Stained Glass Design in the 1820's

Illustration: Nathaniel Whittock. Antique Rosette for Quart Foil, 1828.

Stained glass design seems an age-old tradition, but is perhaps more associated in most peoples minds with the traditions of the medieval period in Europe. Although stained glass design work can be found outside of the continent, particularly in the Islamic world, the breadth and scope, both ecclesiastical and domestic, make European stained glass design one of the central themes of both the craft and decorative arts world.

In 1828, Nathaniel Whittock produced a practical book entitled The Decorative Painters' and Glaziers' Guide. It was published in London and detailed aspects of the world of decorative painters and glaziers. The book itself was split into two sections, one dealing with the imitation of woods and marbles through the use of paint effects, the other with the various aspects of the glaziers trade including both painted and stained glass design. Although much of the book dealt with the technical skills involved in the process of the different decorative effects needed, there was also room for an element of design, even if only shown purely as a practical guide to the vocabulary of stained glass pattern work and how to integrate it within the context of the glazier's craft.

Illustration: Nathaniel Whittock. Stained glass design, 1828.

It is perhaps somewhat misleading of Whittock to call much of the design work 'stained glass', as in fact most of it was clearly painted. He seemed to tread a particularly unclear path by suggesting that by painting decorative motifs and pattern work onto already stained glass work, this could then be classed as stained glass in its own right. The fact that most of us would now assume that stained glass was a specific medieval craft rather than part of a glazier's repertoire, perhaps says much about the era in which Whittocks book was originally published.

It must be remembered that the book was published in 1828 and the date does set a certain amount of definition to the parameters of the decorative work featured in the book, particularly that of the glass work. The 1820s was the period of the reign of George IV, rather than his regency, and was therefore part of the dying days of the Georgian period. Many during this period were well aware that the best days of the House of Hanover were long gone. It was considered by the later Victorians in particular as a tasteless episode where every whim and eccentricity was indulged. They were particularly scathing as far as the architectural and decorative arts were concerned. The irony that later generations would feel the same about the Victorian world was probably beyond their understanding, as it no doubt is when concerning our own contemporary world.

Illustration: Nathaniel Whittock. Stained glass design, 1828.

Although the Victorians indulged in their own fair share of paint effects and illusional qualities when imitating more expensive materials, there were elements within the era that were intensely critical of the previous Georgian period. One such element was the Gothic Revivalists who were deservedly aghast at the general piecemeal and casual approach that Georgian architects and interior decorators had taken to the decorative arts. Church interiors had a particularly bad reputation, with a number of individuals in the late Georgian era removing intrinsic and irreplaceable medieval aspects of many churches and cathedrals. Some of these individuals actually included members of the church themselves who found it enticing to both modernise interiors as well as affecting their own personal stamp on the buildings, hopefully for their own posterity.

Stained glass was a particular problem within the dying days of the Georgian era. A number of original medieval glass panels and windows which had survived the English Reformation, the Civil War and the rule of Cromwell, were removed either to be replaced by inferior workmanship or by plain glass. It was considered by a number of individuals who should have known better, that the removal of medieval stained glass windows was a practical consideration which would allow more light to filter into churches, abbeys and cathedrals. Unfortunately, painted glass of the type recommended by Whittock was part of the problem faced by later generations. The design work was often considered to have been highly inappropriately used within the medieval context of many of the ecclesiastical buildings from that era.

Illustration: Nathaniel Whittock. Rosettes for stained glass, 1828.

It was considered that the Georgian era was classically motivated and therefore intrinsically hostile to the medieval. While not strictly true, there were a number of critics, architects, designers and decorators who tried to blend their own interpretation into the medieval framework, it was noticeable how little genuine research had gone into the decorative work that was classed as medieval or gothic and how much of the ensuing medieval was still very much classically inspired, often having a disingenuous medieval veneer. That many of these additions had to be removed in the later nineteenth century perhaps says much about the workmanship. However, many Victorian restorers did much more damage than the late Georgians and fundamentally so, leaving many ecclesiastical buildings across England irreparably damaged and altered.

