Historic Churches 2022

22 BCD SPECIAL REPORT ON HISTORIC CHURCHES 29TH ANNUAL EDITION Towards the end of the 19th century this dominance of ‘trade’ over ‘art’ was increasingly being questioned. In his publication Stained Glass as an Art (1896) Henry Holiday (1839–1927) was heavily critical of the system and the work it produced. By then Holiday was already an established stained glass designer, first for the London firm of James Powell & Sons and then, from 1890, as an independent designer. Working from his own studio in Hampstead where he employed his own artists and craftspeople, Holiday found the freedom he needed to explore less formal compositions and to experiment with the delineation of leading lines and the use of coloured glass. Christopher Whall was another key player in the revolution in design and production that followed. As a stained glass designer and then as a teacher at London’s Central School and the Royal College of Art, Whall inspired a generation of Arts & Crafts artists, including Karl Parsons, Margaret Aldrich Rope (cousin of Margaret Agnes Rope) and Alexander Strachan, as well as his own daughter Veronica Whall, and many others. THE RISE OF ARTS & CRAFTS STAINED GLASS According to Peter Cormack (see Recommended reading), Christopher Whall’s moment of epiphany as a stained glass artist came in 1887 when an article appeared in the Century Guild’s journal Hobby Horse (1884-92) on the work of another independent artist, H A Kennedy, who was designing and creating his own windows. On the advice of its author, J Aldam Heaton, Whall opened his own studio and he quickly rose to prominence when he exhibited nine items at the 1888 Arts & Crafts exhibition including cartoons for stained glass and panels of lead tracery. An early discovery of Whall’s was a new form of irregularly shaped glass which had been developed for the architect E S Prior by the firm of Britten & Gilson. Called ‘Prior’s Early English’ glass, it was made by blowing glass into a metal box, so the hot ballooning bubble was moulded with five flat sides and a curved top. Once removed from the metal mould, the glass could be cut neatly into five flat sheets. Because the glass had stretched furthest into the corners of the mould, the inner face of the sheets was slightly convex, thinning to each edge. So, as well as variations in thickness and colour, Prior’s Early English glass also had a lens- like quality that focused the light, adding sparkle and movement. This appealed to Christopher Whall and the generation that followed. However, the small size of the pane meant that a lot of leading was required, reducing the amount of light. Britten & Gilson and James Powell & Sons were unusual in that both firms made the glass for their stained glass windows, and the two found themselves well placed to work with Christopher Whall (centre, seated) with students, assistants and members of his family in 1900. Karl Parsons is first on the left next to Alexander Strachan and Mary Hutchinson. (Photo: unknown photographer, see Peter Cormack, Arts and Crafts Stained Glass) Detail from The Adoration of the Magi and the Shepherds in Holy Trinity, Chelsea: designed by Christopher Whall in 1900 it was made by him in collaboration with his pupils and assistants, using the workshops of Lowndes & Drury in Park Walk, Chelsea.(Photo: Jonathan Taylor)