour.  

I found it difficult to perceive the whole work, because of its broken and dirty condition, until it was all together.

The panel reset into a wooden frame for installation into the church of the artist's  youth.

The top panel

Middle Panel

Bottom Panel

It is a very strong, modern work in stained glass depicting Mary with her child Christ and surrounded by women.  It does not have the usual manger and dominant or supplicant males most often associated with depictions of the birth. It will be a contrast to the rest of the windows in the East Lothian church, but will compliment the themes already there.

The next post will give information on the Church

Artist Exchange

Recently, received a call from a well-known artist in Scotland to repair her stair landing window after an accident.  A fall had broken the bottom half of the window.  Fortunately, the person is not badly injured.  

The repair required replacement Victorian etched glass as well as three etched border panels.  The border, although traditional, required a lot of fine work with bitumen as well as the usual vinyl resist against the hydrofluoric acid.

The finished window was a success with the new glass fitting in well with the existing glass.

What was even better for me was her agreement that we could exchange my work for a painting of hers.  This is the painting that I chose.  It hangs in the bedroom, giving me pleasure morning and evening, which fits into the mood of the painting, I think.

Glass Bending

As a little taster of what I have been doing after the film work (which continues to come in), this is a task of bending 18 shaped panels for a large lantern outside the Boys Brigade HQ in Edinburgh.

This is two of the panels set up on their steel moulds with Thinfire as a separator

These are the two pieces bent and out of the kiln.

These two have shown that over the length of 430mm there is a stretching of about 5mm, so I will need to cut them a little shorter, so they will fit into the metal frame.

The firing also showed that I can reduce the temperature by about 10º to fully bend and reduce the chances of marking the glass on the mould.