From around 1906 Glasby began to design and paint his own windows, made in the Lowndes and Drury workshop and marketed by the London firm of W.B. Simpson. As early as 1907 Glasby painted a figure of St Thomas for the parish church at Hyde, Cheshire, with regular work beginning in 1909 when he executed seven commissions. The windows at Knodishall, Suffolk (1910) and Sutton Courtenay, Oxfordshire (1912) bear the name of W. B. Simpson, London. The Faculty sketch for Herstmonceux, Sussex (1913) also mentions that firm.
Commentators argue that Glasby was not very original, his work influenced by Holiday and Burne-Jones working with the Morris Company. As we examined the sketches, there is a lot of repetition in the designs. One of Glasby’s most common designs was of two kneeling angels, flanking a panel with the name of the deceased, or holding a scroll.
Another favourite appears to be an adaptation of the The Light of the World (1851–1853), an allegorical painting by the English Pre-Raphaelite artist William Holman Hunt (1827–1910). The painting represents the figure of Jesus preparing to knock on an overgrown and long-unopened door, illustrating Revelation 3:20:
"Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me".
According to Hunt: "I painted the picture with what I thought, unworthy though I was, to be divine command, and not simply a good subject." The door in the painting has no handle, and can therefore be opened only from the inside, representing "the obstinately shut mind". The painting was considered by many to be the most important and culturally influential rendering of Christ of its time.
Glasby usually describes his sketchs as "Light of the World".
Here is an example from the Pierce Chapel, Trinity Cathedral, Arkansas.
Trinity Episcopal Cathedral
Jack Dowling, Communications Director, March 2022
One unusual example of Glasby's work was found by Donald Green in Christ Church, Gorey, County Wexford, Ireland. It had been attributed to Ethel Rhind, an Irish designer .[ 1]
But Green found evidence that it was a Glasby design, with information on the reverse of a letterhead. While this seems to be the only work of Glasby in Ireland, a search of the website, https://www.gloine.ie/ reveals that Powell & Sons and Henry Holiday undertook several commissions in Ireland and this may explain how Glasby’s work came to the attention of this church. The window is found in W19, the baptistry; north and has an opus sectile panel on the wall beneath this window. The dedication reads:
“To the Glory of God and in loving memory of Arnold George Ellis, second son of Claud and Georgina Ellis of Ramsgate-Gorey. Born February 24th 1905. Died Ascension Day 1924. Make him to be numbered with thy Saints in Glory Everlasting.” [2]
By 1915 Glasby was making tablets and reredoses in opus sectile, some of which carried the Simpson monogram. Two early redoses were made for St Saviour, Wood Green, and a WWI Memorial for the chapel of St Mary Abbot’s Hospital Kensington, but both buildings have subsequently been demolished. [3]
However, the large War Memorial (1921) for St Botolph’s, Bishopsgate, survives.
Glasby designed a WWI Memorial for the East wall of Christ Church, Down Street, May Fair in 1920. It is considered one of the most impressive earliest works of Glasby’s use of opus sectile [ 4 ] and still exists. We were informed that the Church was closed for a number of years and the records lodged with Westminster archives. [5]
(c) Sharon Walsh 2021
The village war memorial in Ramsdell, Hampshire, is a window inside of the church, on the north side of the nave. [Log 143]The plaques either side remember the 12 dead. The letters on the plaques are cut in stone then filled with a paste of ground marble and polished. A commentary by Graham Horne, states that the work is by William Glasby, in the style of Burne-Jones and Morris. [6]
The War Memorial in St Peter’s Upwood, Huntingdon, was dedicated in January 1920 in the Lady Chapel (South Aisle). [7 ] A mosaic beneath the window, depicting the crucifixion, designed by WilliamGlasby, contains the names of 13 men of Upwood & Raveley parish who gave their lives in the Great War, together with four men who were killed in flying accidents related to local airfields. [8]
Another war memorial, signed by Glasby, but not dated, is to be found in St Peter's church, forming a large part of the Offord D'Arcy war memorial together with the inscribed brass plaques beneath it.
It is in the south wall of the south aisle, to the east of the porch. The angels are St Michael and Gabriel, St Michael thought to represent the servicemen and St Gabriel the bringer of peace. [9] This war memorial consists of a stained-glass memorial window with five lights. Two cinquefoil lancets, each depict a winged saint. The figure on the left represents St Michael, frequently viewed as the field commander of the Army of God, holding a sword and dressed in armour. The figure on the right depicts St Gabriel; the archangel who serves as a messenger from God, holding laurels.
The memorial window also includes three tracery lights above the lancets, two of which show angel figures and the top central light depicts a crown. Below the window are two brass memorial plaques which commemorate the men of the town who fell in both World War I and World War II.
The Memorial fell into decay and in 2011 a project to restore the Windows was launched, [10 ] with a grant from the War Memorials Trust. [11] On the 27th June 1920 a service of dedication was held for the Offord d’Arcy War Memorial in St Peter’s church, commemorating the 100th anniversary.
