The European Trade in Stained Glass, with Special Reference to the Trade between the Rhineland and the United Kingdom 1794-1835

Abstract

The study is set against a period of cultural and political change in Continental Europe and the United Kingdom at the beginning of the nineteenth century. As a result of the Concordat between Napoleon and Pope Pius VII signed on the 15 July 1801, the Pope agreed that he and his successors would take no action against the buyers of church property. In this way the secularising of church property, firstly in France and later in other countries, was legalised. The wholesale redistribution began during the Peace of Amiens in 1802, one of the “Goods” on offer being stained glass. The United Kingdom was the primary beneficiary of this redistribution with its emerging interest in historical objects, firstly antiquarian, then commercial and later intellectual. Because of the extent of the trade in stained glass in this period the study concentrates on the trade between the Rhineland and the United Kingdom, with the focus being between 1815-1835, when a new constellation of buyers, sellers and installers of Rhenish stained glass appeared. The function of the appendices is twofold: firstly to remove detailed but relevant data from the main text so as not to obscure the main argument and secondly to provide the reader with data not strictly within the parameters of the thesis. The analysis of the available and newly discovered data takes three approaches to acquisition and installation and is presented in three case studies. Firstly the activities of the Regency Contractor architects, highlighting Sir Jeffry Wyatville and William Wilkins who were responsible for the most significant Rhenish stained glass installations in this period. The second analyses Edward Spenser Curling (1771-1850) whose newly discovered diary (by the author) of his activities between 1827-36, sheds new light on the detailed mechanics of the stained glass trade of this period and the networks existing in Cologne and the United Kingdom. The discovery of this diary proves that Curling acquired all the Altenberg and St Apern stained glass panels presently in the United Kingdom. The third study analyses a number of facets that influenced the trade in the United Kingdom, particularly the activities of the stained glass painters Betton and Evans