Mosaic Stained Glass Window

Object Name: 
Mosaic Stained Glass Window

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Object Name: 
Mosaic Stained Glass Window
Accession Number: 
2009.4.88
Dimensions: 
Overall H: 60.5 cm, W: 100.5 cm, D: 3.6 cm
Location: 
Not on Display
Date: 
about 1885
Web Description: 
The Belcher Mosaic Glass Company patented a new method of producing stained glass windows in 1884. The process involved laying out a design made up of thousands of small pieces of glass on a table and then covering it with a sheet of asbestos that had been coated in adhesive, and then once turned over, with another piece of asbestos. Molten metal was then poured into this “sandwich” to hold the glass pieces in place. Windows made in this manner were extremely popular for a decade or so. Many were produced for private homes in the East and the Midwest, but when demand declined, the Belcher company went out of business about 1897. This window was a transom in a large house built in Norwich, New York, around 1885, so it is one of the earlier Belcher windows known. Domestic stained glass was much admired at that time, and Louis Comfort Tiffany was the best-known American maker of such windows. Belcher’s mosaic windows were both less expensive and easier to produce than Tiffany’s, which accounted, at least in part, for their popularity.
Department: 
Provenance: 
Young, David S., Source
2009-08-21
Material: 
Primary Description: 
Multicolored glass, wood, metal. Horizontal window panel has a wooden frame, and is made up of numerous pieces of glass held in place with a metal matrix. "Mercury" mosaic refers to Belchers patent to hold glass in place with solder and metal that was melted in place versus the standard technique of stained glass construction, thus reducing the time and cost of production (see object file). Pieces of glass make up a image of floral pattern with ribbons in the center surrounded by a border of ribbon and two bands of square glass tiles.
The Corning Museum of Glass: Notable Acquisitions 2009 (2010) illustrated, p. 39, #25; BIB# AI79879