Stained glass itself was perhaps one of the success stories of English nineteenth century craft and the decorative arts. Although much of the work highlighted by Whittock was painted glass rather than stained, the Victorians set themselves the task of re-learning the original medieval stained glass craft much of which had been long forgotten. This included traditional forms of glass making, colouring and lead work, much of which Whittock's book reproduced through imitation and illusion. In this respect, ecclesiastical and domestic stained glass produced from the mid-nineteenth century onwards, had a much more traditional grounding and was linked directly to the medieval craft, rather than to that of the Georgian ideals of illusion and make believe.

However, it is also important to remember that Whittock was working within the tried and tested parameters of the Georgian decorative arts. He was particularly concerned with of the practical application of those arts as used by professionals within the trades that supplied the interiors market. It was not necessarily up to him to challenge the prevailing tastes and judgements of the day.

Illustration: Nathaniel Whittock. Rosettes for stained glass, 1828.

For anyone as interested as I am in the extraordinary length that some book titles reached in the nineteenth century, they might be interested in hearing the full title of Whittock's 1828 publication. While many referred to the book as The Decorative Painters' and Glaziers' Guide it was in fact titled The Decorative Painters' and Glaziers' Guide; Containing the Most Approved Methods of Imitating Oak, Mahogany, Maple, Rose, Cedar, Coral, and Every Other Kind of Fancy Wood; Verd Antique, Dove, Sienna, Porphyry, White Veined, and Other Marbles; in Oil or Distemper Colour: Designs for Decorating Apartments, in Accordance with the Various Styles of Architecture; With Directions for Stencilling, and Process for Destroying Damp in Walls; Also a Complete Body of Information on the Art of Staining and Painting on Glass; Plans for the Erection of Apparatus for Annealing it; and the Method of Joining Figures Together by Leading, With Examples from Ancient Windows.

Further reading links:
Basic Stained Glass Making: All the Skills and Tools You Need to Get Started (How To Basics)
Stained Glass Basics: Techniques * Tools * Projects
English Stained Glass
Medieval and Renaissance Stained Glass in the Victoria and Albert Museum
English and French Medieval Stained Glass in the Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (Corpus Vitrearum)
Picturing the Celestial City: The Medieval Stained Glass of Beauvais Cathedral
Stained Glass From Medieval Times to Present: Treasures to be Seen in New York
The Medieval Stained Glass of Lancashire (Corpus Vitrearum Medii Aevi: Great Britain)
The Medieval Stained Glass of Cheshire (Corpus Vitrearum Medii Aevi)
Medieval Stained Glass in Suffolk Churches: "Let the Stained Glass Speak"
The Medieval Stained Glass of Wells Cathedral (Corpus Vitraearum Medii Aevi)
Life, Death and Art: The Medieval Stained Glass of Fairford Parish Church A - A Multimedia Exploration
The Armor of Light: Stained Glass in Western France, 1250-1325 (California Studies in the History of Art)
Medieval and Renaissance Stained Glass 1200-1550 (Catalogue, 30)
A History of the Stained Glass of St. George's Chapel, Windsor (Historical Monographs Relating to St.George's Chapel, Windsor Castle)

Augustus Charles Pugin and Gothic Ornaments

Illustration: A C Pugin. Stone stringcourses, Croydon Church, Surrey, and stone pateras, Salisbury Cathedral. Gothic Ornaments, 1831.

Gothic Ornaments, Selected from Various Ancient Buildings, both in England and France, During the Years, 1828, 1829, and 1830: by Augustus Pugin, Architect: Exhibiting Numerous Specimens of Every Description of Decorative Detail, from the Eleventh to the Beginning of the Sixteenth Century, to give it its full descriptive title, was published in 1831 by Auguste Charles Pugin, also known as Augustus Pugin, the father of the more familiar Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin.

Pugin's father had been a refugee from the French Revolution, and was to make his permanent home in England for the rest of his life. He helped to produce a number of key architecturally based publications at the end of the Georgian era, many of which were heavily medieval in their content. Auguste Pugin was to play the part of opening up serious consideration and scholarly analysis of medieval decoration and ornament, which was to become a near obsession in the early to mid Victorian era. That he was also to inspire and influence his only child A W N Pugin, was a forgone conclusion even though the younger Pugin was, in later life, to distance himself somewhat from his father's Georgian inspired enthusiasm for the medieval which Pugin thought tainted with the surface and insincere quality of the Regency period, compared to the seriousness imbued by the Victorians to their medieval past.