Liz Howes, Chairman Friends of St Peter's, provides a history of the war memorial:
“Papers held in the Cambridgeshire Records Office (CRO), Huntingdon Archives show the origins of the plan to erect a war memorial in Offord D’Arcy to the fallen of World War I. The minutes of the Annual Easter Vestry on April 24th 1919 show the unanimous intention to place a suitable memorial in the Parish Church and that collections be made at the Church Services at suitable periods for this object. A Special Vestry was held nearly a year later at which the following motion was passed unanimously. “That this meeting of the Parishioners of Offord D’Arcy assembled in Vestry on March 8th 1920, hereby approves of the erection of a Memorial Brass and Window, (plans of which were submitted to the meeting) in the South Wall of the Parish Church of Offord D’Arcy.” This was signed on April 14th 1920 by Rev Ernest V O’Connor. It is worth noting that Rev O’Connor is shown on the Roll of Honour displayed in the church as having served in the Church Army during the war. Before work can be done on a church the Diocesan Advisory Committee has to be approached for a faculty. A faculty is required for all repairs, maintenance and changes to a church or its contents. The faculty, held in CRO, states “In the Consistory Court of the Diocese of Ely - Offord D’Arcy Church Hunts - Faculty for a painted window with brass tablet and inscription as a war memorial - Granted under seal of office 17th June 1920”.”
The faculty shows that the estimate for the cost of the work of the window would be £124- 10s, “which will be defrayed by subscriptions from the parishioners already received”. The sum raised in a relatively short time was impressive in a village of largely agricultural workers, where many of the men of working age had fought in the war, 14 died, others returned injured or shell shocked. With the dedication taking place just ten days after the faculty was granted it would appear that the window was ordered before final approval, possibly with the faculty being fast tracked for a war memorial. It may not be a coincidence that the date of the dedication was also the Sunday when the church would have celebrated St Peter’s day.” [12]
Liz Howes found the original Faculty granted for installing the war memorial in the local archives, and inside it was an original water colour, signed by Glasby, of the window. A copy of this sketch is on display at the Church. The Faculty mentions that the window is a copy of one in London.
Another war memorial is at St Lawrence Church, Lechlade, Gloucestershire. It is described as a: wall mounted tablet, names carved in three columns, foliate and moulded border. [ 13 ]
In 1909, Glasby painted the only recorded window designed by Henry Holiday's principal assistant Jessie Mothersole (1874-1958): a three-light Adoration of the Magi for Kenley, Surrey, that was made at the Glass House.
Recorded in the Studio Year Book of Decorative Art 1909, p60.
Earlier we noted an attempt by Constance Glasby to advertise work for domestic houses, but all of the sketches in the John Collins’ archive relate to ecclesiastical work. There is an example of the work similar to the sketches found in the article written in the International Studio that was auctioned by Wolley and Wallis in 2010, but the auctioneers could not provide any details of the work. [14 ]
In the Article, “The Artists of the Glass House” Brooks and Cormack [15] state that in 1923 Glasby set up independently in Horsham, Sussex, where he was assisted by his daughters. It is not known why Horsham was chosen as a place to create a workshop.
The adress of the back of some sketches is: Three Oaks, 65 Worthing Road, Horsham.
In the John Collins' archive there are very few sketche with the Horsham address written on the back: Logs 82-85 (All Saints, Goodmayes); Log 97 (Hyde Cheshire); Log 134 (Paglesham).
However, there is a copy of a commercial letter written on 13 August 1924 where Glasby used his own letterhead: William Glasby, Ecclesiastical Artist and Craftsman, 12 Edwardes Square, Kensington, London, England. Telephone Western 4926. [16 ] This suggests that the Horsham workshop might have been part of a planned move to live outside of London. Glasby had work carried out under his name by Lowndes & Drury, from the 1920s, for firing and supplying glass, but from 1939, until his death in 1941, it was only for the making of windows.
There is also this envelope in the Collins' archive, dated 1935, with the Putney address
A major source of Glasby's income was provided by figure painting for the Merton Abbey workshop of Morris & Company, at that time being run by John Henry Dearle, who supplemented the firm's reuse of earlier cartoons with designs of his own in a sub-Edward Burne-Jones style. Glasby contributed to more than a 100 Morris & Co. windows, the final order being a figure of Justice for Liverpool Cathedral in 1923.
It is possible to find details of windows worked on by Glasby by searching the online The Burne-Jones Catalogue Raisonné Foundation. [17]
The first window catalogued is from 1897: “After Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, By William Glasby, By Morris & Co., By George Frederick Titcomb”. [18 ] It is a painting of the Good Shepherd for Bestwood Emmanuel Church, Arnold, Nottingham. It is described as: enamelled stained glass, lead made by Merton Abbey, London, England, Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co. and Morris & Co., Stained Glass. It is described as: “After Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, By William Glasby, By Morris & Co.”. [19 ]
The last catalogued painting is from 1927 and is a window of Two Minstrel Angels; Saint Michael Spearing the Demon for St Cybi's church, Holyhead, Anglesey.
