Brangwyn is known to have designed 20 stained glass panels and windows, his first design dating from 1898 and his last, forty years later, in 1938. In general he treated the windows as a whole, not as separate lights; he was economical in the use of leading; favoured ‘plating’ glass, a technique whereby layers of different coloured glass are sandwiched together within wide leads to produce unusual colour effects; used rich saturated colours and multicoloured glass.
Brangwyn’s designs were probably influenced by his father (who designed some stained glass windows); the stained glass produced by Morris & Co; and the work of Louis Comfort Tiffany for whom Brangwyn produced six designs in 1898.
Detail from St Winifred’s, Manaton (G1869)
The website includes a study for the United Reformed Church window.
For more information see the catalogue raisonne of Brangwyn’s stained glass which was published as a DVD in 2010 and as a book in 2011.
Libby Horner, Frank Brangwyn: Stained Glass, A Catalogue Raisonné, DVD, published by Libby Horner, 2010. This is the first time a Catalogue Raisonné has been produced as a DVD – a unique concept and destined to become a collector’s item. The DVD includes all the standard academic information – each commission has its own PDF file which can be printed out from a Mac or PC. There are also 11 films of the windows, and interviews with Brian Clarke, Peter Cormack, Martin Eidelberg, Martin Harrison and Patrick Reyntiens, specially commissioned music by the jazz composer Mike Westbrook and a fascinating film showing how stained glass is made.