MARVELLOUS WINDOW.

Thames Star, Volume LVII, Issue 15788, 28 February 1923, Page 2

MARVELLOUS WINDOW.

700 YEARS’ OLD GLASS.

The work of cleaning and releading the mediaeval stained glass windows of York Minster, England, was described recently by Dr Foxley Norris, the Dean of York, as being like the building up of a gigantic jig-saw puzzle. Dr Foxley Norris stated recently that the windows were worth £73,000,000. They comprise the bulk of the genuine mediaeval glass to be found in England. Much of the glass is 700 years old. and it has been found to be in a dangerous condition owing partly to the perishing of the lead and partly to the effects of the atmosphere on the glass itself. After being removed from the stonework, Dr Foxley Norris said the windows are placed in a bath of warm water, in which they remain for several hours. Then they are cleaned with a soft brush, the old lead is stripped off, and an impression of the window is made on paper, just as “rubbings” are taken off coins. Every piece of glass, and the corresponding pattern on the paper, is numbered, and the glass is then rebuilt in the new lead, a task requiring very many thousands of joints, each of which has to be soldered separately. It takes from two to three months to complete the work on one of the big windows.