The catalogue is not complete but reveals Glasby was involved with 62 paintings.
The influence of J. H. Dearie shows strongly in many of Glasby's own later compositions, where the leading of the skies also frequently replicates the arrangement of flattened rectangles typical of much Morris & Co. work of the period. Several windows of the time, such as Dallington, Sussex of 1919 show the influence of the William Morris firm while not being copies of existing designs.
Glasby had also begun to obtain orders for windows of his own design and from overseas, for example, the window for Seremban Church, Malaysia, that he had exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1907. This influence resurfaced several times during Glasby's career, as can be seen from the small panel of a Sower (+1932) at Remenham, Berkshire.
Green et al (2008) comment that Glasby's inexperience as a designer at this period is shown in a two light window at Wath, near Ripon, Yorkshire, whose design was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1908:
“Rather than forming an harmonious composition, the left light depicting Mary Magdalene meeting Christ in the Garden clashes uncomfortably with the lugubrious right light symbolising the dead rising through a tight spiral of cloud, evidently based on a Holiday window for Chelmsford Cathedral that Glasby had painted a couple of years earlier.” [20 ]
But, Green et al [2008] state that in complete contrast are the four joyful musical angels in the tracery that are as good as anything that Holiday was producing at the time . The motif found in several of the Glasby's Nativity scenes, of an angel hovering over a small thatched roof that shelters the Holy Family, is taken directly from the work of Burne-Jones.
In the Collins' archive there is set of smaller prints that would seem to be an attempt to create Christmas cards from the designs.
Several of Glasby’s designs were exhibited by the Moss Gallery, London and Joan Hadley has kindly provided us with a digital copy.
Interestingly there is one design depicting Moses addressing the multitude but this design does not appear anywhere in Glasby’s work except for the later Peachtree Windows commission in Atlanta.
The fabrication of opus sectile panels was a highly specialised craft developed by James Powell & Sons, of which Glasby would have had experience during his early years as a painter with the firm. Henry Holiday was one of the few designers and producers who understood the technique.
The publicity and marketing of Glasby’s work was probably undertaken by his daughters.
When we have time, we intend to anayse the writing on the back of the sketches to see if there is a difference in the handwriting. Earlier sketches may have William's handwriting and the later sketches, either Barbara or Dulcima's handwriting.
Glasby includes Testimonials and lists of his other work on the back of some of the sketches, for example: Log 67 (Mayfair); Log 111 (Kirkthorpe); Log 177 (St Leonard's, Southwell (Newark)) Log 187 and Log 192.
Printed comments from satisfied clients are found on the reverse of his business letterheads. Some commercial letters have sketches drawn around the border. On the reverse of the Log 31 Glasby has pasted a neatly typed set of testimonials: The Art of William Glasby in Wales. Unsolicited Testimonials From Clergy. These are comments on Logs 57, 71, 130, 131,132,120 and 268 in the Collins’ archive.
At the end is another bit of publicity: WINDOWS ARE BEING MADE NOW FOR St. Luke’s Church.
During our research January - June 2021 we noticed that the website William Glasby. (1863-1941) : Stained Glass in Wales (llgc.org.uk) only had seven examples of Glasby's work in Wales and we have been able to add a number of other works.
There are also some Logs where we cannot find the Window in a church and we presume the commission was not succesful.
A large commission from Peachtree Church in Atlanta, Georgia gave the Glasby workshop enough work to be viable. Glasby died before the commission was completed. His daughters, Dulcima and Barbara completed some of the Windows and the rest were completed by H. Vernon Spreadbury.
Notes
[2] A dedication window to Claud and Georgina Ellis was commissioned by their daughter in 1957: https://www.buildingsofireland.ie/buildings-search/building/15601016/christ-church-kilmakilloge-main-street-gorey-corporation-lands-gorey-county-wexford
[3] St Mary’s Chapel was demolished in 1974. Stephen Tomkinson informed us that his firm had sold the window to a private collector.
[5] Information kindly supplied by email by Sharon Walsh, Operations Manager, Christ Church Mayfair,
[14] https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/a-stained-glass-panel-of-by-william-glasby-384-c-2f40418452
[15] Alan Brooks and Peter Cormack, “The Artists of the Glass House”, Journal of Stained Glass, vol 41, 15-54.
[16] Close examination of the letter reveals an annotation suggesting that the letter is signed on Glasby’s behalf in Dulcima’s handwriting. In the Collins’ archive there are several examples of Dulcima’s handwriting and this corroborates the annotation.
[20] This is Log 188 in the Collins’ archive David Webster referred us to a newspaper account of the designs, suggesting that the exhibition took place in Sheffield.
(c) Erika Szyszczak 22 June 2021
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