West End Rebuild

I was called out to look at a door panel that had been broken because a delivery person decided to knock on the glass rather than the door frame.  In doing so, he broke one pane and unshipped some others.  The client and I agreed on a price.  In removing it, it became apparent that there were even more broken joints than I noticed initially.  When we got it back to the studio, we began preparations to take it apart and rebuild it.

Beginning the dismantling after taking a rubbing

Placing the dismantled pieces on the rubbing

After the rebuild, we installed the door panel with great success.

Installed door pane from the inside

Re-instated door panel from the outside

The replacement glass is not apparent without close inspection, all the glass is clean and the lead and joints are sound for a few more generations.

Sea Cat

Mariscat is a reference to a type of sailing ship.  That makes it an appropriate image for a front door in Mariscat Drive.

This is the progress we have made on the construction of an oval window to replace the existing Georgian wired safety glass.

The glass colours and styles were chosen to compliment the fanlight that remains above the door.

It remains to solder and cement the panel before fitting.  Possibly this will be ready as a Christmas present.

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.

Brilliant Cut Glass

While being at the house in Bathgate doing the removal and installation of the cloakroom window, I could not help but notice the glass in the front door.

This is the first brilliant cut glass that I have seen (not that there are not others, of course) in a domestic front door.  Upon enquiry, it turns out that this building of three flats was built in the early 1920's by a local foundry owner.  It may be that the wealth available lead to the commissioning of this front door.

It is not only etched with hydrofluoric acid but also white acid (a combination of alkaline and acidic chemicals to give a more pale etched colour).  The white acid effect can be seen in the thin line surrounding the clear brilliant cut lines.

You can also see the effect of the white acid in the paler upper central area of the panel.  This shows the effects of the two acids clearly.  The chemical combination gets its name from the whiter appearance achieved with its use.  It is rarely used nowadays because of its heat-creating reactions and subsequent risk of explosion.

The brilliant cutting can be seen in the six heart-shaped petals at the top of the stylised acanthus leaves and above the fleur-de-lys emblem at their junction.

This lower section of the central panel shows the effect of the brilliant cutting.  The four "cartouches" shown here have lines at the curve, showing the use of different wheels to do the cutting.  The rectangles and circles are relatively easier to cut than the sweeping curves leading to the circles.

The bottom of the door panel is relatively plain, but contains some superb artistry in the brilliant cutting.

In this emblem at the bottom of the door, the cartouche is cut in one sweep of the wheel.  The inner detail is cut with two sweeps of the wheel for the outward flaring shapes and finally the points put in with a "V" shaped wheel.

The side of the panel shows more of the skill of the cutters. Three linked olive shaped areas are cut and polished beside a group of faint cartouches.  Below is a group of three heart-shaped references to honesty seed pods.  But a simple and difficult feat is the straight lines cut all the way around the panel.

The corner again shows the work in creating both curved and straight lines.  They are all incorporated with the acid etched designs in an almost seamless manner.

My admiration for the skill involved in producing this door panel relates to the requirement that the lines and shapes are cut into the glass and then ground repeatedly with finer an finer grits until polished.  And there were no slips!  Secondly, the whole piece of glass (around 120 cm by 80 cm and 8 mm thick) was suspended and balanced by weights to enable the craftsman to manoeuvre the glass over the spinning wheels.

This work deserves to be at the very least listed as an important piece of work and at best incorporated into a museum setting as this work cannot now be reproduced as all the hand skills have been lost and the computer controlled brilliant cutting machines cannot reproduce the curves of this design.

Déjà vue

It is strange how if you keep practicing in one area for a time, you get to see things a second time.  This happened to me with South park Avenue and now it has happened with a door in Scotstoun.

I first saw this door about 15 years ago as a result of pellet damage.  Approximately where the masking tape crosses below the left hand side of the central medallion, there was a hole probably caused by a pellet gun.  I did not have the expertise to fill this hole and so asked Linda Cannon - who is now part of Cannon MacInnes - to see if she could repair this with resin, which she did to great effect.  

Unfortunately during the windy weather we have been having recently, the builders working on the house left the back and front doors open.  The wind did the inevitable and blew the front door shut, breaking the glass.  As this seems to be the last of these doors in the locality, the owners are keen to have a reproduction made.

The whole window has an arts nouveau feel about it although the central image seems to come from an older time.  It is certainly worth reproducing as faithfully as possible.  Linda and are placing bids for the work.

Porch Door

Having previously completed the complete rebuild of a window for a sagging frame, I was asked to provide a reproduction front door. This involved removing the dark timber cladding of the door to reveal the original opening in the door.

This is the completed panel installed.

General view, outside

Inside view

Detail of the painting

Novar Drive, Hyndland

A client had me put reproduction windows into the internal fanlights of his house. He was so pleased that he decided to have a similar thing done in a flat that he will be renting out. In this case I took the pattern in the bathroom window and adapted it slightly. My interpretation of the small mound at the bottom of that window is reflected in the door opening below the fanlight.




This window was installed by the joiners working on the flat. After inspection, I needed to add putty, as the panels had been installed dry, and so rattled each time a door was closed. Another lesson on the need for experienced people to do even simple jobs.

Rutherglen Door

I just got a photo of a door installed just before Christmas. This had a large number of broken pieces and a lot of lead with broken joints. The ties had come off the glazing bar.

The objective was to make the repairs look as much as possible as though they were original. The main concern was to get the large central piece which was badly broken look as near the original as possible, given that the texture of the original glass has been unavailable for many decades.

I chose a roughly textured clear granite, although it was more finely textured than the original, for its similarity to the original. Then I had to change the colour. Simply adding a silver stain would have made the piece too bright. Instead I matted the piece with an sepia umber on one side and stained the other. This gave the bronze colour wanted. As the original was not evenly coloured, I took the liberty of allowing areas of more intense colour to remain.

I am pleased with the result in that my additions are not obvious, and the central emblem has the character of the original.