Clayton and Bell
Clayton and Bell was one of the most prolific and proficient British workshops of
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
Background
During the
The early 19th century was marked by a renewal of the
History
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![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/87/John_Richard_Clayton.jpg/220px-John_Richard_Clayton.jpg)
In the 1850s a number of young designers worked in conjunction with the
There was a good deal of interaction and influence between Clayton and Bell, and Heaton, Butler and Bayne. The windows of both firms share several distinguishing features and characteristic colour-combinations which are uncommon in other designers.
Clayton and Bell moved into large premises in Regent Street, London, where they employed about 300 people. In the late 1860s and 1870s the firm was at its busiest, and employees worked night shifts in order to fulfil commissions.
After the deaths of Alfred Bell in 1895 and John Richard Clayton in 1913, the firm continued under Bell's son, John Clement Bell (1860–1944), then under Reginald Otto Bell (1884–1950) and lastly Michael Farrar-Bell (1911–1993) until his death.[4]
The records of Clayton and Bell were largely lost after bombing.[5]
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Important commissions
Clayton and Bell's windows may be found all over England and in many countries abroad. Among their major commissions, and perhaps the first entire cycle of glass produced in the Victorian era, is the cycle of great scholars produced for the Great Hall of the University of Sydney, designed by the colonial architect Edmund Blacket and based upon Westminster Hall in London.
Among their other famous windows are the West Window of
Another significant commission was to design the mosaics for each side and beneath the canopy of the
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."[8]
In London, another new cathedral was under construction: the
The glass of Clayton and Bell
The 19th-century windows of Clayton and Bell are typified by their brilliant luminosity. This is because they were quick to adopt the advice of the student of Medieval glass Charles Winston,[10] who propounded that "modern" commercially made coloured glass was not effective for stained-glass windows, as it lacked the right refractive quality. In 1863 John Richard Clayton was among those who was experimenting with the manufacture of so-called pot metal or coloured glass produced by simple ancient manufacturing techniques which brought about great variability in the texture and colour of glass which is characteristic of ancient windows.[3][11]
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Clayton and Bell were familiar with both ancient windows and with the various artistic movements of their time, such as the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. Their work shows the influence of both, but not the dominance of either. It is, rather, an elegant synthesis of archaeologically sourced details, such as their characteristic brightly coloured canopies which are of a 14th-century style, with figures who pay passing homage to the medieval in their sweeping robes of strong bright colours, a surety and refinement of the painted details and an excellence of design which never fails to integrate the structural lines of the lead into the overall picture.
Clayton and Bell were masters of story-telling. Many of their finest works are large multi-light East or West windows depicting the most dramatic moments in the
Clayton and Bell excelled in their use of colour. 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. What works on paper does not necessarily work when it has the added element of light streaming through it. Some colours are notoriously difficult. Blue glass, frequently used for backgrounds, can create a halo effect that dominates the window. Red and blue together can create a jumping discordant pattern that is quite nasty to look at. Faces can bleach out completely. Green can simply turn black.
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/b/b0/Peterbro_2panels_of_figures.jpg/250px-Peterbro_2panels_of_figures.jpg)
But with these potential hazards, Clayton and Bell consistently turned out windows in which the balance of colour is eminently satisfying to the eye. They had the happy knack of selecting exactly the right tonal values so that difficult colour combinations (such as red and green laid side by side as the cloth and lining of a cloak) appear inevitable. Moreover, their colour choices are rarely timid. (A "safe" choice is to line every cloak with yellow in the form of an applied silver-stain.) Although most of the colours in their windows are primaries – basic red, yellow and blue with a mid-tone grassy green – they introduced judiciously placed tertiary colours such as russet, brownish purple and a sort of mustard colour. The mustard colour often appears in conjunction with a bright intense blue. They frequently clothed a central figure in a robe of this bright blue, in contrast to the dark blue of the background and the bright red of surrounding robes.
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. In general practice, a cloak was arranged in such a way that it could be cut from fairly large pieces of glass, so that the main folds fell along lead lines and the lesser folds could be applied with paint. 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 created a network of lead which was not necessarily visually desirable. But in practice, the yellow stars catch the eye of the viewer to the extent that the lead disappears. It is another very effective technique for creating a rich and lively appearance, without resorting to heavy over-painting.
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Coupled with the brilliant coloration, is an excellence in the painted details. 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. The quality of the work when the firm was at its busiest in the 1870s became heavier, as it also did with other firms in that decade. There was a trend for a greater naturalism in the depiction of figures. This was often achieved by the application of more paint and at the expense of colour and luminosity. There was also a reliance upon German engravings such as those by the artist Martin Schongauer. 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.
In the 1880s, Clayton and Bell's work went through something of a revival. Remarkably, many windows produced in the 1880s and 90s have recaptured something of the freshness and brightness of the earlier works.[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.
