Repairs old stained glass

Vitráž - or called vitraj, vitrage, vitrae, vitro, glassmalerei and stained glass - is historically the oldest term for making windows. Until the 19th century the glassmakers had not been able to make glass of such dimensions so that they would be able to glaze whole windows with just one piece of glass. The glassmakers were used to making small glass pieces so called “targets” which were hand made - up to 15 inches in diameter. Another kind was mouth blown glass. First a glassmaker made a thin glass cylinder that was cut lengthwise and then flattened. The handiest glassmakers were able to make pieces of the approximate size 36x28 inches. These glass pieces were connected together with lead frames, which were tin soldered over the whole surface or just on each connection.

The manufacturing of lead frames was for the durability of stained glass windows as important as the kind of glass or its quality. In Bohemia region former glass makers were using potassium so called “ forest” glass and glass soften with lead {lead crystal}, which has become famous world wide. Unlike the most famous Venice glass {cristallo} our crystal has been less fragile and more resilient if we can even talk about resilience of glasses. The lead frames were designed and manufactured for specific stained glass windows. The soft lead frames were used for creating complicated, mostly figure windows. The hard lead frames were for regular geometric windows.

Fine powdered colored glass was used for painting. These glass-powders were rubbed together with ether oils such as lavender, rosemary and etc. or with wine and Arabic rubber. Painted windows were heated in ovens. The temperatures of the ovens were set up according the kind and the color of the glass. The harder and surfacewise more resistant glass could be painted with more resistant paints and therefore heated in high temperature ovens. Unfortunately the glass started to crack due to more fragile structure. The softer glass was painted with less resistant colors, heated in law temperature ovens, but much more resilient to wind.

That is why the knowledge of glasses and colors was kept as a secret of each shop. Unlike other colors and paints are the ones for stained glass windows still made from the original materials { f. g. Gold makes red or silver makes yellow }. Also paints are being prepared by the old classic way and that is for each day. This is because of the ether oils characteristics. And perhaps this is the only painting technique that hasn’t changed yet.

It is amazing what materials were used by our predecessors. For example a special kind of putty for sealing stained glass windows is similar to the contemporary one { mixture of chalk and oil }. We have even found putty in a few churches from the last century , which was still soft and could have been reused again.

Nowadays the stained glass windows have different designs from the ones from the beginning of this century. It has been a custom to renovate and put stained glasses into new lead frames every 80 - 100 years even though they seemed to be OK. This has been an experience of many generations. Windows were very often modernized during each renovation. Usually a sponsor has been found who wanted then to have the newly renovated windows signed to the memory of his or her relatives. Stained glass windows have been always very expensive and prestige thing.

We can find names of sponsors, makers, dates and restoration methods engraved on almost every stained glass. The photo on the left shows engraved datas about the artist, sponsor, cost and very interesting maker's complaining about a bad quality color he was forced to use. Most of these messages are very often the only written information on one of the oldiest crafts.

We believe that the glory of Czech stained glass and crystal will find again its way into minds of other nations. As it has been so typical for Bohemian hand made " target " glass that has been distributed through out Europe. This kind of a hand made glass can be found in many world collections but especially in Austrian, Germen and Hungarian churches. I wish I could show you a sample on this page, but unfortunately the computer cannot display a very fine and colored circles from green, blue, yellow to purple as well as a ray of light shining through this glass.

We would be very pleased to share our experience that we have gained in many years of repairing historical stained glass or just to receive any coments, ideas and news from you. We are looking forward to reading your e-mails.