604 
GLASS, 
A French painter at Marfeilles Is faid to have given the 
fi ft notion of this improvement, upon going to Rome 
ui.der the pontificate of Julius II. but Albert Durer and 
Lucas of Leyden were the firft that carried it to much 
perfection. 
'I'his art, however, has frequently met with much in¬ 
terruption, and has been nearly loft; of which Mr. Wal¬ 
pole gives us the following account, in his Anecdotes 
of Painting in England.—“ The firft interruption given 
to it, (he fays,) v/as by thp reformation, v/hich baiulhed 
■^the art out of churches ; yet it was in fome mcafure 
kept up in the efcutchcons of the nobility and gentry in 
the windows of their great halls. Towards th.e end ot 
queen Elizabeth’s reign it was omitted even there ; yet 
the pratdice did not entirely ceafe. The chapel of Our 
I.ady at Warwick vvas ornamented anew by Robert Dud¬ 
ley earl of Leicelter, and his countefs, and the cipher 
of the glafs-paintcr’s name yet remains, with the date 
i_574 : and in fome of the chapels at Oxford the art again 
appears, dating itfelf in i6z2, by the hand of no con¬ 
temptible mafter. 
“ 1 could fupply even this gfip of forty-eight years by 
maiiy dates on Flemifii glafs: but nobody ever fuppofed 
that tl’.e fecret was lolt lb early as the reign ot James I. 
.and that it Iras not periftied lince will be evident from 
the following feries, reaching to the prefent hour: viz- 
The portraits in the windows of the library at Al! Souls., 
Oxford. In the chapel at Queen’s-college there are twelve 
windows dated 151S. P. C. a cipher on the painted glafs 
in the chapel at Warwick, 1574. The windows at Wad- 
ham-college, the drawing good, and colours fine, by 
Bernard Van Linge, 1622. In the chapel at Lincoln’s- 
inn, a window, with the name Bernard, 1623. This was 
ju'obably the preceding Van Linge. In the church ol St. 
Leonard, Slioreditch, two windows by Baptifta Sutton, 
3634. The windows in the chapel at Univerfity-college, 
Hen. CyWt^pinxit, 1687. At Chrift-church, Ifaac Oliver, 
aged 84, 1700. Window in Mertoii-chapel, William 
Price, 1700. Windows at Queen’s, New'-college, and 
Maudlin, by William Price, the fon, whofe colours are 
fine, whofe drawing is good, and whole tafte in orna¬ 
ments and mofaic is far iuperior to any of his predecef- 
I'ors ; is equal to the antique, to the good Italian mafters, 
and only I'urpaft'ed by his own fingular modcfty. 
“ It may not be unwelcome to the curious reader to 
fee fome anecdotes of the revival of tafte for painted 
glafs in England. Price, as we have faid, vvas the only 
painter in tJiat ftyle for many years in England. After¬ 
wards one Rowell, a plumber at Reading, did Ibme 
things, particularly for the late Henry earl of Pembroke; 
but Rowell’s colours foon vanilhed. At laft he found 
out a very durable and beautiful red ; but he died in a 
year or two, and the fecret went with him. A man at 
Birmingham began the fame art in 1757,,and fitted up a 
window for lord Lyttelton, in the church of Hagely, 
but foon broke. A little after him, one Peckitt at York 
began the fame bufinels, and made good proficiency. A 
few admirers of that art collected lome d.ifperfed panes 
from ancient building's,-, particularly the late lord Cob- 
ham, who erected a Gothic temple at Stowe, and filled 
it with arms of the old nobility, &c. About the year 
1753, one Afciotti, an Italian, wlio had married a Fle- 
miih woman, brought- a parcel of painted glafs trom 
Flanders, and fold it for a few guineas to Mr. Bateman, 
of Old Wind for. Upon that I fent Afciotti again to 
Flanders, who bro'ught me 450 pieces, for which, in¬ 
cluding the expence of his journey, I paid him thirty, 
fix guineas. His wife made more journeys for the fame 
purpofe; and fold her cargoes to Palmer, a glazier, in 
St. Martin’s-lane, who immediately raifed the price to 
one, two, or five, guineas, for a fingle piece, and fitted 
up entire windows with them, and with niouiics of plain 
glafs of different colours, in 1761, Paterfon, an auc- 
tioneer, at Elfex-iioufe in the Strand, exhibited the two 
firirau6tions of painted giafs, imported i.n lik-C manner 
from Flanders. All this manufafilure confifted in rounds 
of fcripture-lcori-es, itained in black and yellow, or in 
fmall figures of black and white ; birds and flowers in 
colours, and Flemifn coats of arms.” 
