Recent Ruins / Catalogue / Glass & Ceramic
Leaded and stained glass
| Period range | 1870-1940 |
|---|---|
| Usual fabric | Coloured and textured glass in lead or zinc came |
| Usual form | Door lights, fanlights, stair windows, cabinet panels |
| Wear to expect | Bowed panels, cracked quarries, cement gone from the came |
A leaded panel is a structure, and it is the lead that is holding it together, not the glass.
What it is
A panel is made of cut glass pieces held in an H-section came, soldered at every joint and then weatherproofed with a cement pushed under the came flanges. Lead came is soft and used for curved and complex work; zinc came is stiff and turns up in later geometric panels and in cabinet doors. Colour is either in the glass body or, in painted work, fired onto the surface as a stain.
How to tell age
Look at the came section and the solder. Hand-milled lead varies in width along its length. Painted and fired detail on faces and drapery indicates a different workshop tradition from purely geometric leaded work. Machine-uniform zinc came with regular mitred joints points late.
What commonly fails
Lead fatigues and the panel bows out of plane, usually bulging toward the warm side; once a panel is visibly bowed it needs releading rather than patching. The cement dries out and falls away, which lets the glass rattle and lets water in. Individual quarries crack, often from a fixing point rather than from impact.
What to check before fitting
Sight along the panel from the edge, not face on, because bowing is invisible from the front. Press gently at the centre and feel for movement between the glass and the came. Count the cracked pieces and note whether they are in the border, which is straightforward, or in painted work, which is not.