Stained Glass Windows
Arguably the most aesthetically beautiful and timeless form of window pane, the stained glass window has a colourful history.
The history of stained glass
When people think about stained glass windows they usually conjure up images of churches, which is where they are most often found. While they look stunning and give churches their other-worldly atmosphere, stained glass windows did serve another purpose when they were developed in the Middle Ages.
During this time, many people were illiterate, and relied upon their priest to relay stories of the Bible to them. However, more often than not the Bible was read in Latin, which people struggled to understand. The stained glass windows served to retell the Bible stories so that men and women in church could comprehend them. Each window pane might depict a different biblical story or saint. This is why stained glass windows were referred to as “the poor man’s Bible” for many years.
Many of the medieval and renaissance stained glass artworks were lost during the Reformation, when Protestant Christians saw the rich and elaborate works of the Catholic Church to be signs of excess. They were smashed and replaced with plain glass.
The art of stained glass production was lost until the early 19th century, when it became fashionable once more thanks to the likes of William Morris and Charles Rennie Macintosh. Most of the stained glass windows we see in the UK today come from this period, including those found in Victorian era homes. More ancient stained glass windows can be found in Churches throughout Europe.
How stained glass windows were made
Making stained glass was neither cheap nor easy. This is why it’s usually found in Roman Catholic churches, as they had the wealth to pay for the materials and the people who made stained glass.
During the Medieval period, glass factories were found where there was a supply of silica, which is the essential material for glass manufacture. Glass was coloured by adding metallic oxide powders such as copper oxide to produce green glass shades, and gold to produce red and purple. Later developments meant that further colouring and shading could be added by brushing the glass surface with chemicals and firing them.
The overall design of the window would be drawn up in picture form in the same size as the proposed window. Then they would number different sections and choose corresponding colours before placing pieces of coloured glass over the drawing and cutting them to size using a hot iron.
There are various methods to produce thin sheets of glass, including cylinder glass, crown glass and rolled glass, all which achieve slightly different results.
Lead strips were then used to hold the individual pieces of glass together to form the entire window pane, which would be fitted into a frame before being installed.
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