Tite colours ufed for painting or ftaining glafs, are 
very different from thofe ufed in painting either in water 
or oil colours. — For black, take fcales of iron, one ounce; 
fcales of copper, one ounce; jet, half an ounce: reduce 
them to powder, and mix them. For blue, take povv. 
der of blue, one pound; fal nitre, half a pound ; mix 
them and grind them well together. For carnation, take 
red chalk, eight ounces; iron fcales, and litliarge of 
lilver, of each two ounces ; gum arable, half an ounce ; 
diftblve ill water, and grind all together; tlien put it in 
a glafs, and let it ftand to fettle fourteen days. For 
green, take red lead, one pound ; fcales of copper, one 
pound; and flint, five pounds: divide them into three 
parts, and add to them as much fal nitre ; put tiiem 
into a crucible, and melt them with a ilrong fiie ; when 
tlie mafs is cold, powder it, and grind it on a porpiiyry. 
For gold colour, take filver, an ounce ; antimony, half 
an ounce ; melt them in a crucible : then pound the mafs 
to powder, and grind it on a copper plate ; add to it yel¬ 
low ochre, or brick-duft calcined again, fifteen ounces; 
atid grind well together with water. For purple, take 
minium, one pound; brown ftone, one pound; white 
flint, five pounds : divide them into three parts, and 
add to them as much fal nitre as one of the parts; cal¬ 
cine, melt, and grind, as before. For red, take jet, four 
ounces; litharge of filver, tw-o ounces; red chalk, one 
ounce : powder them fine, and mix them. For white, 
take jet, two parts; white flint ground very fine, one 
part; mix them. For yellow, take Spanifli brown, ten 
parts; leaf-filver, one part; antimony, hah a part; put 
all into a crucible, and calcine them for ufe. 
The grand efiefit pi'oduced by windows of ftained glafs 
in many of the old cathedral church.es, and the addi¬ 
tional fpl.endour derived to tlie colours through the me¬ 
dium of the glafs, naturally led to the invention of what 
is termed Back-painting on glafs. This invention, how¬ 
ever, is far from producing the noble effedt which-the 
art of painting on glafs is I'ufceptible of producing, and 
which, if once brought to complete perfection, might 
become the means of preferving portraits, and all deli¬ 
cate fubjects, fecure from that decay of colour and of 
canvas, which has long begun to obliterate the fineft 
paintings of the greateft artifts whom the world has ever 
produced. 
Might not fomething of this kind be humbly at. 
tempted in the following-way ? Suppofe, after the out¬ 
line of a likenefs be drawn, that blocks were cut from 
it after the fame manner as for calicoes, or paper-hanv. 
ings, only with fuperior nicety, and in greater number, 
for the purpofe of multiplying and better blending the 
tints. From thefe blocks, and with thefe colours, let 
the figure be printed on paper; and, to prevent inaccti- 
racy in bringing the feparate parts, cut on the difterent 
blocks, to unite into a complete whole, let the paper 
be placed under a frame I'ecured in an immoveable pofi. 
tion. The blocks being accurately fquared, all exactly 
of the fame dimenfions, and each, nicely fitting tlie frame, 
cannot, in palling through it to deliver their feveral im- 
prelhlons, make the final left deviation from their in¬ 
tended places, but muft produce an exabt picture, at 
lealt on the paper. 
To transfer that insprefiion to glafs, is perhaps an ob¬ 
ject of difficulty. Were it not for fome finaller ftrokes 
which m.uft necdfarily be in wood, the entire impreflion 
might in tiie outfet be made on the glafs itfelf, without 
any intervention of paper; fince experience has proved 
to the calico-printers, that the great mall'es of colour 
cannot be fuccefsfully delivered irom wood;- wherefore 
they are obliged, in thofe parts of their patterns, to ufe 
bits of fmooth worn-out bcaver-hat, which might very 
well be prclied on the gJafs-plate. Hov/ever, from what 
we 
