Discover the Secret Behind These Enchanting Vintage Windows
July 22, 2024
Source: Sugar Hollow Glass
Picture this, you are walking through a village with stone paved roads of an old English countryside. The aroma of bread baking is in the air and children’s giggles can be heard in the background. You walk past cute little cottages, and out of the corner of your eye you see the sunlight playing on the window pane, which looks like a wave bouncing inside. This fascinating view is the result of the use of crown glass – a sign of the master’s work from the antiquity.
Crown glass was one of the earliest types of window glass and it has a rather interesting background that is connected to our day to day existence. While today’s glass is more uniform and has a clear look, crown glass was hand-blown into a “crown,” or hollow globe shape. This globe was shifted from the blowpipe to a punty- a long cylindrical iron rod and then reheated and rotated to make it a flat disc. These disks called bullions could get as large as six feet in diameter, and the center part of the disk was thicker and less transparent than the rest of the disk, called the bullseye.
Crown glass panes which have that rather fancy, spiraled design and a bull’s eye in the center were not made that way without reason. The thinnest glass was usually located at the rim of the disc and was cut into small diamond shapes that was used in leaded windows. This glass provides a unique aesthetic appeal and identity to structures, thus, creating a very vivid impression on the viewers.
Crown glass was not just a construction material but a cultural item strongly linked to the period in which it was produced. Crown glass making was developed in France in the 1320’s and the technique was jealously guarded as a trade secret. This technique was not introduced in London until 1678, this shows the cultural and technological transfer.
Crown glass in windows was a form of speaking on the quality of craftsmanship and the care that was put into creating the windows of the time. Large windows with clear glass cut into diamond shapes were a sign of affluence, while the bullseye pieces, which were located in lesser seen parts of the home, represented the era’s resourcefulness.
Now let me paint a picture of a relaxed setting in an old time bar, where the barman and the customers are all familiar with each other. The light from the lanterns makes the wavy glass windows look like it has an amber tinge which lights up the wooden tables and the brass decorations. The very looks of these windows make it possible to start a conversation about the time when the glass was not just a tool but a creation.
Crown glass not only helps to revive a piece of history and bring it to the present day but also makes people remember what is beautiful about things that have some flaws. Thus, the wavy surfaces and sometimes bubbles on the glass is not the sign of a poor quality of the material, but rather the masters’ touch: the glass is blow by hand. These windows are a clear example of how far people have come when it comes to the creation of items and the fascination with them.
Have you ever pay attention to the bullseye window’s unique, almost entrancing arrangement for the first time? It might have been in a relatives’ house, a heritage building, or that quaint country inn. Such windows and doors with patterns resembling waves and spirals not only open the view to the outside world, but also open up the narrative. They tell stories of medieval glass artists who shaped the hot glass into thin circles and the development of an art that has engraved itself in architecture.
Thus, in the era of evident sophistication and accuracy crown glass remains a symbol of the beauty of craftsmanship. These windows are curved and have their centers in the shape of a bullseye and the glass is wavy; they remind us of the fact that every window was made personally and every flaw was admired. Thus, the next time you look through a crown glass window, let the history and the beauty that it adds to our lives not go unnoticed.