Illustration: A C Pugin. Stone stringcourses from York Minster and Westminster Abbey. Gothic Ornaments, 1831.

Although Pugin's 1831 title refers to Gothic ornament derived from buildings in both England and France, the vast majority of the ninety-one plates are of English origin, with the examples from France being mostly made up of illustrations from Rouen. Most are excellent examples of English medieval decoration at its finest. They give a definite understanding of the carved element that was such an important part of the medieval craft world, whether through the medium of wood or stone. These particular five examples from the book give an inkling as to the inspirational origins of much of the ornamental and decorative work of the period.

Nature and the reflection of nature was always at the heart of the medieval decorative arts. The realistic and the stylised representation of the natural world was reproduced with a fine understanding and intimate knowledge of the flora and fauna that surrounded the craftsman in both England and France. This form of decoration was seen in both religious and secular buildings and was comfortably part of most forms of interior decoration. However, much of the remaining work from the era can be seen within an ecclesiastical context as, although many religious buildings on both sides of the Channel have suffered over the intervening centuries, many have still retained an element of internal decoration. Many domestic homes on the other hand, have suffered from repeated alterations and redecorations on such a fundamental scale as to make any medieval trace difficult to find, indeed many medieval homes have disappeared altogether.

Illustration: A C Pugin. Stone stringcourses from Winchester Cathedral and All Saints' College, Oxford. Gothic Ornaments, 1831.

The details involved in this 1831 publication, along with many others that were contemporary with it, and even more that followed in the next few decades, show the unbridled enthusiasm in Britain for the medieval period. The enthusiasm on its own would have been enough to secure the Gothic Revival as an interesting late Georgian and early Victorian decorative phase. However, the scholarly and technical approach that was increasingly taken towards these publications as the nineteenth century progressed made them much more than decorative templates and a vocabulary for an interior style. They were to form the foundation of an architectural, design, decoration and craft movement that was to prove to be both wide-ranging and fundamental in its nature. It was to form a bond with the English in particular, which went well beyond the Victorian penchant for Gothic Revival. It was the medieval connection with the natural world that in some respects helped to shift the nineteenth century perspective away from the classical and the studied internal world of the urban salon, to that of the medieval and external world of nature and the rural workers cottage.

Illustration: A C Pugin. Stone stringcourses from Winchester Cathedral. Gothic Ornaments, 1831.

The English Arts & Crafts movement is an obvious benefactor to the early enthusiasm for the medieval. It was the belief that medieval decoration and ornament followed the example set by nature, as well as the belief in the medieval craftsman's experience of truth and honesty to materials and working methods that helped to found and sustain the movement throughout the latter half of the nineteenth century. This very English of movements is firmly held as a product of the career of William Morris. However, many now see Pugin's son as the driving force behind the later philosophy of the Arts & Crafts movement, which in turn was to influence Morris. In turn again, it could be said that the younger Pugin was influenced by his father and although Auguste Pugin was largely led to produce and collaborate in gothic and medieval inspired publications due to both fashion and financial concerns, it does not change the fact that he had a particular influence on the early ideas and philosophies that were to fundamentally change the focus and direction of the English decorative arts across the nineteenth century and into much of the twentieth. This in turn changed the perspective and direction of so many English crafts people along the way.

Illustration: A C Pugin. Wooden stringcourses from Aldenham Abbey, Ely Cathedral and Westminster Abbey. Gothic Ornaments, 1831.

Auguste Pugin's Gothic Ornaments publication can be seen within a context that helped to form the English Arts & Crafts movement. It, along with many other publications, both large and small, professional and amateur, also helped to secure an understanding of and an attachment to the medieval fabric of England, whether that be through architecture, decoration or the many craft disciplines that had been such an important support system to the medieval world. It was the revival of traditional English crafts that ultimately secured the fortune and future of individuals such as Morris, Mackmurdo, Gimson, Ashbee and others. Gothic Ornaments helped ultimately to secure the individualistic approach of the English Arts & Crafts movement and to secure a lasting perceived association between craft and the naturally inspired rural world, as opposed to that of the urban and the machine.

