Shortly after the end of WWI Glasby established a studio under his own name. His move from the Glass House studio was probably the result of the aged Henry Holiday deciding to collaborate with E. Liddall Armitage and operate from the latter's premises. Because the business records of Glasby are sparse it is difficult to pin point the exact date when he established his own studio. The move was possibly completed by 1919 and almost certainly no later than 1923 when Glasby ceased to paint for Morris & Co.
The early 1920s were not good years to set up a new business in a luxury trade. Inflation and the poor economic outlook had badly affected even long-established firms such as James Powell & Sons. [ 1 ] But Glasby appears to have found an experienced agent and publicist: the Reverend Albert Lombardini. Lombardini arrived in London in 1912 from Skirbeck Quarter, Boston, Lincolnshire to become chaplain of St Mary Abbot's Hospital, Kensington. From 1921 – 1934 Lombardini provided Glasby with a business address and a telephone answering service from his own home at 12 Edwardes Square, Kensington. It is not known how this arrangement came about. On the back of many of the sketches in the Collins' archive the putney address is crossed out and replaced with Kensignton as the return address.
We have discovered that some of the sketches may not have materialised. In some churches there are stained glass windows from a different artist and we might presume that Glasby did not get the commission. It was a competitive market.
There are three sketches in the Henfield Museum collection which are very different from the rest of Glasby's work . One was for a Memorial for H.G. Raphael, who was killed in the first World War and was of Jewish faith. This sketch and two others may for a Synagogue Memorial, but to date we have not found the location and think they may be three sketches that were not taken up. See Logs: 213, 219 and 222.
In 1918 Glasby supplied twelve opus sectile panels depicting the life of Christ and a Memorial Window for St Mary Abbot's Hospital Chapel. [2] These orders may have been the first occasions on which the two met. Green sumises:
"So those commissions would have brought [Glasby] into contact with the Chaplain, and possibly it was thought that a Kensington address would be more likely to make a good impression on clients that one in Putney." [3]
Donald Green wondered whether the female members of the two families were acquainted through connections with the stage. Mrs Lombardini had been an actress, as was Dulcima Glasby, and an American clergyman who visited Glasby's studio in 1927 referred to Mrs Constance Glasby as a “ playwright." [4] Very few of the sketches in the John Collins’ archive have a date but all have a “return address” to either the Kensington address or the Putney address. Several have the Kensington address crossed out with the Putney address substituted.
Faculties granted in 1919, 1920 and 1921 for windows made by Glasby refer also to St Botolph's Church House, Bishopsgate where Lombardini was also curate from 1917 to 1935. The earliest definite connection found by Donald Green was provided by Glasby's letterhead of 1924. The letterhead describes Glasby as an “Ecclesiastical Artist and Crafstman”, and the letter is embellished with small reproductions of some of his designs. The address is 12 Edwardes Square, Kensington. The telephone number was also Lombardini's. [5] A 1935 letterhead, also decorated but with a revised design referred to the Edwardes Square address as Offices, but added Studios: 29 Carlton Road, Putney; the telephone number had by this time been dropped.
The arrangement with Lombardini probably ceased in 1935 when Lombardini became Rector of St Lawrence, Jewry. A Glasby letterhead, dated October of that year, a neat design without illustrations, gives only the Putney address. Between 1919 and 1929 the studio received at least 90 commissions. Although the Depression years of the 1930s reduced the number of commissions, orders were still received from all parts of Britain.
Among these was a controversial design for St James's Church, Gloucester (1935), [6] which incorporated both historical and modern designs. The design was twice modified, but the Diocese refused to grant a Faculty for the window; nevertheless it was installed and still survives.
Glasby has pasted a testimonial to the back of the sketch of the crucifixtion on Log 191 for Wingate Church Durham
Between 1926 and 1928 Glasby accessed the highly competitive but lucrative American market. He advertised in religious periodicals such as The Witness (Chicago, 6 January 1927), where he mentions windows supplied to Kenosha, Wisconsin, and also to Little Rock Cathedral, Arkansas, where the donor, remarked 'I do not see how you can give such exquisite work for such a remarkably reasonable price'."[7] The advertisement ends:
'Let your next window be made by Mr William Glasby. Designs and estimates free.'
A huge order for Windows came from the Peachtree Christian Church, Atlanta, Georgia. This was one of the many large churches built in the Gothic style, [8] in the United States during the boom years of the 1920s, and the main benefactor was a local businessman, Amos Giles Rhodes (1850-1928), a furniture manufacturer. Rhodes died on 16 June 1928 before the church was completed. It is most likely that he paid for the stained- glass Windows in the bequest to the Church for future general works.
This order kept the studio busy for the remainder of its lifetime. When the church was dedicated in October 1928 it already displayed a seven-light (ritual rather than geographical) East window designed by Glasby, who had been awarded the commission to provide the whole of the glazing, a task that remained unfinished when Barbara and Dulcima Glasby retired in 1953.