Buildings with Clayton and Bell windows
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England
- St John's College Chapel, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire
- Wesley House Chapel, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire
- St. Michael's Church, Chester, Cheshire
- St. Anne's Church, Hessenford, Cornwall
- St Peter's Church, Bournemouth, Dorset
- Sherborne Abbey, Sherborne, Dorset
- St. Michael and All Angels' Church, Brighton, East Sussex
- St Michael and All Angels, Shoreditch, London (EC2A)
- St. Saviour's Church, Eastbourne, East Sussex
- All Saints' Church, Hove, East Sussex
- Church of St. Katherine, Ickleford, Hertfordshire
- Canterbury Cathedral, Canterbury, Kent
- St. Peter's Church, Leicester, Leicestershire
- St. John the Evangelist's Church, Knotty Ash, Liverpool
- St Mary the Virgin Church, Camden Town, London (NW3)
- King's College Hospital, Camberwell, London (SE5)
- St. Margaret's Church, Lee, London, London (SE12)
- St. Philip and St. James' Church, Whitton, London (TW2)
- St John the Baptist Church, Holland Road, London (W14)
- St. Paul's, Hammersmith, London (W6)
- St. Christopher's Chapel, Great Ormond Street Hospital, London (WC1)
- St. Lawrence's Church, Brundall, Norfolk
- All Saints' Church, East Winch, Norfolk
- St. Edmund's Church, Emneth, Norfolk
- St. Andrew's Church, Framingham Pigot, Norfolk
- All Saints' Church, Freethorpe, Norfolk
- Norwich Cathedral, Norwich, Norfolk
- St Botolph Church, Westwick, Norfolk
- St Nicholas Church House, Kyloe, Northumberland
- All Saints' Chapel, Bloxham School, Bloxham, Oxfordshire
- Exeter College Chapel, Oxford, Oxfordshire
- St. Swithun's Church, Cheswardine, Shropshire
- Christ Church, Bath, Somerset
- Church of St Thomas à Becket, South Cadbury, Somerset
- Wentworth Woodhouse Chapel, Rotherham, South Yorkshire
- St. Saviour's Church, High Green, Sheffield, South Yorkshire
- Saint Edmundsbury and Ipswich Cathedral, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk
- St Agnes, Exning, Newmarket, Suffolk
- St. Barnabus' Church, Ranmore Common, Surrey
- St Andrew's Church, Rugby, Rugby, Warwickshire, Warwickshire
- All Saints' Church, West Hoathly, West Sussex
- Trinity Church, Ossett, West Yorkshire
Wales
Scotland
Australia
- Darlinghurst, New South Wales]
- Christ Church St Laurence, Sydney, New South Wales
- Great Hall of the University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales[14]
- Victoria
Canada
- St. James' Cathedral, Toronto, Ontario
- Christ Church Cathedral, Montreal, Quebec
- Redpath Hall, Montreal, Quebec
France
- Holy Trinity Church, Nice, Alpes-Maritimes
Ireland
- Anglican Church, Virginia, County Cavan
New Zealand
- Christ Church, Ellerslie, Auckland Region
Switzerland
United States
- Grace Church, Amherst, Massachusetts
- Old South Church, Boston, Massachusetts
- Trinity Church, Boston, Massachusetts
- Millicent Library, Fairhaven, Massachusetts
- New York State
- St. Thomas' Church, Mamaroneck, New York State
- Fourth Universalist Society in the City of New York, Manhattan, New York State
- Church of the Incarnation, New York City, New York State
- Grace Church, New York City, New York State
- Church of the Advocate, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- First Presbyterian Church, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
- Trinity Church, Newport, Rhode Island
- United Church of Christ, Yankton, South Dakota
See also
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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. The complete interior of the church has been decorated.
- Heaton, Butler and Bayne
- Lavers, Barraud and Westlake
- Burlison and Grylls
- Hardman & Co.
- James Powell and Sons
- Charles Eamer Kempe
- John Loughborough Pearson
- Augustus Welby Pugin
Context
Notes
- ^ Sarah Brown, Stained Glass, p.132
- ^ Rogers, G. A. F. (1920). The Arts Club and its members. London : Truslove and Hanson.
- ^ a b c Painton Cowen, A Guide to Stained Glass in Britain
- ^ Elizabeth Morris, Stained and Decorative Glass
- ^ M. Saunders, "Appreciating Victorian and Arts and Crafts Stained Glass: A Battle Half Won", Ecclesiology Today, Vol. 40 (July 2008), p. 88.
- ^ "artnet AG Products – Investor Relations". www.artnet.com. Retrieved 11 April 2018.
- ^ a b "Albert Memorial, London". www.thejoyofshards.co.uk. Retrieved 11 April 2018.
- ^ STAINED GLASS WINDOWS Website of Truro Cathedral accessed 6 December 2022
- ^ Westminster Cathedral website Archived 2007-07-15 at the Wayback Machine
- Stained glass - British glass, 1811-1918
- ^ See Stained glass for detailed description of pot metal.
- ^ Sarah Brown, p.131, Elizabeth Morris, p.51
- ^ Elizabeth Morris[page needed]
- ^ McKenzie, B. (1989). "Stained Glass and Stone: The Gothic Buildings of the University of Sydney". Sydney University Monographs, No. 5, pp. 46–69
References
- Painton Cowen, A Guide to Stained Glass in Britain, 1985, Michael Joseph, ISBN 0-7181-2567-3
- Elizabeth Morris, Stained and Decorative Glass, Doubleday, ISBN 0-86824-324-8
- Sarah Brown, Stained Glass: an Illustrated History, Bracken Books, ISBN 1-85891-157-5
- ISBN 0-600-56281-6
- Beverley Sherry, Douglas Baglin,Australia's Historic Stained Glass, 1991, Murray Child, ISBN 0-908048-03-3
- ISBN 0-7139-9281-6
- John Harvey, English Cathedrals, Batsford, 1961, ISBN unknown
- Robert Eberhard, Church Stained Glass Windows, [1][permanent dead link]
- Cliff and Monica Robinson, Buckinghamshire Stained Glass, [2] Archived 2015-09-05 at the Wayback Machine
External links
Media related to Clayton and Bell at Wikimedia Commons