Catalog No. AE417
Circa: 1885
Price: Sold
Orientation: Horizontal
Condition: Excellent
Provenance: Chicago, Illinois, USA
Dimensions: 40.5” x 24.25” including frame

Description: This is a serious and truly exceptional window. In addition to the more than fifty jewels can be found a variety of mouth-blown elements: Venetian Glass (in the background or field), Flash Glass (in the red borders) and Crown Glass (in the flower petals and stylized leaves). In fact, the composition is practically all jewels and blown glass, with forty pieces of rare crown glass alone.

Crown glass, a very ancient technique, employs centrifugal force to spin a hollow globe of mouth-blown glass into a thin disc. The center of the disc, where it is attached to the blower’s tool, displays a bull’s-eye pattern often seen in nineteenth century windows. Typically, the outer glass, which was most desirable, was cut up and used in windows. The leftover center bull’s-eye, called a rondel, often was used as a decorative "jewel" in windows. Click here to find out more about crown glass.

Dramatic examples of crown glass are seen in the petals of the two central flowers. Each petal shows internal evidence of being hand-spun and each petal gradually changes color intensity from center to tip. It is glorious to experience a window with so much "real" glass. This is art.