Further reading links:
Illustrations of the Public Buildings of London, with Historical and Descriptive Accounts of Each Edifice: Volume 1 
Illustrations of the Public Buildings of London, with Historical and Descriptive Accounts of Each Edifice: Volume 2 
Examples of Gothic Architecture, Selected from Various Antient Edifices in England, the Literary Part by E.J. Wilson. (Vol.2, by A. and A.W. Pugin. Vol.3, by A.W. Pugin and T.L. Walker). 
Specimens of Gothic Architecture, Accompanied by Historical and Descriptive Accounts [By E.J. Willson]. [With] a Glossary of Technical Terms Descriptive of Gothic Architecture, by E.J. Willson 
A Series of Ornamental Timber Gables, from Existing Examples in England and France, of the Sixteenth Century, Drawn by B. Ferrey Under the Direction ... with Descriptive Letter-Press by E.J. Willson
Specimens of the Architectural Antiquities of Normandy 
Specimens of Gothic Architecture Consisting of Doors, Windows, Buttresses, ...Selected From Ancient Buildings At Oxford 
Paris and its Environs, displayed in a series of two hundred picturesque views, from original drawings, taken under the direction of A. Pugin, Esq. ... of Mr. C. Heath.by L. T. Ventouillac, etc. 
God's Architect: Pugin and the Building of Romantic Britain 
Victorian Gothic House Style: An Architectural and Interior Design Source Book for Home Owners
Pugin: A Gothic Passion
Pugin's Gothic Ornament: The Classic Sourcebook of Decorative Motifs
Recollections of A.N. Welby Pugin, and his father, Augustus Pugin;: With notices of their works
A History Of The Gothic Revival

Georgian Greek

The new St Pancras church on Euston Rd, built around 1820 based on the Greek Acropolis. These are the doors around the back leading to the crypt.
Delusions of grandeur?

Georgian Embroidery

Georgian embroidery design and techniques are part of the rich heritage of the Caucasus. Although sharing the Caucasus with Armenia, Azerbaijan and a number of smaller states and communities, all have definite parameters as to their textile work, and embroidery is no different.

Spinning, weaving and dying, using home grown fleece and dye ingredients, have been important elements of Georgia's textile industry for at least the last three thousand years, if not before. It is no surprise then that embroidery should also be an integral part of Georgia's textile output, and is probably as old as the weaving and spinning industry.

Much of the embroidery techniques used were for domestic consumption and embroidery was often used as an embellisher for any number of articles including household linen, book covers and costume, which could be for everyday and special occasion costume.

The textile crafts were encouraged by the church and many of the traditional skills such as weaving, spinning, dying and embroidery were taught through a network of monasteries throughout Georgia, both for the local aristocracy and as a means of income for the population as a whole.

Much of the embroidery design work was either floral or geometric based, with a particularly strong influence coming up from the Turkish Empire to the south, which introduced a number of innovations in both design and dying techniques.

The illustration shown here was produced by the Soviet Union for the 1925 Exposition Internationale des Arts Decoratifs et Industriels Moderne in Paris, where the Union, wishing to show the cosmopolitan nature of the country, expressed it through a collection of traditional embroidery from across the Union.

However, the standard and range of traditional embroidery in Georgia, as well as many of the other states of the Soviet Union, had steadily dwindled and was practiced by fewer and fewer individuals as the twentieth century progressed.

Georgian embroidery, along with Georgian textile crafts in general, has now seen a great re-emergence. This has much to do with the work of the Georgian Textile Group (GTG), which was founded in the 1990s after the collapse of the Soviet Union. It was formed in part to give some much needed help and support to the often isolated traditional textile craft workers of the country, and also to give the traditions of Georgian textile work a window on the international stage. The GTG has achieved so much and is such a varied and interesting group both with its work inside and outside Georgia that it is well worth visiting their comprehensive and interesting website.

Further reading links:
Embroidery: Traditional Designs, Techniques, and Patterns from All over the World
Georgian Textile Group (GTG)