The Studio yearbook of decorative art (1906)

Stained Glass

STAINED GLASS.
Of the beautiful art of stained glass the con-
stituent elements are, briefly, the glass or pot-
metal, as it is called, and the lead lines. The
latter in genuine old work are as narrow as might be
compatible with holding the glass together in
position. The coloured glass was coloured through
and through, with the exception of the red or " ruby."
This colour is so intense that, in order not to lose
transparency on the one hand nor strength on the
other, it was always made by welding a thin layer
or film of red glass on to a backing of plain white
glass.

Originally the separate pieces of glass were
shaped by hammering and chipping the edges,
diamond cutters being of later introduction. The
colouring matter was deep sepia brown paint, which,

PORCH DOOR PANEL DESIGNED AND EXECUTED

BY OSCAR PATERSON FOR
JOHN NISBET, ARCHITECT

I36

after the process of firing in the kiln, became fixed,
like an enamel, more or less permanently to the
glass.

The greatest change that was made approxi-
mately corresponds with the genesis of the Per-
pendicular style, to wit, the introduction ot

iO

VESTIBULE DESIGNED BY JOHN

DOOR PANEL NISBET, ARCHITECT

yellow stain. It virtually revolutionised the
practice of stained glass-making, the develop-
ment of which never experienced a more
wonderful advance. To the glowing, jewel-
like effects of colour hitherto characteristic
of glass was now added a new charm of
tender, pearly tints, ranging from palest
amber to ripe golden-orange. Hitherto the
besetting defect of glass had been crudity ;
thereafter it became, if anything, insipidity,