Clayton and Bell
Clayton and Bell's commercial success was due to the high demand for stained-glass windows at the time, their use of the best-quality glass available, the excellence of their designs and their employment of efficient factory methods of production.
They collaborated with many of the most prominent Gothic Revival architects and were commissioned, for example, by John Loughborough Pearson to provide the windows for the newly constructed Truro Cathedral.
Two historic events had brought an end to this and the destruction of most of the glass: the Dissolution of the Monasteries under Henry VIII, and the Puritan era under Oliver Cromwell in the 17th century.
This towering monument set on the edge of Hyde Park in London commemorates the Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria, who died in 1861.
[7] At Truro they were commissioned by John Loughborough Pearson to design windows for the new Cathedral, and of these windows it is claimed "The stained glass which was made by Clayton and Bell is thought to be the finest Victorian stained glass in England and tells the story of the Christian Church, starting with the birth of Jesus and finishing with the building of Truro Cathedral.
Lord Brampton, a recent convert to Roman Catholicism, selected Clayton and Bell to fill his commission for an altarpiece for the Chapel of Saints Augustine and Gregory, representing the conversion of England to Christianity.
Clayton despatched the cartoons and the tiles to Venice, where the expert mosaicists selected and glued them face-down to the drawing, a technique said to have been devised by Salviati.
Many of their finest works are large multi-light East or West windows depicting the most dramatic moments in the Biblical narratives of the Life of Christ.
Although they were capable of producing rows of dour prophets, gentle saints and mournful crucifixions, what they excelled at was scenes of Christ bursting forth from the tomb, the descent of the Holy Spirit to the disciples and the Archangel Michael calling forth the dead on the Day of Judgement.
A renowned example that is reproduced in various books on the topic of stained glass is the Last Judgement window of St Mary's church, Hanley Castle, Worcestershire, dating from 1860.
The designing of a stained-glass window that "works" from a visual point of view is a more complex matter than simply drawing up a cartoon and painting the colours in.
In common with Heaton, Butler and Bayne, Clayton and Bell often robed figures in their windows with dark-coloured cloaks that are dotted with gold stars or flowers.
But the characteristic "gold-star" decoration of Clayton and Bell necessitated that the entire cloak be divided into little pieces of coloured glass, with the gold stars set at the intersections.
This is particularly apparent in the features of the figures which show a mastery over the handling of a difficult medium that, in their earlier works, few of their contemporaries could equal, each fine line of paint being applied with the steadiness of hand and elegance of form of a master calligrapher.
Also, an increasing number of commissions came from individuals wishing to commemorate a family member in their local church rather than from architects who were themselves designers and appreciated the creative process.
[13] They are in strong contrast to those of their pupils Burlison and Grylls, who specialised in silvery backgrounds with ornate canopies under which stand solidly three-dimensional figures in vast cloaks of wine red and indigo blue.
In the 20th century, Michael Farrar-Bell continued the tradition of figurative window design, using backgrounds of transparent quarries and maintaining much the same range of coloured glass as had been perfected by Clayton in the 1860s.
England Wales Scotland Australia Canada France Ireland Italy New Zealand Switzerland United States Worthy of inspection is the Pre-Raphaelite-style interior of St Michael and All Angels at Garton on the Wolds commissioned in 1870s by Tatton Sykes.
