84 AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 
**Juliet”’—a portrait window by Ida J. Burgess 
architectural types. Instead, the Colonial architect em- 
ployed, as a matter of course, leaded glass as best fitting 
the style of the period and the material in which he worked. 
And so it is that in the modern house one looks for con- 
sistency in all structural matters, and stained glass is given 
its place in houses of the prototype that evolved it, just as 
we place leaded glass in those houses of to-day to which 
its traditions should assign it. Indeed, nothing could be 
more incongruous than a dwelling for all the world like a 
Colonial cottage outside and like a crypt, or a chapel, or a 
baronial castle inside, and vice-versa. 
Nevertheless, it must not be thought in this connection 
that stained glass employed in the windows of a house makes 
for over-solemnity, gloominess, or mere ecclesiastical aspect. 
Our artists of the present era have shown us to the con- 
trary. We have seen what Sir Edward Burns-Jones, Will- 
iam Morris, John La Farge, Louis Tiffany, Walter Shirlaw, 
to mention but a few names, could do to prove that stained 
glass may have an important 
place in the modern dwelling, 
provided the style of archi- 
tecture in the house admits 
of anything other than plain 
glass or leaded glass. It is 
true that the unilluminated, 
varied color and strange mix- 
ture of tints, visible on the 
exterior of windows of 
stained glass when viewed | 
from the outside, are some- |} ! L 
what disconcerting and oc- | fae= |= 
F3 
ee 
casionally inharmonious in ~~ gienintHe 
effect with the facade of a NeMCSIR LAIN 
building. Nevertheless, as “Gunter Rone 
stained glass windows are peere wen | 
only properly placed when aie LC 
they serve primarily to orna- | Bee | 
ment and enrich the decora- ~— eg = 
tive effect of an interior and 
Stained-glass window, by Clara Burd, depicting Launcelot and Guinevere 
March, 1912 
to exclude an unpleasant outlook, their very position ab- 
solves them from the criticism that their employment as 
architectural features should have placed upon them any 
ban by reason of their exterior appearance. As a matter 
of fact, the ‘“‘rough-cast” appearance of the exterior of a 
stained glass window, if unmarred by expanses of skyblue- 
and-white streaky translucent glass, rather enhances the 
walls of a stone or brick house than otherwise, when viewed 
from the outside. Stained glass for the modern house de- 
serves to receive more attention than it has had, even from 
the present-day home-builder, who is supposed to be keenly 
interested in everything pertaining to the development of 
beautiful houses, both within and without. A window show- 
ing beautiful masses of color, varying under the different 
degrees of light, possesses at all times a peculiar charm of 
its own. No other medium of artistic expression has quite 
that which is peculiar to stained glass as a material for 
creating the beautiful, and the wealth of exquisite color, 
brilliant and gem-like, which it reveals to us as the light 
passes through it, gives it a claim to our enduring con- 
sideration. 
There are, of course, certain rooms in the house where 
windows of stained glass will find their most appropriate 
setting. In the library—that is to say, in the room which 
is a real library—the stained glass window above the book- 
shelves may form a most appropriate decorative feature, 
and while admitting a certain amount of light, will obviate 
the strong crosslights that would otherwise result from the 
use of windows throughout of clear glass. In some in- 
stances small window spaces above the bookshelves have 
been filled by portrait heads in stained glass, and in other 
instances larger spaces have been occupied by landscape 
windows worked out with subdued or glowing tints, as good 
taste determined. Hall, staircase and music-room windows 
of stained glass are appropriate in their proper setting, and 
in town houses, where the rear of the dwelling has an un- 
pleasing outlook and yet must give place to the dining- 
room, stained glass windows let in a sufficient amount of 
light and yet screen the undesirable view. Naturally one 
does not look for large figure compositions in stained glass 
windows intended for small rooms, for in this, with all other 
matters under the dictatorship of good taste, consistency 
must be studied and maintained. 
The idea is prevalent that stained glass of good quality, 
color and artistic design costs an enormous amount of 
money. On the contrary, very beautiful windows may be 
had for a comparatively small expenditure. A fine window 
of stained glass is as good an investment, so far as buying 
things for one’s self is concerned, as a fine piece of furniture. 
Like the latter, the stained 
glass window can be insured 
against loss, moved from 
place to place, or stored 
away for safety in times of 
prolonged absence. 
Notable among windows 
designed by American artists 
for private houses is the 
‘Peony Window” here re- 
produced, the work of the 
late John La Farge. A sin- 
gle panel of growing flowers, 
shown against a background 
suggesting a luminous sky 
above and running water be- 
low, and the border of intri- 
cate pattern of delicate flower 
petals, presents a variety of 
color tones characteristic of 
the best glass designers of 
EMMITT DTS a 
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