The current City of Atlanta website describes the windows as:
“The Church's level of artistic excellence is crowned by that of its windows. William Glasby, the Englishman who created the majority of them, was directly involved not only in their design but their construction as well. His emphasis on personal fabrication of glass came out of his artistic maturation under Great Britain's Arts and Crafts movement, with the high value it placed on hand-made creation, and his apprenticeship under one of its major leaders, the famed William Morris. The sanctuary's windows are often claimed to constitute the largest single collection of English stained glass windows outside of England. More important than any quantitative valuation is the fact that so much of it was produced by one studio in a coherent program. Virginia Raguin, a director of The Census of Stained Glass in America, has stated that the Church has "a unity of style and subject matter in its glass that many larger places (including most European cathedrals) do not have." [9 ]
The church's dedicatory brochure October 7-14 1928, which is in the John Collins’ archive, refers to “the first and central window”, The Chancel Window, which was “made by Mr William Glasby, of 12 Edwardes Square, London, England, who is said to be the greatest stained- glass artist in the world”. The Window depicts “The Lordship of Christ”, a central doctrine in the Christian religious system. But the Editor of An Interpretation of The Sanctuary and Clerestory Windows of Peachtree Christian Church, Donald S. McKelvey, discovers that:
“It was quite a surprise, when a search was made through the world of art for different paintings on this subject, to discover that this particular picture had never been painted by any artists, ancient or modern. The painting, therefore, in this window, is absolutely original and is to be found nowhere else in the world.” [10]
At the end of the Dedicatory Brochure of 1928, at page 40, there is further mention of the first window:
“The Chancel Window, or as we fondly call it, “the Children’s Window” was made by MR. WILLIAM GLASBY, of 12 Edwardes Square, London, England, who is said to be the finest stained-glass artist in the world, and who is to eventually have the commission for all of the windows in this church.”
News of Glasby's achievement reached Britain in the form of a brief article in The Daily Mail celebrating 'one of the biggest commissions for stained glass work that has ever been secured in the United States by a European artist'. A longer article appeared in The Star. [11]
In March 1939 the William and Constance Glasby household and studio moved from Putney to less well- equipped premises at Three Oaks, Worthing Road, Horsham, Sussex. [12] The move may have been a consequence of William's failing health, for his death certificate indicates that he must have been ill for a considerable time prior to his death on 26 August 1941.
The Order and Account books of Lowndes & Drury show a significant change in regard to Glasby's work after March 1939: earlier records are general accounts for 'firing and glass', while later entries give information and costs for specific windows. [13]
Notes
[1] The cost of moving to a large, modern glassworks in Wealdstone, Middlesex, which was delayed by the First World War, almost bankrupted Powell & Sons the Partnership, and it was forced to reform as a Limited Company. Thanks largely to James Hogan it survived the Depression and WWII. The final years of Whitefriars were viable because of the production of large quantities of precision glass tubing for thermometers, but the expensive to run window department closed at the beginning of 1973. Final closure came when the thermometer process became obsolete. There is now a Museum with examples of the glass produced. The Powell Papers are archived at the Rakow Research Library at the Corning Museum of Glass, New York and many are accessible on line: https://www.cmog.org/research/library/visit/services/loan. The V&A Museum, London, also have archived documents.
[2] Demolished during the 1970s. Stephen Tomkinson of Tomkinson Glass informed us that he had sold some of the Windows and provided photographs.
[3] Paper written by Donald Green in the Rakow Research Library. Many thanks to Allie Shanafelter at the Rakow Research Library for providing this document, alngside other helpful references.
[4] There are several papers relating to Dulcima Glasby in the John Collins’ archive, and although she was not married, she is often referred to as “Mrs Glasby”. So, there could be some confusion between mother and daughter in this account.
[5] Stephen Tomkinson has also shown us an embellished letterhead used by Glasby, and there is one in the John Collins' archive. Interestingly the signature may not be in William Glasby’s handwriting, but that of his daughter Dulcima.
[6] Logs 80 and 81.
[7] Found in the John Collins' archive.
[8] There is an explanation of the Gothic influence on the Peachtree Christian Church in the Dedicatory Brochure: “Peach Tree Christian Church Fifteenth Century English Gothic An Interpretation by the Minister, L.O. Bricker. pp 4- 13.
[10] An original copy is in the Collins’ archive: Proclaiming God’s Love 50th Anniversary April 27 – May 11, 1975.
[11] Source: From 'Mainly about Women', Sussex Daily News, 6 June 194I.
[12] “The Artists of the Glass House” state that Glasby had a studio in Horsham much earlier. So far we have not be able to visit Horsham museum, or found evidence of the Horsham studio.
[13] We are not sure if Barbara and Ducima moved. In correspondence after Glasby's death, and after the war, Barabra discussing the Peachtree commission talks of moving down to the south coast to finish the commission.
(c) Erika Szyszczak , 22 June 2021
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