Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Restoration saga..


This is a commission that i have just completed for an educational establishment in Marino,former city estate of Lord Charlemont on Dublins northside.The window as i found it had been vandalised by a would-be burglar using a tree support as a battering ram. The bottom three panels had been replaced about twenty years earlier possibly as a result of a previous break- in. The blue and yellow colours were not in keeping with the original colours which were of a very pale blue and green shade,semi obscure.To compound things further,the whole original window came from a bigger opening in a different building elsewhere on the grounds and was cut down in places and had some of the the edge leads left out completely to fit in the smaller openings.Great fun taking them out with nothing holding them together! Some of the painted and silver stained pieces were missing,notably in the six rectangular pieces which form the bottom of the lower shield.
So in total what i did was,take out the four long narrow panels on the sides of the window,disassemble,re-align symmetrically and re-lead whilst replacing any broken pieces,maybe 30% of it. I took out the shield panel,disassembled it, replaced some of the broken painted panes with new painted sections, re-leaded it and then replaced it one panel down which gives it more balance and echoes the placement in similar windows nearby.The two narrower panels at the bottom were amalgamated and painted and silver stained to complete the missing sections of the shield.The panel where the shield originally was,was remade in the very pale green that i used for all the blue/green replacements. I didnt go at the top arched section save for some heavy cleaning as that was not in the remit. The lettering in the panel spells YHWH,which reads right to left in Hebrew and stands for Jehovah as far as im aware but i stand to be corrected.Sorry for no inside picture before the work started but the boarding up worked against me. Feel free to comment and be sure to have a look at my older posts and www.Lustrousglass.com for lots more work

2 comments:

  1. looks great, do you have a store of antique glass , you appear to have matched it perfectly ? Is that the casino in marino ...love that building...

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  2. No big store of glass,just lucky to get a supply to match from Dublin Art Glass in Sandyford.Its not the casino,but its in the house on what was previously the estate that included the casino,if you know what i mean!

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