Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 35.djvu/306

, in improving' the glass, were enormous, but have in time all been overcome, and to-day we maj' rejoice in one of the greatest artistic successes of modern times.

With a very few single exceptions, the many windows which we see constantly mentioned or described under art headings have been the work of the company named. Its influence has effected all of the good work that has been done during the past few years. Although the company is called "The Tiffany Glass Company," its name is closely associated with a vast amount of other decorative work which, while also controlled by it, is conducted under a separate department.

It is in the glass-work and its wonderful improvements and artistic treatment that the chief interest lies, and it may be worth while to note what are the special features that recommend the work of the company to all intending to erect memorial windows. The demand for such windows is increasing rapidly, and within the past six months the company has erected more windows than during the previous two years. The peculiar quality and tones of the glass exclusively used by the Tiffany Company and the artistic treatment of the material have placed its work at the head of all such work both here and in Europe. Its windows give greater satisfaction and pleasure, because, considered both as windows and as artistic memorials, they are superior to the usual painted windows of London or Munich.

There are many things to be considered in an artistic window. The aspect or relation to the sunlight, whether it be a north window or exposed to full sunshine; the architecture of the building, the shape and position of the window, the color of the walls, the style of the interior decorations—all have to be considered. It is the claim of the Tiffany Company that, by reason of its immense stock of glass, the special training and skill of the artists and workmen employed, those considerations are met with success, and it is not a matter of surprise that windows erected by this company are to be found scattered all over the country in both churches and public and private buildings of all kinds.

It is certainly a matter of congratulation that this advance in art-work comes just now. Since the Centennial our people have started out upon what may be called the most remarkable educational movement ever seen. Since the great Exhibition came to show us just where we stood, we have striven to reach the place held by European peoples who have had better chances than we to see the best work.

It is not in our churches alone that "storied windows" are so valuable. The new methods of making glass enable the artist to reproduce designs in a free and unconventional manner hitherto impossible with the painted glass. Jewel-work that sparkles in every color and shape is often used in domestic glass with delightful results. A dining-room window admits of free treatment in both color and design, and full play can be given for every fanciful conceit in decoration. A hallway also gives scope for fine work, and this we may have, close beside us in our own home, the beautiful art hitherto confined to churches and cathedrals. "Storied windows" assume now a new value, because there is a new medium for the artist. The artist himself can well rejoice in the grand material now made in our glass-works, and feel confident that there is a steadily growing appreciation of the fact that whatever is good and true in art abides.