266 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



July, 1908 



Leaded Glass Windows for Domestic Use 



By Charles M. Shean 



HE masterpieces of the glass workers' craft, 

 gorgeous of color and magnificent in tone, 

 which glorify many a great church and 

 cathedral, are almost always associated in 

 the mind of the average man and woman 

 with the buildings in which they have been 

 seen. Ecclesiastical art, therefore, is gen- 

 erally regarded as practically the only use to which stained 

 glass of rich coloring may properly be put. 



In consequence, the availability of this medium for domes- 

 tic use and its adaptability for household ornamentation 

 have been too generally overlooked. 



Compared with colored glass the deepest and richest pig- 

 ments on the palette of the painter are poor and ineffective. 

 In glass alone is color at its full splendor to be found; but 

 in the few figure windows that have been placed in homes, 

 where the full gamut of color has been used, the result 

 generally has been unsatisfactory. Perhaps the principal 

 reason being that the effect, no matter what the subject may 

 be, is apt to recall ecclesiastical work in which rich draperies 

 and glittering accessories have become traditional; and then 

 again in very few homes can a figure composition of rich 

 coloring be seen from a distance sufficient to give it its 

 proper effect. 



There is, however, one kind of colored window for the 

 dwelling, in which rich tones have been most successfully 

 used by a few artists, and which stands in a class by itself. 

 That is the landscape window. 



In these windows the richest tints of our autumn woods 

 have been given in a way to make them pictured things of 

 beauty, and this with no hint of ecclesiasticism. They enrich 

 and embellish the rooms in which they are placed, and, more- 

 over, this form of composition lends itself most happily 

 to windows of any shape; circular, square, long and narrow, 

 or upright. Furthermore, they can be used to advantage 

 where the outlook is disagreeable, always providing that the 

 light is sufficiently strong to properly illuminate them. 



When, however, the light is not sufficient to show a heavy 

 window of this sort, there are compositions calling only for 

 delicate and translucent glass. Some of the most successful 

 American landscape windows are of this description; trees 

 white or pink with blossoms, 1 or with the tender green 

 leafage of early spring. 



The accidental flow of color and the blending of tones 

 in American opalescent glass, if properly selected and judi- 

 ciously used, can be made to suggest a wealth of landscape 

 effects; the depth of the forest, the tenderness of distant 

 mountains, the silveryness of streams, the greens, browns 

 and purples of undulating hills. 



Frequently the skies of landscape windows are their prin- 

 cipal feature, and the glass available for this purpose is 

 abundant, of great variety and of wonderful beauty. 



These windows are susceptible of almost the diversity of 

 nature itself. Sometimes a few slender trees with light 

 leafage are used with the distance low and simple, the sky 

 leaded in clear glass, so that color and pattern, together 

 with a view of the outside world, is secured. Or again a 

 few branches with blossoms and leaves can be thrown across 

 the window and the rest left in clear transparent glass. 

 Sometimes in small windows a spray of flowers is shown 

 and the greater part of the window left uniform in color, 

 either clear or translucent glass being used. For these win- 

 dows many Japanese designs naturally suggest themselves 

 as often available. 



Glass for domestic use offers as large a scope for the 

 artist's fantasy and invention as ecclesiastical work. In 

 many ways it is a more inviting field, for formulae and 

 stereotyped forms are lacking, and the artist is freer to de- 

 velop his conception in an original and personal way; sub- 

 ject always to the marked limitations of the material. For 

 in glass crude realism is impossible, and perspective, except 

 in a modified form, is out of place. The lead line dominates 

 and controls the pattern and design and compels attention 

 in every part. It is the basis of the worked out conception 



Leaded Glass by Maitland Armstrong 



