Stained and painted window glass

Graves, CP

Abstract

The assemblage of window glass from antiquarian excavations at Glastonbury Abbey comprises 2,085 fragments (not including items on display); this represents over 15,952cm2 in area. The condition of the glass varies: the post-medieval glass is generally well preserved and translucent, with the fragment sizes often remarkably consistent; most of the thirteenth- to fourteenth-century material is opaque and friable, and of varying fragment size; the material identified as ‘durable blue’, probably dating to the twelfth century, is either well preserved and translucent, or has been subject to heat distortion. Interim excavation reports noted that window glass was found but gave no detailed account of find spot, description or quantity of glass recovered. The major work on the excavated glass is by A R Lewis (1991), an art-historical survey of all the painted glass from the Saxon period to the sixteenth century. Relatively little of the glass was recovered from contexts for which there is good archaeological information. Much of the material had already been sorted by colour and some by stylistic identification of painted pattern, but there has been no previous effort at quantification.

Citation

Graves, C. (2015). Stained and painted window glass. In R. Gilchrist, & C. Green (Eds.), Glastonbury Abbey Excavations: archaeological investigations 1904-79 (320-336). Society of Antiquaries of London

• Publication Date: 2015
• Deposit Date: Oct 5, 2015
• Publicly Available Date: Feb 2, 2016
• Publisher: Society of Antiquaries of London
• Pages: 320-336
• Book Title: Glastonbury Abbey Excavations: archaeological investigations 1904-79.
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1668780
• Publisher URL: http://www.oxbowbooks.com/oxbow/glastonbury-abbey-48007.html
• Contract Date: Oct 5, 2015