The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1898-10-14
Sflrrt Misrrllunll.
Uuriosities of Stained Glass.
By F.. II. SUFFLING.

Every phase Of art has its beauties,
its blcmishes, and its curious features,
either of manipulation or anachronism:
and in these matters, especially the
latter, stained glass is no whit behind
other branches of the fine arts.
Like nearly every other luxury of
civilized life, stained glass originally
came from the east, gradual VERY
gradual y working its way westward
from its birthplace, Byzantium. Italy
received the art, then in its crude state,
and nurscd it tenderly for many long
years, passing it still farther westward
to Marssilles, and thence it found its
way to Paris-tnen a small, but smart,
town, the centre of French power and
learning.
IT. is not known with any certainty
when stained glass was first used in
England: and it is believed that no eX-
amplrS earlier than the twcltih century
are cNtant in this country, those en-
ampl"s being OF Il very poor mosaic or
somt W hat inharmonius coloriny-
gaudv reds and blues greatly predom-
mating.
Probably the early modes of produc-
ing colored window were in them
selves exceedingly ly primitive and crude;
but Of their manner of working, the
monks, who were the first glass-paint-
ers. have left us but little written evt-
dcncc But this we know: they had
neither brushes, diamonds for cutting
the glass, nor mills for turning out the
lead for glazing with. Still, it must be
confessed they turned out some very
effective work. much of which can be
rcvcrentIy admired at the present day.
For brushes they used certain fcath-
crs from the wooucOck-iittlc spear
shaped feathers coming to Il very fine
point: and with these, bound to wooden
handles th'y were enabled to do very
fine outlining and cross-hatching.
S,.adiHg came with the advent of
brushes, in the late fourteenth century,
Diamonds for cutting glass were not
introduced till the reign of EIlzaheth,
at which period stained glass WAS de-
| clinino; and before that era every
| piece Of gIaSS which went to form a
window had to he cast in little clay
m"uldS. ami afterwards chirpyd with
an iron Instrument. called a ".roz;ng
r'.n, 50 a Ia property lit into its as
signed place,
l. ads Were all cast in iron nould~,
and were consequently tremendously
heavy and clumsy in comparison with
frrtlead turned out SO neatly by mod
ern machinery.
The writer has on several occasions
bpcn able to discover frauds in the So
| called ancient stained glass. just one
instance. \ pawnbrollrr Of Cantcr-
bury, for the sum of thirty pounds.
purchased six panels Of painted glass
which, he WAS assured, came from Can
| tcrburv Cathedral. and were Of genuine
| tourtecnth-ccntury work. \ clever
story of how these panels had been re
| moved from the cathedral was con
coctrd by the clever, but unScrupulous,
| seller, and the man of L0mbardy paid
+ for the panels; but the sudden diSap-
| pcarancc Of the seller caused him to be
suspicious Of his bargain 70 set his
mind at rest he would have an expert ;
opuion, and applied to the writer for
! that purpose. The glass was accord
ingly sent for inspection. and, to the
poor mans chagrin, was compelled
! to show him how cicvrrIv he had been
/ deceived Ga removing several of the
sections of -laS- from tn" l"a'l it WAS
! at "mc" apparent that each piece had
! been neatly cllt with \ diamond. and
the -ia-~ It's II : ~ cIrycrIy ""hqnuf
! ~ mlri.rrIatinr !, nfi hot plates. hydro